Alienware's first "budget" laptop starts at $1,299 — and that's the problem

Dell has launched the Alienware 15, the brand's first serious attempt at an entry-level gaming laptop. Starting at $1,299 in the US and £879 in the UK, it undercuts previous Alienware pricing — but sits well above comparable gaming laptops from MSI, Lenovo, and Asus that offer similar performance for $200–$300 less, as PCWorld review notes.

The look

The Alienware 15 drops the brand's signature rear thermal shelf — that chunky raised exhaust ledge — and swaps aluminum for a polycarbonate (plastic) chassis. The lid opens flat to 180 degrees, and the glowing alien-head logo stays put. At 2.2kg (4.9lbs), it's reasonably portable for a gaming machine. The Cryo-tech cooling system from pricier Alienware models carries over, even on the base configuration.

The screen

The 15.3-inch display runs at 1920×1200 with a 165Hz refresh rate and a 16:10 aspect ratio — a solid setup for fast-paced games. The trade-off is color accuracy: 300 nits of brightness and just 62.5% sRGB coverage, confirmed by Notebookcheck pricing survey. For gaming that's fine; for photo or video editing, it's not the right tool.

Inside

The base model pairs an AMD Ryzen 5 220 with an RTX 4050. Step up and you get a Ryzen 7 260 with an RTX 5050 or RTX 5060. Intel Core 5 and Core 7 variants are also available. All configs ship with 16GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and storage ranging from 512GB to 1TB on the top RTX 5060 build. Battery capacity is 70Wh (54Wh on some configurations), and the total system TDP sits at 110W. Ports cover two USB-C (one with 100W charging), two USB-A, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The price question

At $1,299 for a laptop with an RTX 4050 — a three-generation-old GPU at this point — the Alienware 15 is asking buyers to pay for the badge. The top RTX 5060 config reaches $1,850, which edges into territory where RTX 5070 laptops with OLED displays exist. Dell cites rising RAM costs as a factor, and has promised future discounts. UK buyers get a proportionally better deal at £879–£1,249, per Notebookcheck pricing survey. If you want the Alienware name and Cryo-tech cooling at a lower price than ever, the 15 delivers that. If you want the best performance per pound or dollar, the competition is stiff.