Alienware recently made a splash at CES 2025 with the unveiling of its new Area-51 laptops, complete with impressive top-range specs and a sleek, UFO-inspired new design. Alienware aims to make this its new range of flagship laptops, offering a variety of models at different prices when it launches in Q1 2025 and beyond. They will also come fitted with NVIDIA’s newly announced 50-series GPUs.
Alienware’s new Area-51 laptops will come in two sizes: 16-inch and 18-inch, though specs will largely be similar between the duo. Doubling down on the UFO theme, the Area-51 will feature per key keyboard illumination, a light-up trackpad and lit case fans. You can also view this little light show via intake holes on the top deck and a transparent Gorilla Glass panel on the laptop’s underside, giving you a peek at its inner hardware. While RGB lighting is a highlight, Alienware is sticking to its signature liquid teal colour scheme for the laptop’s aluminum chassis.
Underneath the hood, the Area-51 laptops can be fitted with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, NVIDIA’s new 50-series GPUs, up to 64GB of dual-channel DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen5 SSD. The duo will include rear-mounted ports including HDMI 2.1, 2.5 gigabit ethernet (RJ-45), three USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 5Gbps ports, two Thunderbolt 5 / USB-C ports and a headphone jack and full-size SD card slot on the side.
Alienware also confirmed to The Verge that both laptops will feature a 96Wh battery, though when pressed about its longevity while unplugged, no response was given.
New thermal architecture will be used to keep the hardware cool with Alienware claiming that it moves up to 37% more airflow while running 15% quieter than the Alienware X16 R2 from last year. You can also expect pretty crisp quality on its screens with both laptops packing 2560 x 1600 QHD panels with 3ms response time and up to 300Hz refresh (240Hz on the 16-inch) to suit all your gaming needs.
Unfortunately, there’s no way of knowing just how worthwhile these laptops will be for the average gamer/consumer, especially with a hefty $3,199 price tag attached to it (an entry-level model will also launch at $1,999 at a later date). Alienware is packing a lot of impressive heat for its new Area-51 laptops and we can only hope its more of a swing than a miss for the tech company.
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