When Dell launched the Alienware X line of ultrathin gaming laptops last year the company focused more on slim profiles than light weights – the smallest available at the time was a 5 pound Alienware x15 with a 15.6 inch display.
But the new Alienware x14 is a smaller, lighter laptop that doesn’t skimp on horsepower. It’s a gaming notebook with a 14 inch full HD display featuring a 144 Hz refresh rate and a magnesium alloy chassis that measures 12.66″ x 10.35″ x 0.57″ and which about 4 pounds.
Expected to ship this winter for $1799 and up, the laptop is powered by a 12th-gen Intel Core processor and NVIDIA RTX 30 series graphics with up to 85 watts of GPU power.
Other features include an 80 Wh battery, a backlit keyboard with programmable RGB lighting effects and 1.5mm of key travel, and a 720p webcam with dual array microphones and support for Windows Hello face recognition.
The laptop features Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision certification, and the 1920 x 1080 pixel display supports NVIDIA G-Sync technology, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and up to 400 nits brightness.
Ports include:
- 2 x Thunderbolt 4
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x 3.5mm headset
- 1 x microSD card reader
Dell will offer Intel Core i7-12700H and Core i9-12900H processor options. Both are 14-core, 20-thread chips, but the former can hit turbo boost speeds up to 4.7 GHz, while the latter tops out at 5 GHz.
GPU options include:
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (4GB GDDR6, 50W – 65W)
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (4GB GDDR6, 50W – 65W)
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (6GB GDDR6, 60W – 85W)
The laptop supports up to 16GB of LPDDR5-4800 or 32GB of dual-channel LPDDR5-5200 memory, but the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, so make sure to configure the laptop with as much as you think you’ll need at purchase.
Storage options range from 256GB to 2TB of PCIe NVMe storage on a removable M.2 card. The laptop will be available with a choice of Intel AX211 or Killer AX1690i wireless cards and Windows 11 Home or Pro software.
Meanwhile if you’re looking for a bit more horsepower and don’t mind a bigger, heavier laptop, Dell is also updating its Alienware x15 and Alienware x17 laptops with new models weighing in at 5.2 pounds and 6.5 pounds, respectively, but with support for additional features including Ethernet ports, dual storage devices, higher-resolution displays, and up to a Core i9-12900HK processor, in the case of the 17.3 inch model.
