I’m really excited about the upcoming Alienware Area-51 laptops — and it’s not solely because of their Nvidia RTX 50 GPUs.

CES 2025 saw no shortage of laptop announcements from major vendors like Lenovo, HP, MSI, Asus and more. Dell also arrived strong with its rebranded Dell laptops and the resurrected Alienware Area-51 gaming laptop lineup. While every company showed off fantastic notebooks, it’s the latter that got my attention the most.

My hype for the new Alienware laptops isn’t all that surprising. After all, I’m a lifelong gamer who also reviews the best gaming laptops for a living. Based on what I’ve seen, the 16- and 18-inch Area-51 laptops have everything I want in a portable gaming notebook — namely an elegant design, large displays and the latest components from Intel and Nvidia. Though they’re not too dissimilar from the Alienware m16 R2 and Alienware m18 R2 laptops we’ve reviewed, the new laptops are very enticing.

Here are the main reasons I'm looking forward to the new Alienware Area-51 gaming laptops.

They appear fantastic!

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Even though I love gaming laptops, I’m not a fan of their sometimes outlandish designs. Many manufacturers have veered away from this in recent years, offering devices like the HP Omen Transcend 14, the aforementioned Alienware m16 R2, and Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) with relatively minimalist designs. Area-51 laptops are flashier than those machines while featuring an air of otherworldly elegance.

The latest Liquid Teal finish applied to anodized aluminum offers Alienware laptops a striking dark iridescent appearance that changes hues as it interacts with light. The AlienFX lighting effects brighten the translucent panel on the rear, mimicking the enchanting movements of the Northern Lights. Additionally, the transparent Gorilla Glass panel on the bottom showcases the laptop's internal components, while RGB fans create a captivating underglow that shines through the clear window and illuminates the keyboard area.

The Alienware Area-51 laptops boast a distinctive design, but if you prefer a more subtle appearance while in public, you can easily disable all the RGB lighting. This allows the device to function as a gaming laptop without overtly resembling one.

Finally, these laptops offer the choice of low-profile CherryMX switches. If you're in the market for mechanical keys, the Area-51 laptops have you sorted.

Influential elements

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Nvidia unveiled its GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs for laptops and desktops during CES 2025, which promise to deliver serious performance and graphical boosts over previous RTX cards. The mobile 50-series GPUs utilize the company’s Blackwell architecture and are made for gaming on the go. DLSS 4 will hopefully help RTX 50-series laptops deliver better graphics and higher framerates without destroying battery life.

We’ll need to get some laptops with RTX 50 cards into our testing lab to see what they can do, but the results could be substantial. Regarding Area-51 notebooks specifically, they’ll have 280W of total package power (TPP) on Nvidia RTX 50-series laptop GPUs and up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU. According to Alienware, the laptops’ thermal architecture enables them to move up to 37% more air through the system while being 15% quieter.

Moreover, the Area-51 laptops are the inaugural models from Alienware to feature Gen 5 Solid State Drives (SSDs). Alienware states that when paired with Microsoft DirectStorage technology, the GPU can directly interface with the SSDs, resulting in enhanced game performance. Users have the option to expand storage capacity to a maximum of 12TB, providing ample space for a multitude of games.

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The Alienware Area-51 laptops are set to make their debut in the first quarter of this year, which means we won't have to wait much longer to put these devices to the test. From what we've gathered, they are poised to be thrilling gaming rigs. However, be prepared for a hefty price tag, as the most basic model begins at $1,999. That said, if the Area-51 laptops deliver on their expectations, the investment may very well be worthwhile.

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