As a blade 18 user, i would not recommend anybody to purchase the laptop as it has a lot of problems after purchasing it down a few months later. I've had to send the laptop back for RMA 4 times due to quality control issues and it has been a hell of a nightmare to do it. I have to sacrifice 1 month of my time to RMA it which really affects the productivity of my workflow. So for those who wants to buy a laptop at this calibre, i would recommend the ladder instead.
The razors keyboard and the fact it looks like a Macbook...is a major deal breaker for me, if i am paying that much i want a full out keyboard with a number pad. That is why i own the Alienware now, Thanks for the review.
Thank you mate. I do try and look at it from all angles. Obviously I am lucky enough to have the funds to buy these units in but it wasn’t long ago that money was a big factor in the buying decision
For a thousand pounds or less I'd upgrade to the 4090 RTX and more drive space, maybe an extended warranty as well....just like I did. Plus, get it on sale and and discount code too. Great review and spot on.
Great comparison! Thank you, yet again, for confirming that I made the right purchase by going with the M18. I cannot see $1000 difference. No USBC charging isn't an issue for me since this is primarily a desktop machine, plugged into the OEM brick. I purchased the 300w slimline charger to pack with the computer when traveling.
Glad you enjoyed it! the m18 is a great release from Dell this year and yes, the PD is less of an issue for a desktop replacement and Dell PSUs are very easy to get hold of. I think you definitely made the right choice
For me the Dell Warranty and customer care goes a long way. My 4 year old Area 51m started showing its age and I was offered a full refund by dell after multiple at home repairs. It was a value of around £3000. With the money I was able to get an M18 with the i9-13980HX, 4090, 32GB RAM, 2 TB storage and 3 year warranty to go with it. The crazy thing is I was able to purchase the M18 for less money than what I had bought my Area 51m with in the first place because for the unawares, you can simply ask Dell for a discount which I did and was offered around £400 off the asking price. I ended up paying only £2800 for it. I have never experienced that with other manufacturers which is why I will stick with Alienware products for years to come.
my 4 year old Area 51m just had to have the motherboard, CPU, graphics card and heat sink all replaced (under warranty) but my warranty runs out in Feb 2024. Wish they had offered me a refund.
@@Testicleeze in the states you would probably need to file with the BBB or your consumer protection agency for them to do any sort of refund or replacement in the case of it being valid and in your case it could be valid if it is still having problems it can be considered a lemon of sorts
Thank you for the video. However from a VFX artist viewpoint there are still some ambiguities, for example I would like to know how smoothly and fast the two would run while simulating quite elaborate scenes in Houdini FX, rendering in Houdini karma, creating large levels in Unreal engine and processing high resolution footage in NUKE.
Great review, I have an M16 R1, and I will soon get the M18 after much consideration. Thanks for the video. Your videos are honest and well-made. Great production. 👍
Although it is too heavy and big, I would pick m18 over Blade18 if I have to choose between the two even if I have unlimited money. I could spend 1000 for a monitor, a headphone and a burrito.
Razer needs competitors desperately in the professional looking gaming laptop market. They know they are the only people making such a thing and a taking huge advantage of it.
I’ll go with the Alienware of course I just love the outlook of the laptop and the high performance even the price is not that much cheap but it still my favorite ❤️
@@ScCrash26Numberpads are stupid. Makes your whole posture shift left. touchpads shift left which puts extra strain on your wrist. All for an extra row of numbers which is already available up top.
The razers are also notorious for placing their mosfets in the back of the cpu , leading quite often to broken mosfets that end up frying the cpu. No repairs from there are possible. So always choose the laptop with the most space and better cooling. This also apply to the smallers alienwares .Amy chance of dismantling the laptop and inspecting the motherboard ?
@@MashITTechthere are no specific laptops. It concerns a line (example models from 2018 to 2021) . This happens because razer and alienware make thinner and smaller laptops than those of other makers whilst keeping the same specs. This generally apply to all those ultrabooks and those near being ultabooks whilst having a dedicated gpu. You can consider it a design choice that is often seen in the laptops of those companies. That is why i am asking for the motherboard.
@@MashITTechAnother example the Asus laptops often fail because the touch-mouse chipset fails. There is no specific model either it can happen to any laptop but for a strange reason in Asus laptops it happens frequently.
Now that you've compared both the 18in versions I'd love to see a comparison between their 16in versions. The Alienware m16 and Razer Blade 16 are begging to be compare, especially since 16in is a more popular size for laptops.
It's an easy win for razer blade, the 16 comes with mini led option and same tdp's as the 18 inch version. Alienware M series is like a budget series, not fair to really compare these 2 laptops
I always enjoy your reviews. Thanks for another grandslam review of two Monsters! I currently run two Razers and most of their periphials. Razer Blade 17 and Razer Blade 16 Mercury addition. I am not a fan of Dell, currently selling all of my XPS computers. Dell's warranty service is less than stellar and has dissappointed me many of times over the past 4 years.
I was very loyal to Dell. I had two XPS 17's, 9700 and 9710 both had Motherboard failures and were never fixed appropiately after having onsite techs repair pc's. They would not fix the ir camera after repair, and wouldn't fix sticking trackpad. I was given the run around over and over again. Never again, lost my business.@@MashITTech
Yes I did spot that as one of the commands they added. At the moment I just get it to disable when I plug in a mouse as with a mouse plugged in I never use the trackpad anyway 👍
Thanks for the video! This video in particular answered some of the questions. :) Planning to get next year either a RB 18 or AW m18 - the main question is portability (weight and the sie isn't an issue, but finding the right bag is). If you ever make a video about 14-16-18 inch laptops portability-wise and from another angles - would love to see!
sorry fro slow response I have been so so busy this week! With regards to a 14-16-18" video, this is something I am considering making once I have caught up with reviews! What would you want me to cover? Always good to get viewers input as very often you guys bring things up I hadn't even thought of 😃
@@MashITTech thanks for the response! I'm a SFF PC user with a 27 inch monitor looking for more portability. I'm leaning towards an 18 inch laptop, but afraid of missing some benefits that 14-16 inch laptops can offer. (Sounds stupid, I know). Plan to use the laptop mainbly w/o an external screen. Saw your videon about 13-15-17 inches Razers, loved it. Wondering if 14-6-18 can offer something different or is it mainly the same.
I always use the laptop keyboards when gaming on the laptop as I hate having to push the laptop further back to fit the external keyboard in front of it. In fact I am actually considering picking up a Razer Tartarus Keypad to see if that is a better option with a laptop
Amazing review thank you very much! I have the Blade 18.. after a year or of use i always like to re thermal my laptops and give it a deep clean. Could you show a video of you doing that on the blade 18? How would you go about doing that? Iv never doing anything with a vapor chamber before Thank you!
Also a big issue with Razor support is that if you do decide to send back your laptop for any kind of repair they have a disclaimer saying they take no responsibility for the laptop while it is not at Razor, so if something happens to it in transit or on its way its your problem.
I'm a bit late, but I got through 2x Razer Blades in 2021, within 6 weeks for *each* for different issues. First one the screen went, second one had power issues where it would perpetually switch between battery/AC mode, causing non-stop stutter. Replaced with an Alienware that worked flawlessly. This was for work - I've just bought a new M18 R2 for me personally based on my experience. Would never get a Razer Blade again. FWIW - Dell were charging £400 extra for 64GB Ram (up from 16GB) and another £200 to go from 1TB to 2TB. I opted for the 1TB 16GB spec and bought my own 2x32GB RAM kit and a 4TB NVMe drive - saved £350 in the process and got 5TB of storage... The prices are _stupid_, but its user-upgradable.
Thank you so much. This is a really helpful comparison for me. Even with all of the cons, I’m choosing the Alienware because this is a secondary machine for me used only for gaming in a dark room. None of the benefits of the Blade are worth it for me. If I had infinite money, I’d buy the Blade to support the company who seems to be making the best decisions in general (except warranty 😂).
Alienware Area51m-R2 in 2024? Yes, let's goo :D I bet it will still work in 2034... (as all my older Alienware laptops... I am making quite a collection, it seems)! Awesome video, as always...I still wish they would bring back the RGB trackpad like on the older models (and not exclusive to the X series! I want an RGB trackpad and to be able to upgrade RAM and storage... is that too much to ask?! ^_^)
first of all I congratulate you for the precision and details of your reviews, I was shocked, really compliments. Can I ask you for advice? I would like to buy an alienware M16 or M18, but I don't know how to do the right setup.. I would like to use it for gaming of AAA games and live streaming, what do you recommend? I had a 4080 video card in mind but I don't know how to dial the rest. Thanks for your attention
Thank you mate. M16 and m16 perform very similarly so it really comes down to portability! If you always plan using on a desk and travel with it rarely then the m18 is the way to go. If you think you will travel with it regularly then get the m16. And definitely recommend the 4080, it’s be far the best value/performance card this generation
Your videos are amazing as usual. Thanks! Question, does it deserves in your opinion to compare Dell Alienware M18 (it's in my shopping list, but I didn't checked out yet :) ) with the MSI Titan GT77hx? Many thanks
Yes, MSI make some excellent high performance machines! I haven't managed to get hold of one this year (the trouble with buying all our review laptops means I have to be selective with the laptops I buy, the MSI GT76 I bough last got hardly any views and didn't even cover a 100th of the cost of the laptop 😂
Hey Mash, I want to ask if alienware m16 r1 (the I9 , 4070 variant) is worth the money?I have to do gaming, coding, software development. Apart from the portability is there any issue?
I switched from the Blade 18 to the Alienware m18. I wanted the 480hz panel. I only game on mine with some software development. Razer blade gets pretty warm near the palms during gaming sessions…
A really nice review thanks, I’m using m18, and was wondering if you use a laptop stand for it. I have one but it seems like it’s interrupting the bottom part where it sucks the air up to release heat better, not sure if I should a laptop stand or not
sorry for my slow response. I usually find just raising the rear is enough to provide better airflow but I am actually in the process of testing a number of different laptop stands to see if they are really worthwhile, going to take me a while to finish the video though as its a lot of testing
They both seem great, but the support from alienware to fix any issues you might have is just so important with something that expensive. if the blade had that type of customer service I would buy from them instead.
Just ordered the M18 with i9-13980HX w/ 4090. Its going to replace my R10 Ryzen 9 5900 desktop. Previously I tried and returned the R15 and R16 but didn't like the size of R15, and the R16 with i9 14900KF was more lagging than my current computer on Fusion 360. Hopefully this is the one!
@MarkHussle I just started using today for CAD design, unfortunately it only uses 1- core for the program and honestly not much of an improvement over my 5900 AMD Ryzen desktop. The laptop itself is very nice nice. You can tell it has good build quality and plenty of ports. Full sized mechanical keyboard is wide as my normal RedDragon mechanical. Overall loving it. Compared to a desktop Alienware like R15 and R16, I'd pick the M18 because it's basically the same thing with less ports and portable. I haven't used screen much since it's a desktop replacement and I hook to a HP Z27 4k screen.
Every year for the last 5 was the year OLED was to become more ubiquitous. The OEM's surprise pivot to Mini-LED for this year's premium option was imo a huge indicator that they just don't want to deal with OLED on laptops.
@@killerra brightness is certainly an issue. I’d settle for mini-led if it has enough zones, but I still think I’ll wait it out to see where the manufacturers go. By 2025 there should be some conformity among the manufacturers.
If only Alienware made an Area-51m-like variant of the M18, I would go with Alienware in a heartbeat. However, this is Razer Blade 18 versus Alienware M18. If I had to pick either to purchase, I would pick Razer.
I've never really like razers designs . Plus they are crazy expensive compared to alienware. I was able to get my m18 with the 4080 for 2200 because of dells deals. Also while dell support isn't perfect they are definitely better than razer. My monitor died on my m18 and dell had a tech come out to my house the next day to fix it. You don't really get that with any other brands
In all honesty there won’t be any difference to this video except a very slightly different scores. The blade 18 will be getting a new screen option and thunderbolt 5 but it’s not released yet
Overall would be the Blade 18. Best value is the Helios 18, Best Performance is the Alienware m18, most expensive Titan 18 and the most popular is Asus Scar 18
Like ur video and u energy bro, but I have really no idea what to buy, DELL Alienware M18 R2 - i9-14900HX/4090/32GВ/1ТВ/18.0 2.5K 165Нz // Lenovo Legion 7 PRO - i9 13900HX / RTX 4090 16GB 175W / 500NIT 16 2.5K 240HZ ( 1024GB - 2048GB / 16GB - 32GB ) What do you think?) what laptop have more quality for a long time
Dell Alienware m18 does your display light controls work? in windows. press the slider or the brightness level or press FN F11 and f10 to change light control, i tested it on mines windows 11 pro light control brightness does not work>? does yours work i have the FND+ screen 18" FHD+ (1920 x 1200) 480Hz, 3ms, Comfort View Plus, NVIDIA G-SYNC + DDS, 100% DCI-P3, FHD IR Camera
Hey i love your videos ! I just wanted to know if it was worth it or not to buy the M18 with the 4060 version even tho its 2k dollars or if i should buy another option for 2k dollars?
That seems way too much for a 4060! You could probably pick up a legion 7 with 4080 for about 2k with a decent coupon code. Have Alienware got no sales or discount codes on in the USA atm?
@@MashITTech oh my bad I'm front France ! But I'll look into it , my budget is only 2200€ so I can't really think of any laptops with better specs than this one , do you have any idea ?
Oh sorry, when you said $ I assumed USA! 2200 is a pretty good budget. Do you have the Lenovo store in France? They have had some really good sales lately. If not wait until Black Friday as Dell normally have some great deals on then
I've found that Razer's technical support falls short, especially in firmware updates and stability, compared to Dell Alienware. Dell offers superior display options, making gaming more comfortable and delivering better performance. When it comes to ASUS and MSI, their gaming laptops often prioritize marketing with flashy benchmarks, but Alienware stands out for delivering genuine quality and performance, making it my preferred choice for my next laptop. I have now Razer 18 and in the past I was with ASUS, MSI. Next one is Alienware
Hey dude would you consider reviewing the Acer Predator Triton 17x (2023) model as there are no in depth reviews on it and it’s a beast of a laptop with a 250hz 17 inch Mini LED option screen with some serious specs .
@@MashITTech I had to import my Predator Triton 14 from amazon US, the Acer store in my country (Ireland) is pretty hopeless at stocking all the latest releases. The mini LED display is super bright, especially with HDR content in games. The surface temps are cool enough to touch while gaming in Performance mode and build quality is decent enough too except for some squeaky sounds around the arrow keys. I would say the larger 17" Predator is a decent enough laptop too. Again, warranty is a big issue, mine effectively has none as warranty is US only.
@@MashITTechif you have a Currys PC World near you in the UK you can generally get a Acer Predator Triton 17x (2023) model from there but on their website it’s called the Acer Triton 17x
@@MashITTech Hey 👋 love your content MashIT one more thing just a thought but would the Blade 18 battery with a fan built into it fit into the blade 16’s battery and would the fan from the battery help improve the thermals of the blade 16 ? You could try it since you have both I’m assuming would be cool if it did fit then you could do an update on thermals or perhaps it doesn’t fit at all and it won’t really matter worth a try though!
Great comparison, had a question. I have both the blade 18 and the dell m18 and was trying to figure out which of the 2 I liked more because the other is going back. I heard nothing but good feedback about the speakers on razer blade 18, but I'm not getting the bass that everyone says it has.. in my opinion it almost sounds like the alienware it just a little bit louder. So is there a fix, or has anyone else experienced this? Thanks.
Wow that's tough. Build is much better on the m16 and the 4080 version has 4 m.2 slots but legion is much brighter screen and better software. Ultimately I would take the m16 (with the 240hz 1600p screen)
I haven't handled the M16, but have owned plenty of Alienware laptops in the past. If I didn't need portability, I'd choose the M16 if price were equal. I do need something I can bring on travels abroad so the M16 has just too big of a footprint for what it is. I'm happy enough with the Legion 7i, even if some aspects were downgraded from last year. The build quality is fine, the screen is excellent and it's a really good all rounder.
Blade 18 every time for me. The mini LED is a great screen but you have to reboot if you want to switch it to 1080p which makes that feature pointless and the 16 runs much hotter. If you travel a lot then the blade 16 could make more sense. I do hope to make a blade 16 vs 18 video soon
@@MashITTech thank you 🙏🏽 i do like bigger screens i was just trying to find something more comfortable for portability i have a alienware x17 r1 and the power brick on tht is colossal and back breaking lol 😂 thanks again
Desktop replacements are always a strange mix of priorities and compromises. Even at 18", it's still small compared to a standard 27" monitor, 32", or even the increasingly popular 48" OLED. The Alienware looks like a dinosaur in comparison to the razer. The large bezels, large butt, and soft touch black make it look extra clunky and not clean. I doubt anyone seriously moves this large thing around the house, or uses it on the go. If you have it permanently set up as a true desktop replacement, then you will undoubtedly have an external monitor and keyboard and mouse. It's way easier to fit that sort of setup with the razer on a desk. And of course, the razer actually supports PD charging and can fit in a standard 17" laptop and is much lighter. That's the intended scenario. Portable for occasional outside use but mostly plugged at home. The days of needing the biggest chassis for cooling are gone. The unibody chassis of the razer is gonna be much better for durability when moved around. The alienware is just a poor man's razer, unfortunately. It baffles me why Dell doesn't have a beefed up version of the XPS line for gaming.
Would you pick the 4090 x16 version over the 4090 razer 16 with 4k mini led? That’s the struggle I’m having. I want that mini LED but Alienware has the better warranty
Can you get a third party warranty? I would say the razer blade is by far the better laptops, better cpu, much better screen, better software (synapse isn’t great but it’s miles better than awcc) upgradable ram and a more compact laptop. The only reason to choose the x16 is better warranty, better speakers and price if you get a good voucher
@@MashITTech I don’t know about the 3rd party warranty. I might be able to. Someone I know personally is selling the blade for $3,000USD. But there’s a 4090 x16 for $2600 on facebook marketplace. I really am leaning more towards the blade because of that mini LED and it’s a heck of a deal
@@MashITTechr u sayingx16 r2 is better speakers are better thsn blsde 18. Im about to decide between m18, x16 r2, blade 18 2024 , and asus strix 18 , asus scar strix 18. I heard x16 r2 sound sick( my bad noticed its ur vid i heard them).edit i thought ireplied to abother person i didnt see it was you. Apologies. Can i ask what the best speakers would be on these choices.
its crazy how it still keeps up even! and now all the used gpus are available at good prices so who ever still has this machine can upgrade@@MashITTech
I mean if I could game on that all day with like medium settings in games like Runescape I would call that a win. But, everytime I see laptop I think no matter what you put in it, it's gunna run like a gtx1050 after about 15 minutes unless you put it in portrait mode so the heat rises. lol.
Alienware m18 all day. Mine arrives in just a few days. Can’t wait! Fully loaded for a total price of $3180 USD great deal in my option. And I checked back on their website and the majority of m18 laptops are out of stock!
You can turn them off if you wish, you can also have it disable when you plug in a mouse, I covered this in the blade 18 review as I encountered a few accidental touches on touchpad
Razer 18 all the way. A 300nits screen is terrible looking compared to over 500 nits. What’s the point of an amazing laptop if the brightness is worse than a Nintendo switch
The M18's from Best Buy, unfortunately all have AMD CPUs, and both variants (tried both) have serious issues and make the laptop damn near unusuable. I returned both models within a day of owning each. The 1st one, more expensive model with the Radeon RX 7900m had 2 defective ports on the back. The 2nd one I returned today (as of this post) as it was perofmring poorly, games would crash, even watching a youtube video it seemed to struggle to do. The cheaper model (only about $200 cheaper) has a RTX 4070 in it. I can't speak for the intel variants of the M18, but the AMD variants, really suck this year and it's disheartening. I need a new gaming. laptop and don't want anything that's available right now......I have store credit so i'm stuck purchasing from Best Buy.
Sir i need help suggestion I don't know what happebed ro my laptop 3 days ago i used it played and it was running nicely but after today when i open it opend so late and even when i tried opening games the games did opeb after 5 min valorant gave 10 fps god of war 20 like this what haooened i haven't misplaces any settings please helo me i have lenovo legion slim 7i 2022. I don't know itis giving me night mare? plz u are te obky one i ca trust 😥
Unfortunately most gaming laptops are too noisy :( but yes, the right vent can be annoying, same with legions. Razer Blades don't have this issue as it is all pumped through the vent
I have the AW M18, and I agree with you about the Command Center. There are a lot of glitches, and i seriously wonder why Alienware would damage its reputation by putting out such half-baked software. It does affect performance, in that it has trouble switching back and forth between profile settings, and it feels like it eats up computing resources by getting itself tied into knots. Alienware is really tone deaf about the Command Center, which is regrettable. All in all, my M18 is a beauty and it is powerful, but the Command Center is a big enough minus that i would seriously reconsider buying another AW again
The sad fact is that the old AWCC (the version before this and previous version) was so much better! loaded faster, you could adjust lighting from taskbar and it easily switched on and off with keyboard shortcuts. How in 5 years can they put out 2 new versions which are each worse than the last! It's not like they do not have the budget to employ a decent team! You are completely right, they are tone deaf. I have conversations with Alienware management and I have moaned repeatedly yet nothing changes
@@zayanhacker9133 well, with my M18, if I keep it at the Overdrive setting, I rarely get an overheating problem (i.e., computer just shuts off). It's an issue when you adjust in Custom settings and try to max out as much as possible. It's always the CPU that overheats, never the GPU, at least with my M18, and it has proven difficult to fine-tune to avoid crashes. It can easily reach 100°C and then it will either shut your computer down, or it will throttle the CPU down significantly. But keeping it at Overdrive is plenty good enough, won't see overheating, and with the 13900hx, i'm getting 17000 or so for CPU on Overdrive for TimeSpy (up to even 19200 on Custom, but it crashes often, depending on the game).
Great - really nice job! I know the Alienware is the smarter choice, but I'll probably get the Razer (hopefully Best Buy will have some kind of promotion on Thanksgiving).
Omg so many great things about the blade 18 but the m18 is also great the screen for the blade is a lot better than the m18 but the m18 has the number keyboards and all the inputs in the back but the software is mid but razers software is better CHOICES WHYYYYYYY
The price difference gets even worse with the 4090 cards, partially because Razer forces you to pick the maximum SSD and installed RAM options at the usual insane upcharge. The m18 you can still minimize both to upgrade yourself for far, far less which results in probably more like ~$1500 or more extra for the razer blade at the same specs assuming you also upgrade it to 64gb ram and a 2tb SSD, probably worse given you could just get a 1TB to pair with the 1TB it comes with and match the 2TB the razer forces. (Or just get a 4TB or more card and still be out for less money.) Honestly given how easy it is to swap out SSD and RAM I don't really understand why these companies charge so much for upgrading them out of the box. You can't even argue it's a matter of labor given they're putting cards in either way and it's fantastically more than the extra hardware actually costs to a truly obscene degree.
It’s pure greed, as you say if you want the best gfx card they are going to force you to pay through the nose for extra ram and ssd which you could do yourself. I also find it so annoying as I would always prefer to buy minimum ram and ssd and add my own and choose the ram and ssd brands I want
End result was I just went with the m18 recently, since that one let me minimize both and turn around to buy a 990 ssd and Kingston Fury ram (the same one you used for your upgrade a few months back) AND extend the warranty to two years.And even after all that you still end up way cheaper despite it being better ram and ssd. Still waiting for it to arrive, though. Only ordered it a few days ago.
As someone with The M18 R1 AMD. It's great, but DELL HELL and Microsoft shit tools make me hate it for anything other than gaming, to the point I'm considering selling it. It games amazing, but anytime D"HELL" and Microsoft want to update something, it's just a shit time. Something to consider
I can speak from personal experience with both. Do not buy a razer laptop. I spent $4500 on the 17 2022 and it only lasted 2 years. Do yourself a favor and research yourself. Many unhappy razer customers out there. I will never buy a razer laptop again. Expensive lesson.
Totally agree, it’s why I bought the Tartarus pro, so much more comfortable when gaming on the laptop and then when I am at the desk I use a keyboard and monitor
