Alienware has been making quite the splash of late, refreshing its 13, 15 and 17-inch laptops into thinner, lighter, VR-ready machines. But that doesn't mean that the company is resting on its laurels. Instead, the company is offering gamers even more power by outfitting each of its systems with Intel's new Kaby Lake 7th-generation processors.
If that wasn't enough, the company is outfitting its starting configurations with Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti GPUs, dropping the Alienware 13 into that vaunted sub-$1,000 price range.
Key Specs:
- Alienware 13: Up to a 7th-generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD with a 1TB 7,200-rpm hard drive, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM and a 2560 x 1440 OLED panel.
- Alienware 15: Up to an Intel Core i7-7820HK CPU, 32GB or RAM, 2 1TB PCIe SSDs with a 1TB 7,200-rpm hard drive, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 GPU with 6GB of VRAM and a 3840 x 2160 display.
- Alienware 17: Up to an Intel Core i7-7820HK CPU, 32GB or RAM, 2 1TB PCIe SSDs with a 1TB 7,200-rpm hard drive, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8GB of VRAM and a 3840 x 2160 display.
MORE: Which Laptop CPU is Right for You?
Why You Should Care:
- Intel is claiming some major performance increases with Kaby Lake, including a 12 percent increase on productivity and a 19 percent rise in web performance.
- Thanks to Kaby Lake's built-in HEVC decoding and hardware-based DRM (digital rights management) give it the ability to stream protected 4K content from services such as Hulu and Netflix.
- The addition of the Nvidia GeForce 1050 GPUs, while not VR-capable, allow gamers on a budget to get in on some of the Nvidia 10-series perks.
Outlook
Having more power is never a bad thing. With the new Kaby Lake processors, Alienware laptops will get some notable performance bumps that can only help with your gaming in the long run. And the 4K streaming capabilities are also pretty sweet.
