Alienware x14 Review - Best 14” Gaming Laptop?

Alienware’s x14 is a super thin gaming laptop, but how does it compare against the 14” competition? I’ve compared it against Razer’s Blade 14 and ASUS’s Zephyrus G14 to find out in this review!

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Alienware x14 R1 (2022) Review Timestamps:
0:00 Alienware x14 vs Blade 14 vs Zephyrus G14
0:12 Design & Build Quality
1:01 Size & Weight
1:20 Laptop Specs
1:37 Camera & Microphones
1:49 RGB Lighting
2:25 Keyboard & Touchpad
2:51 Speakers & Latencymon
3:04 Ports
4:27 Getting Inside & Internals
4:54 Soldered RAM Limits
5:06 Wi-Fi Speed
5:13 SSD Upgrades
5:22 SSD & MicroSD Card Speed
5:38 Upgrade Options
5:58 Battery Life & Blue Screen Issues
6:36 Thermals & Software Modes
7:37 Temperatures / Clock Speed / TDP
8:39 Game Performance in Different Modes
8:56 Cinebench CPU Performance (On & Off Battery)
9:57 Keyboard Temperatures
10:27 Fan Noise
11:05 Screen & MUX Switch
12:38 3 Game Comparison
14:07 3DMark & Content Creation
15:21 BIOS
15:37 Linux Support
15:58 Software Problems
16:55 Pricing & Laptop Deals
17:57 Worth Paying More For?
18:26 Conclusion - x14 vs Blade 14 vs Zephyrus G14
20:09 More Blade 14 vs Zephyrus G14 Differences

Disclosure: Purchases made through store links above may provide some compensation to Jarrod'sTech.

[JarrodsTech]

Further to my issues noted at 5:58 during battery testing, Dell Technologies has been in touch to say that the blue screen experienced in this review would not have occurred with the latest driver software installed. The Dell team recommends that users use the pre-installed Support Assist function or visit their website to ensure devices are running with the most up-to-date software. My testing was done with the latest drivers available at the time of testing, however they believe this issue has since been resolved. Our original testing for this review was completed 2 months ago while this was investigated.

[nickpednekar]

Jarrod is the only YouTuber who actually does a review and doesn't just talk about specs. A big thumbs up!

[roza]

Got a x14 rtx 3060 32 gb ram. Here are a few things to read to anyone buying it.

1: Mention dell is easy to get support with whereas razer is useless and asus is very region dependant. also the x14 rtx3060 runs at 60 to 65 watts when gaming.

2:The memory overclocking works a little bit but the otherstuff does effectively nothing. I also had the same issue with the alienware command centre on my x14.

3: AWCC intially was not installed properly so I had to delete and redownload it twice. It works fine now though. Also the maybe mention the game dependant software performance and lighting settings (based on game being played) mapping in the AWCC software is kind of useful.

4: Real world battery life for those wondering is around 5 hours of school usage (chrome, youtube and word usage + spotify running) at around 60-70% brighteness.

5: Also I prop it up with little wooden blocks on the back rubber feet. It improves thermals a bit and also as a plus angles the keyboard better.

6: Also for everyday use mention lapabiltity cause this laptop is quite good.

7: the wrist issue about the keyboard is quite bad buy a wrist rest for most comfort.

8: forza horizon 5 doesnt work properly. need to go into the nvidia control panel and select some open gl setting then it works fine. Also limit the cpu to like 70% on battery in the power windows settings. Helps with battery if you care about.

9: you didn't mention the dolby settings. they are actually pretty decent to tune the speakers a bit.

[casperellison]

Hi Jarrod, i like the addition on the information regarding the double-sided SSD. It saves us the research that may lead nowhere. Hope this is added to future reviews. Great review and awesome video. Thanks, keep it up.

[rossdev]

Excellent review! One thing worth mentioning is warranty/support. In my region (EU), Dell offer on-site next business day warranty on all Alienware laptops. There is not a hope of any such support from either Asus or Razer, something definitely worth considering when spending on a premium laptop. I know prices can change over time, currently the X14 can be had with a nice 18% discount from my local Dell outlet.

[ghosttaskfores]

We are very excited to watch ranking all 2022 laptops video
We like your video because explain everything and you don't hide anything so
When I watch your review there's no need to watch another one

[mdfashionco]

Awesome reviews love it thank you so much

[michaelthompson]

Thank you Jarrod for your many years of great reviews and coverage of soooo many laptops 🥰👍💪. It’s also been great to see Linux and Professional scores in addition to the many benchmark results as many people do use their devices for more than just gaming these days 🥰💪. Awesome work my Aussie brother 🇦🇺🥰👍

[johnserpo]

This is perhaps the only gaming laptop in the world using a 130w adaptor. It can be a selling point, with energy crisis - especially in Europe getting worse. It's amazing how much performance you can get out of that little wattage. Also, the adaptor for XPS is the same as this laptop, you can also use MacBook Pro's 140w adaptor with this laptop. That's the advantage of using USB-C, it's available everywhere and it's smaller and lighter.

[Uruglot]

Imho, but the best it's Zephyrus 14 2022
I choose superior 16:10 display, vapor chamber, flexible tuning software and classic regular case design

[donpepe]

Thank you so much I've been waiting for this one

[PrototypeElucidator]

Have the X15r2, love the finish but the paint is too easy to scrap off as you pointed out. The actual aluminium cnc build is amazing. Cant fault the performance in mine its 140w 3080ti 16gb in such a slim machine. All x series should be getting 100% p3 coverage so thats great as well.

Not sure about using intel for a 14 inch though, maybe an ryzen chip like zephyrus/razer blades would be better.

Interesting to see the 14inch competition space saw some additional brands joining in. Lenovo and MSI when?

[AVIDANDROID]

Good review, I've had this laptop since launch with exactly the same specs as the review and have not had any blue screen issues. Also Dell seem to have fixed the Alien Ware software issues in the latest round of upgrades.

[grahamschlickenmeyer]

This laptop seems great but I really hope they do something with Alienware command center. It doesn’t make sense that they have so many software issues with it that they can’t figure it. After owning 3 Alienware laptops from 2018-2022 it’s not worth the frustration with AWCC for the build quality. Please figure this out Alienware, it’s been too long.

[WarDevilNiku]

I like the 2 tone color, but I love my 2022 g14 much more. 14 in laptops are the new sweet spot for me due to work and travel.

[JoeMaranophotography]

High performance mode basically enables Windows high performance power plan and isn't something I would do unless the laptop had insane cooling or something. Also if you enable silent or balanced profile you need to restart in order for the PL1 to go back up

Also AWCC purposefully takes ages to load to not conflict with other software.

[QuentinStoneYT]

The CPU and GPU power numbers seem odd. And from what I've read on Notebookcheck.

They measured both higher clock speeds and higher overall system power consumption. Though not much higher. They stated the maximum in CPU only testing was 100W then leveling at 55W. GPU power while gaming was at 70W. However in a combined stress test the CPU measured 30W while the GPU was at 60W according to their graphs.

What's odd though, is that they measured 130w peak power from the wall before dropping to 115W.


It should be noted, this was a European model and the surface tempuratures recorded were much higher around around 40C where the hands rest on the keyboard. Maybe it's possible that Dell is intentionally throttling the model you reviewed instead due to regulations, to prevent the keyboard area from getting so hot?

If so, this is a poor design from Dell, and makes since because the cooler is flipped on top side of the motherboard. Meaning as dust and other contaminants accumulate in the cooler, I would expect the performance to get worse over time.

[zakugodofwar]

Thanks! This is helpful and I appreciate the laptop deals site.
Hope to see a review of the Corsair Voyager A1600.

[mattpunx]

the software lag issue is the same with the M15. It only happens after you just turn on your laptop. After that first loading process, it works right when you open it

[sourjya]

Reviewing HP's OMEN Laptop with RX 6650M would be great!