- The keyboard doesn't flex much, but the keys themselves are expectedly pretty squishy (it's a laptop keyboard). It feels better so far than a Samsung Ativ Book 8 that I own, but maybe not quite as nice as the Lenovo Y50.
- The height of the laptop is almost exactly the height of a DVD case with two CD cases stacked on top of it (go ahead, find a DVD case and a couple CD cases, you know you want to).
I feel that random users' opinions of screen quality, keyboard feel, and so on isn't all that helpful, since it is entirely subjective, and you may have a different opinion. I prefer hard numbers relative to other laptops' hard numbers. For example, "the fans are kinda loud" is useless compared to "the fans are measured at 32dB versus this other laptop measured at 40dB." This is the main reason I haven't weighed in too heavily, and am waiting for professional reviews.
Alas, in the midst of waiting for your laptop, or choosing between laptops, you'll lap up anything you can get, no matter how inconsequential it is. So, fine, I'll weigh in a bit more.
A bit of background. I teach game development and graphics design and have done a fair bit of photography. I have owned many monitors/laptop screens, including the LP3065, 2209WA, LP1423p, Samsung Ativ Book 8 (AUO MVA panel), Lenovo Y50 4K (Samsung PLS), and a slew of TN panels.
The 4K Sharp panel on this Alienware 15 is actually really nice. I haven't gotten around to calibrating it yet, but at this point, I dare say that it might be the best quality screen I've used. I have also used Apple Cinema displays and Macbook Pro 15" retina newest version. The backlight bleed isn't good, and there's some serious tonal falloff at the left and right edges, creating an undesired vignette effect. Despite those things, the colors are nice, and the contrast is really good. The screen is probably a newer version of the one tested here: http://ift.tt/1MlWXvc .
The hinge is really solid so far. When you tap the screen, it doesn't wobble, like others I've seen. Very sturdy. The quality of the glass isn't as nice as the Ativ Book 8 in my opinion.
I like good keyboards. I own a Cherry brown Filco with heavy-duty double shot keys, that I bought and customized long before any of the major companies started jumping on the wagon. This is one of a few expensive professional mechanical keyboards I've purchased. That said, the keyboard on the Alienware 15 was a pleasant surprise. When I test out laptops in Best Buy and the Microsoft Store, I type "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" in notepad on each display computer. I wonder what people think when they walk by and see the screens after I'm done. This keyboard beats all of the ones I've tested in the stores recently. This is partially because Best Buy and Microsoft puts super cheap laptops on display, or ones that are too thin to effectively accommodate a nice keyboard.
The keyboard is definitely nicer than the Ativ Book 8's chiclet keyboard, and I'm starting to think it is better than the Y50's keyboard too. I don't think it's quite better than the old scissor switch keyboard on an XPS 1210 I owned, but it's definitely similar. It's just a tad tougher and squishier.
The fans at idle are darn near silent in a quiet environment. You can hear them barely hum when it is silent in the room. However, the CPU and GPU temperature hovers around 50 degrees celsius, which is maybe a bit warm to my liking. I think the Y50 and Ativ Book 8 idle at a lower temperature than that. I might increase the fan speed a bit since they already are so darn quiet. When the fans start kicking in because of GPU load, they definitely get quite a bit louder, but in no annoying way. No buzzing, whining, clicking or anything like that. I haven't put it under load enough to compare, but I'd say it's no louder than the Y50 or Ativ Book 8 under load.
No comment about the touchpad, because I try to use either a mouse, the touchscreen, or a Wacom Intuos instead of that touchpad. It's not terrible, but on this 4K screen, its default sensitivity is pretty low. I've had some trouble scrolling with it too. In chrome (I think), it will often fly up to the top instead of scrolling down. Weird. It also isn't all that precise in my opinion. But par for the course for touchpads I guess. People swear by Macbook touchpads, but seriously, it's still a touchpad. I used one on a Macbook Pro earlier today and no thanks.
- Here's a picture of the black bleed:
*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge
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