all right so this is the alienware x17
i've been wanting to get this device in
for a really long time a couple months
ago i reached out to dell mic hey can
you send a review unit over like yeah
sure
i waited it never came i started seeing
it appear in stores i started seeing
people buy it in retail locations i'm
like where's the review unit and i
started to get a little suspicious
because
companies do this thing where they don't
send me devices when they know i'm going
to take a steaming dump on it like it's
happened before in the past with other
brands and i'm like maybe this is it
maybe this is one of those products so i
go and buy it i order one online and
then a week and a half after i order it
my order gets cancelled the reasons like
you know it's damaged in shipping or
whatever and they're going to start a
new order i'm like what is going on
right it honestly felt like they were
trying to hide something so i get this
thing and finally and my review on this
thing was
very thorough more thorough than a
regular device because i just felt like
something had to be something had to be
up right okay so
alienware x17 brand new product like new
design new chassis new thermal system
new everything but it only comes with
this white color on the exterior it's a
color that i like and every time i've
ever picked up an alienware device over
the past few years i've gone for this
color but it's not for everyone i do
think it does show the kind of curvature
and design language of the laptop better
with like a lighter color you can see
the details a little bit better but the
interior also only comes in one color
and it is a dark
i want to say black but it's not quite
black it's like this really really dark
gray that's got this speckled pattern to
it and this material is very prone to
fingerprints now i do like the look of
it but i am surprised that they only
offered in one color like in the past
alienware's top end devices have had two
sometimes even three color options for
the exterior and it's just strange that
they only offer one right now this might
change in the future it could be because
of manufacturing during the pandemic but
it is a little strange to me now the
tail end of the device still has that
iconic alienware look so it's got that
rgb trim light as well as the hexagonal
grid for the exhaust they have upgraded
the trim light this year so you can
extensively customize the lighting on
the rear of the device if you so choose
okay so when they first announced the x
product one of the first features they
talked about was how thin this was gonna
be it was like this
i think was the thinnest product
alienware has ever put out i think that
was like the marketing uh terminology
they used and
my initial reaction was like that can't
be good right because alienware devices
have never been about thin they've
always been thicker but they've been
really really well built these things
are super solid right and
i thought that by going this thing they
would lose a lot of that structural
tankiness but it's super solid this
thing feels like a tank and i'm actually
surprised that they've been able to keep
that structural rigidity
while making it so thin it is heavy i
mean it's a 17 inch device but it's
built well i think that's the most
important thing when it comes to any
bigger device good build quality and
they've done a good job in that front
now to get inside the back panel comes
off quite easily but there's some good
things and there's some less good things
so there's two nvme slots one of them
being pcie four so you can go super fast
the other one is just pcie three but
here's the weird stuff so the x17 comes
with a wi-fi card that's baked on but
removable ram the x15 is flipped it's
the reverse of that it's got removable
wi-fi but the ram is baked on now
neither of these cases are ideal right
for the user we want removable
everything it's strange to me that they
did that on the x17 in particular baked
wi-fi is never good and the wi-fi card
they went with killer like i would have
swapped this out for just a regular
stock intel
but you can't now the x17 is running
four fans two big ones and then two
smaller ones and in addition to these
fans they're also running a new thermal
compound it's a phase change material
that's gallium based now i've never used
this stuff i've never seen this stuff
outside of the x17 so i can't really
comment on previous applications of it
but they've done a really
fantastic job with this new thermal
system on the x17 it cools incredibly
well now i don't know how much that is
due to the phase change material or it's
just because there's four fans in there
just pulling out heat doing work but
it's good better than i would have
expected for alienware because in their
past the devices have usually run hot
but it's not just compared to alienware
devices like this is better than the
competition when it comes to 17-inch
gaming devices they're usually thicker
and louder but the x17 is able to keep
up with some of the best stuff out there
now when it comes to overclocking so if
you look at any of my alienware reviews
i've done over the past few years i tend
not to even touch the overclocking
options because the devices are usually
at their thermal limit if they're not
overheating they're close to it so why
push it even harder right but this year
because the x-17s it had so much
potential i wanted to see how far this
thing can go so i bumped up the clock
threw in a bit of an undervolt and i was
getting some very impressive numbers now
one thing to keep in mind if you're
someone who wants to re-paste it or you
just want to take a look at the thermal
interface material it is a flipped
motherboard so you have to do a fairly
extensive disassembly if you want access
to the cpu and gpu side
okay the battery so this is a pretty big
battery and i got around four and a half
hours of battery life with my regular
testing but this is with the 4k panel if
you get one of the lower rest screens
like of the 1080p options you'll
probably get 10 maybe 15 more battery
life on the device
the keyboard uses the same cherry mx
mechanical switches that we saw a few
months ago on the last iteration of the
17-inch device i really like these keys
they're not for everyone it's got that
like
ping sound if you type super fast on it
i really like the feel of it but it's
something that
if for one of your noise sensitive like
if you don't want a loud keyboard this
ain't the move uh but i also think that
if you don't like that type of tactility
like there's people out there that just
don't like that type of
clickiness to their keyboard then you
won't like this either but i think most
people will enjoy the typing experience
and especially the gaming experience
this is a really nice keyboard to game
on it does not have a number pad if you
remember the last mechanical keyboard i
showed you from these guys they had a
number pad on the 17-inch device it's
gone i like that i don't use number pads
but i feel like
most people would prefer to be on i
don't know uh
okay the one thing i do not like about
this keyboard is the lack of
backlighting on many of the secondary
functions of these keys so any of the f
keys or even like the numerics like if
you want to use like the ampersand or
the money sign like if you're using any
of those functions in the dark and you
don't know it off the top of your head
it's impossible to see you actually like
tilt the screen look at it with the glow
from the screen it's a thing
this needs to be fixed but aside from
that keyboard is great okay
trackpad this lights up now if i'm not
mistaken this only lights up with the
highest configurations like the rtx 3080
configurations it's cool but i think
they should have put it on the lower end
configurations as well now in terms of
the screens they have three options
right now they have a 4k panel and two
1080p options this one's the 4k panel
and it looks awesome it's bright it's
very color accurate and it's super fast
it's a nice screen however it doesn't
have advanced optimus or any kind of mux
switch so if you're playing certain
games at certain resolutions with the
built-in display you can be losing some
friends now personally for the stuff
that i play it doesn't matter at all but
that's not the point if you're buying a
device with this caliber right this kind
of price point
it should have it and i feel like
everyone else is doing all the
competitors are capable of doing it
this doesn't have it now there is a
mid-tier option like a 1080p 360 hertz
panel that does support advanced optimus
which is great but the 4k panel as well
as the entry level screen do not support
the ability to connect directly to the
video card for the best possible
performance one thing else that i
noticed the panel it's got reasonably
thin bezels and whatever but this cannot
support one of those newer 16 by 10
aspect ratio screens so down the line if
alienware wants to stick in a taller
screen they'd have to redesign the whole
front panel which is a bit unfortunate
okay i just want to close off this video
with the ports so there's no ports on
the side well there's a power plug on
the left and a headphone jack on the
right but all of the ports are on the
back of the device and i like it but
there's a couple things number one the
micro sd is in a really bad spot you got
to reach the back of the device to plug
it in and pull it out so if you're
transferring files frequently it's a
pain in the butt but overall the port
selection is pretty good now the ac
adapter it comes with on the high end
model is a 330 watt ac adapter that is
very big and very heavy now if you get
one of the lower spec x17s like a 3060
or a 37 equipped one you get a smaller
adapter 240 watts but it's also using
the new gallium nitrate based technology
right so it's a thinner smaller more
portable package i really would have
liked to seen that tech in the 330 watt
adapter as well
but you know what speaking of things i
don't like about the x17 another big one
for me is the software i do not like
alienware's command setter it's
cluttered it's confusing it's not
intuitive the lighting system isn't
going to change the software isn't great
if i'm being honest i feel like
alienware has the worst software in the
gaming laptop market right now it's
really bad uh the other thing are the
speakers so if you've noticed i didn't
mention them right you don't even need
to hear them they're trash but i will
say this it is strange to me that
alienware spent the time and the money
and the resources to give you a rainbow
trackpad but they couldn't give you
good speakers like
macbooks and like some huawei devices
some xiaomi devices have great speakers
how are they putting this stuff
like everyone's got the same kind of
trash speakers they're all junk
it just kills me that this is what is
appearing in a new device from alienware
where they had the opportunity to give
you something brand new right but they
give you
the expected terrible gaming laptop
speakers okay so overall
i like this device a lot more than i
ever thought i would
um
the pricing on it so
this is about
250 or 300 more than a competing product
whether or not that's worth it to you
it's entirely up to your budget right
but i will say this this is hard to
compare to other products because it's
got such a unique look such a unique
thermal system a unique design unique
lighting system this is hard to compare
like in the traditional sense when it
comes to comparing laptops but
i like it i like what i'm seeing and
when i thought that alienware was trying
to hide something no way the x17 is
powerful it's thin it's capable properly
cooled it's something that i just never
would have expected to come out from
alienware if i'm being completely honest
but
it's here okay hope you guys enjoyed
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you