I Spent 72 Hours Gaming On The Alienware m15 In Our Office, And I Think My Wife Hates Me Now

Though Apex Legends has been out and breaking records for a while, I just got around to trying it, and a couple of things are very clear. First, is that I one hundred percent suck at it. The other is that, even my deaths look pretty damn great. And I'm having the time of my life too.

You see, I've been given the rare opportunity us tech journalists sometimes get on the job. I'm coming to the office for the next three days the way I normally do, but my workload is lighter than usual. That's because I have a spectacular new toy to play with, and it requires my undivided attention.

Images courtesy: Gwyn D'Mello/Indiatimes

I have at my disposal the Alienware m15, one of the company's latest gaming laptops. When you think Alienware, what usually comes to mind is a hulking chunk of metal meant to never move from your desk. In this case however, the company has for the first time released their equivalent of a slim notebook, and it's gorgeous.

The m15 is a scant 0.7 inches thick, though it still retains a decent amount of heft. It's just enough that you won't mind shifting it around once every so often. The laptop is still quintessential Alienware however, with the anodised aluminium lid and glowing alien head. And, at the very least, they've updated their colour palette to include a gorgeous Nebula Red.

Let me tell you, the m15 certainly elicited a few questions around the workplace, and with good reason. It's the longest I've ever stuck around in office, waiting behind for hours past the official clock out time in order to continue gaming.

The security guards didn't know that however, and they were quite surprised to find me there, hunched over a PC in my semi-dark corner, like some modern-day Gollum.

After all, the device itself was showing no signs of slowing down, so why should I?

The Alienware m15 is pretty tricked out, with a 2.2GHz 8th generation Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 16GB DDR4 RAM at 2666MHz, a 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 GPU with 8GB GDDR6. The screen is a 15.6-inch FHD (1920x1080) display at 144Hz and 300nits brightness with really narrow bezels for a sleek look.

It supports 802.11 ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0, and is priced at Rs 2,34,454. If you'd instead prefer a lower end version, that's available with an RTX 2060 GPU instead, priced at Rs 1,78,404.

Thanks to that, my head-first dive into Apex Legends was nothing short of spectacular. Minus all of my immediate post-landing deaths of course. The sharp lines of each character stand out beautifully against the sunset, and the clean animations on each weapon give me the tingles. The first three matches for me took all of three minutes of actual fighting, before I died and then just spent the next few minutes spectating possible winners.

I even went ahead and fired up a couple of old favourites, Overwatch and Subnautica. The first is a MOBA with tiny arenas, so the action is pretty heated, pretty much all the time. Subnautica meanwhile is just always one of my favourite games to try out on a new laptop. It's not necessarily very demanding on the graphics card, but I do love how a good laptop and monitor make the undersea world look fabulous.

Of course, I'm running all of these titles at Ultra settings, because why wouldn't I? And yet, the laptop performs with not a single stutter, quietly puttering away for my amusement late into the night in the office.

Of course, the backlit keys make it so much easier to game in the dark, but I don't need to tell you that. What is worth noting is that, though the keys themselves seem easy enough to manipulate with a fast travel time, it's nowhere near what I would want from a laptop worth 2 lakh. Also, it would be really nice if Alienware began packaging a proper gaming mouse along with a beast like this.

I did have one problem however, though it may not apply to each of you. At one point that night, I grew I tired of sitting at my desk for hours and shifted to our bean bags. With the Alienware device in my lap, I continued to play a few matches of Overwatch's unranked modes. Half an hour later though, I was forced to move again.

That's because the metal and polycarbonate body on the Alienware m15 had gotten as hot as Hell's backside, forcing me to shift before I accidentally sterilised myself with that heat. It's something to beware of if you're planning to keep the laptop on a table permanently.

At the very least, Alienware once again puts full control of the aesthetic choices available at your disposal. The Alienware Command Center is your one stop shop for everything from performance stats, to sound profiles, to lighting. Here, you can set your preferences towards performance running, or quiet instead. Changing sound profiles gives you new default settings, though you can mess with the mixer as well. Most importantly, it lets you change how your keyboard lights up, whether individual colours for each section, pulses of light or a static glow, and more.

Through all of this though, I was having quite a bit of fun gaming in the darkness, lit only by the light of the super bright display and the traditional backlit keyboard of an Alienware laptop.

When the guard came by to check on me once more, he probably thought I looked like something out of the Tron movie, with blue accented light criss-crossing my face. I told him I was finally ready to up and leave, knowing I'd be continuing my gaming worship in the temple of my own home.

Of course, in all of my excitement, I'd forgotten that my wife was waiting for me at home. After much apologising and promises of making it up to her, we spent some time together before she went to bed. Then of course, it was back to gaming for me, savouring the remaining hours I had to indulge myself to the fullest.

And indeed, this is a laptop you pick up when you truly want to indulge yourself. All of Alienware's gaming laptops are some of the heaviest hitters around, capable of handling anything you throw at them. In this case, the m15 is just as capable, but it has the added benefit of actually being portable, unlike the others. For instance, I simply tucked this into my backpack to take it home. It's certainly a balance between the monster gaming machine of your dreams and a realistic device you can take to a LAN party.

Now, as I write this, I'm sad once more. I feel a hole in my heart where the Alienware m15 used to be. And now I'm forced to wander a gaming landscape that's a little less sharp, a little less vibrant, as I wait for the next awesome powerhouse to cross my desk.