Gaming can be an expensive business, especially when it comes to kitting out a PC for the task. If you want to go top of the range, with powerful chips and graphics cards that are suitable for the most power-hungry games, you could find yourself spending several thousands.
And it’s not just the price that can be unwieldy. Gaming laptops can be chunky, too, making them more awkward to cart around. But there are other options, if you are willing to compromise a little. The Alienware X14 offers a compact gaming laptop in that won’t break the bank – as much.
The X14 offers a 14-inch laptop with an Intel Core i7 chip, a 12th-gen model that was formerly known as Alder Lake, and NVidia Geforce graphics that will cope with some of the better games out there. There are several ports, all on the back of the machine, including a standard USB port, one USB-C and two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a headset jack and a HDMI 2.1 port. You get a Micro SD slot too.
The device starts at just under €1,720, with Windows 11 Home as the operating system, but changing a few things – increasing the size of the solid state drive, changing the graphics card – could add more than €1,000 to the final tally.
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You have a choice between the GeForce RTX 3050 and 3060 video cards, with 16GB of memory. The version tested here came with the 3060 card on board, powerful enough to run decent visuals for gaming, deal with simple content creation, and watching video. In practice, it means most AAA games will play on the device without difficulty.
A 14-inch laptop might be smaller than some gamers would like, but you can hook it up to a HDMI monitor for a larger display. Other than size, there is no real need to use an external display, with the integrated display performing well. The 1080p LCD screen, which is not touch enabled, has a pixel per inch count of 158 and a refresh rate of almost 144Hz. That means excellent detail and crisp visuals, even when they are faster-moving, although some darker scenes may suffer a little compared with other screen technologies. On the whole, though, the effect is impressive.
There are other sacrifices. The webcam isn’t the worst we’ve seen on a laptop, but it’s far from the best. Even outside a work setting, it’s likely that most people will have some use for video calls; this laptop has a 720p webcam and while it works okay in good light, anything less than full light turns the webcam muddy. Sound-wise, the X14 has dual array microphones that do a decent job of picking up your voice. If you are planning on doing any significant video, though, an external camera might be best.
A word of warning: it’s not the quietest of laptops. Using it for basic work tasks – word processing, some image editing – or video streaming is fine, with the laptop working silently, if running a little warm. Once pushed, even by a simple game, the fan kicks in audibly. It wouldn’t be as big a deal for noisier games or if you were wearing a headset for gaming, but quieter action might suffer from the intrusive fan noise.
Having said that, the speakers are decent. While they may lack some of the punch of bigger systems, the audio is sufficiently loud enough with a bit of depth to it to deliver some atmosphere when needed. They are Dolby Atmos certified too.
Good
The X14 looks great. Slim, light and distinctly Alienware, this laptop not only looks good, but you can take it with you without feeling the weight. It’s less than 1.8kg, and is just over half an inch thick, which makes it very portable. It is only available in one colour – Lunar Light – but it works.
The touchpad is reactive, if a bit on the small side. Swapping it out for a gaming mouse works better.
Bad
The compact form factor is nice, but it has its drawbacks. The 14-inch screen may not be the optimal size for some gamers, and while I find the keyboard fine to use, gamers with bigger hands may find it a little on the small side.
If you are the kind of person who finds white noise soothing, then this laptop is for you. For everyone else, the fan kicking in on a regular basis may be annoying. It’s mostly drowned out by the sound of the games though.
The X14 also runs a bit warm when it is working hard.
Everything else
Like other Alienware devices, you can customise the lighting effects through the Alienware Command Centre. That means you can change the backlighting on the keyboard to a colour of your choice, add some effects or change the lighting on the front of the casing. You can also tinker with overclocking, if you feel the need.
Verdict
A decent gaming laptop at a more affordable price – with a few sacrifices.
