Desktop-y Laptop alienware, area51m, asus, dell, future, upgradable laptop, Zephyrus S
Alienware seems to have hit the right notes with this giant 17 inch laptop idea. As per website weighing in at a whooping 4.4 Kgs this laptop should act as a true desktop replacement on paper with the following specs and features.
It has desktop grade 8-core, 16-thread Intel® processors upto i9. It has the CPU enabled with up to 125% rated power, allowing high-end overclocking for games and other compute processes.
The GPU is NVIDIA supported with up to 30 W of overclocking headroom. It also supports 64 GB DDR4 memory.
The most attractive feature of this laptop is however that It allows you to upgrade not only the RAM and HDD/SSD, but also upgrade the CPU and GPU as well.
The present prototypes on display and pre-production units worked on by various reviewers have been reported to be very loud even when idle. But Alienware has gone on record that the production model will be whisper-quiet.
The other issue that seems to mar the otherwise rosy story of this giant is that while the CPU can be replaced with the latest desktop chip, the GPU can only be changed via an on-board graphics module replacement or with the Alienware Graphics Amplifier. And also there are no tie-ups between NVIDIA and Alienware that make a promise that future GPU chips will be made compatible for the module. It was specified by Alienware that the GPU development is up to the chip makers and their road maps and nothing else. Presently there is a promise of upgradability to a maximum of the RTX 2080 GPU. This could turn out to be a roadblock of sorts later for potential buyers.
But I think this product is just a bait in the pond to find the potential of the market and market support. Because such a project is a game changer and as in the case for the mobile industry with modular phones (Modu and later Project Ara) which started in 2011 with promise and is yet to see light of the day this could be a miss as well.
The production units are to be out on January 29th. The base variant Alienware Area-51m with an Intel Core i7-8700 processor, RTX 2070 GPU, 1TB hard drive, 8GB of DDR4 memory, and a 1080p 60Hz screen is prices at $2,549 compared to the pricing of the newly announced Asus Zephyrus S with a GTX 1070 Max Q graphics, an 8th-gen Core i7 chip, 16GB of RAM, a 15.6-inch 144Hz full HD screen and a 512GB NVMe solid state drive which is priced at $2,199.
If the replacement/upgrade works and doesn’t become a novelty, it will be a good product line for the future. Otherwise the thinner and lighter (2.1 Kgs) ASUS Zephyrus S, even with the 10 series of GPU, but better screen, memory and lower price for the setup, seems to make it a better pick at the moment.
Availability
Dell Alienware Area 51m – 29th January, 2019 - https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-17-area51m-laptop
ASUS Zephyrus S - 31st August, 2019 - https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ROG-Zephyrus-S-GX531/
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