Intel has shoved fresh laptop muscle into Dell’s Alienware machines.
Dell has rolled out refreshed Alienware 18 Area-51, 16 Area-51 and 16X Aurora gaming laptops using Intel’s Arrow Lake-HX Refresh processors. The 16-inch models gain anti-glare OLED panels, and the 16X Aurora gets a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti bump.
The Alienware 18 Area-51 was already the grey box shifter’s portable gaming bruiser, and now it has extra CPU grunt on tap. New options include the Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus and Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus.
The Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus has 20 cores with boost speeds up to 5.3GHz, sitting between the Core Ultra 7 265HX and Core Ultra 7 275HX. The Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is the flagship Arrow Lake-HX Refresh part, with 24 cores and a boost up to 5.5 GHz.
On graphics, the Alienware 18 Area-51 ranges from a GeForce RTX 5060 up to a GeForce RTX 5090. It uses standard SO-DIMM slots and supports up to 64GB (2x32GB) of DDR5-6400.
Storage options include 2TB PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 SSDs, with an option for up to 12TB (3 x 4TB) in a RAID 0 array. If that sounds excessive, gaming laptops have never been about self-control.
The Alienware 18 Area-51 uses the Intel HM870 chipset and an 8-phase CPU VRM and an 11-phase GPU VRM. Its panel is an 18-inch 2560 x 1600 screen at 300Hz with 3ms response time and 500 nits brightness.
Wired networking is 2.5G Ethernet, while wireless is Wi-Fi 7 plus Bluetooth 5.4. The battery capacity is 96 Whr, so you can pretend it is portable for a few minutes.
The Alienware 16 Area-51 mirrors the bigger model on CPU, GPU and memory, topping out at the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus and GeForce RTX 5090 with up to 64GB DDR5-6400. It keeps the Intel HM870 chipset and the same 8-phase CPU and 11-phase GPU VRM.
It is capped at 2TB of PCIe 5.0 SSD storage, and it ditches wired networking entirely. Wireless stays Wi-Fi 7 plus Bluetooth 5.4, with the same 96Whr battery.
The big change is the screen, with the Dell slotting in an anti-glare OLED panel. It stays 2560 x 1600 at 240Hz, but response time drops to 0.2ms and brightness jumps from 500 nits to 620 nits.
The Alienware 16X Aurora gets the same Arrow Lake-HX Refresh options, including the Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus and Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus. It now reaches a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, up from the GeForce RTX 5070 it previously topped out at.
Memory capacity matches the Area-51 machines at up to 64GB, but speeds top out at DDR5-5600. The spec sheet leaves the chipset and VRM details as a mystery, which is a bold look for a “premium” gaming refresh.
Storage options are 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB, and the top spec supports up to 2TB of PCIe 5.0 storage. Models without the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti are limited to PCIe 4.0, so pick your compromises.
The Alienware 16X Aurora uses a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 OLED panel at 240Hz with 0.2ms response time and up to 620 nits brightness. Wired networking is gigabit Ethernet, with Wi-Fi 7 plus Bluetooth 5.4 on the wireless side.
The refreshed Alienware 18 Area-51, 16 Area-51 and 16X Aurora are heading to Dell’s online store.
