Dell's Spring Range: New 8th Gen Alienware, Laptops, and Monitors

Dell G-Series Gaming Laptops

Dell has also launched a new range of gaming laptops designed to deliver gaming solutions for players of all skill levels and budgets. While the Alienware line covers the mid-range to the high-end mobile gaming market, Dell’s new G Series will handle the budget side of it with the release of four new laptops in three different lines. There is the entry-level G3 15 and G3 17 as well as the G5 and G7 15 models for those who may crave a bit more performance. The G Series laptops come equipped with 8^th Gen Intel processors - up to a Core i7 hex-core, NVIDIA GeForce discrete graphics, as well as multiple panel choices. Dell designed the G series with better thermal management solutions, content prioritization software (Dell CinemaStream), anti-glare IPS panels, and other features intended for gamers to have a fully immersed experience in their games at a more reasonable price point. 

Dell G3 15 and G3 17

The Dell G3 15 and 17 models look more like a business/professional type of laptop. as we do not see many design cues many expect to see in a stereotypical "gaming" laptop. This means Dell has avoided items such as prominent intakes and exhaust for cooling or RGB lighting, instead focusing on a traditional and functional clamshell design. The G3 17 carved out a new category for itself in the 17-inch affordable gaming laptop – this was normally reserved for the higher priced, and more powerful, Alienware segment. Dell says the G3 15 is slimmest gaming notebook on the market at less than 23mm in height. Other than that, the 15-inch chassis will have three color options to choose from in a standard black, recon blue, or alpine white, while the 17-inch will come in black or recon blue only.

The G3 15-inch and 17-inch are for all intents and purposes the same hardware outside of the size of the panel and available color options. Both devices give users a choice of quad-core 8^th Gen Intel Core i5-8300HQ or i7-8750HQ processors. System memory ranges from 4-16GB DDR4-2666 with a maximum capacity of 32GB (sold separately). On the storage side, the G3s will support up to two drives, ranging from a 1TB 5400RPM Hybrid up to a 512GB PCIe SSD, which should give users a fair amount of space to install their games and such. Network connectivity is handled by either a 100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet port for wired networking, or a Dual-band wireless solution supporting 802.11ac, 1T/1R MU-MIMO/80Hz, as well as Bluetooth 5.0.

The G3s offer a choice of a single display type, a FHD (1920x1080) IPS anti-glare LED-backlit panel in 15 or 17 inches respectively, but does offer three discrete video card options. Users are able to choose from the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 4GB GDDR5, GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5, or the GTX 1060 Max-Q 6GB GDDR5. For the best gaming experience with an FHD resolution, the GTX 1060 would be the card of choice.

As far as input devices, the keyboard uses is a standard full-size, spill-resistant keyboard with a numeric keypad. There is also a backlit full-size, spill-resistant keyboard (blue only in some regions) as an optional choice. On the ports and connectors front, we can find HDMI (2.0), two USB 3.0 Type-A ports including one with PowerShare, a USB 3.1 Gen-2 port with optional Type-C Thunderbolt 3 with support for 40 Gbps Thunderbolt and DisplayPort, RJ-45, 2-in-1 SD card reader, MMC, and a headphone and microphone combo jack. Audio is handled by two integrated speakers with audio processing by Waves MaxxAudio Pro.

Pricing for the Dell G3 15 starts at $749 with the 17-inch G3 17 starting off a little higher at $799. They will be available today in limited configurations with more options available on 4/16.

G5 15 and G7 15

Sliding up the product stack, the Dell says the G5 15 and G7 15 offer a step-up in performance from the G3 systems. In this case, it is by way of an additional Hex-core CPU option not found on the G3. Discrete graphics card options remain the same, though a 4K UHD panel option has also been added. Other changes include styling and design differences with more prominent intake and exhaust cutouts designed to improve thermal capabilities. This also gives the G5 and G7 more of that gaming laptop look compared to the G3. Color combinations are also different than the G3 with the G5 15 available in black or Beijing Red and the G7 15 in black or Alpine White.

The G5 15 and G7 15 have both quad-core and hex-core CPU options with the flagship option taking the form of the i7-8750HQ as with the G3. The G7 15 takes that a step further and adds an i9-8950HQ hex-core option which comes in clocked a bit higher than the i7-8750HQ. System memory is configurable up to 16GB DDR4-2400 and expandable to 32GB (sold separately). On the storage side, the G5 and G7 support up to two drives ranging from a 1TB 5400RPM HDD and 5400RPM Hybrid up to a 512GB PCIe SSD. Network connectivity is handled by either a 100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet port for wired networking and a Killer Dual-band wireless solution supporting 802.11ac, 2T/2R MU-MIMO, as well as Bluetooth 5.0.

The G5 and G7 offer two choices of 17-inch monitors. Either an FHD (1920x1080) IPS anti-glare LED-backlit display or a discrete GPU crushing 4K UHD (3840x2160) IPS anti-glare LED-backlit display. There wasn’t a mention of color gamut ranges or other details. GPU options remain the same from the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 4GB GDDR5, GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5, or the GTX 1060 Max-Q 6GB GDDR5. I do worry about the gaming experience using the UHD screen as the GTX 1060 will not push games well at 4K UHD resolution without some image quality sacrifices. I would like to have seen a GTX 1070 option here, but imagine that could vulture away some sales on the Alienware side and adds more grey area to the lineups. Another option here is to use a QHD (2560x1440) monitor which the GTX 1060 will do a better job. 

As far as input devices, the keyboard uses is a standard full-size, spill-resistant keyboard with a numeric keypad. There is also a backlit full-size, spill-resistant keyboard (Bejing Red only in some regions for G5 and blue for the G7) as an optional choice. As far as ports and connectors go we find HDMI (2.0), three USB 3.0 Type-A ports – one with PowerShare, a Thunderbolt 3 USB 3.1 Gen-2 Type-C port with support for 40 Gbps Thunderbolt and DisplayPort, RJ-45, 2-in-1 SD card reader, MMC, and a headphone and microphone combo jack. Audio is handled by two integrated speakers with audio processing by Waves MaxxAudio Pro.

Pricing for the Dell G5 15 starts at $799 with G7 15 starting off at $849. They will be available today in limited configurations with more options available on 4/16.