Alienware 16 Area-51 Review: An Oddity From Space With Respectable Power

Speaking of heat, it’s managed fairly well. The Alienware 16 Area-51 ran 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Stress Test with 97.2% consistency, so it didn’t have to throttle back as the temperature climbed. Heat is also kept away from the gamer. I didn’t feel the system getting warm with my hand resting on the keyboard deck and fingers on the WASD keys. If you put your mouse too close to the side vents, though, you might feel the exhaust heat.

Battery performance isn’t quite as stellar as other aspects of the Alienware 16 Area-51. Leaving it up to the system, the Alienware 16 Area-51 didn’t seem to think it should fully deactivate the GPU when I was just using the Chrome browser. As a result, I was lucky to get over 2.5 hours of battery life running our streaming video drain test; you can expect even less while gaming. That’s not abnormal for a high-powered gaming laptop, but it’s not something to overlook, either. 

A looker that could have used some condensing

Alienware has long been one for distinct designs, and the Alienware 16 Area-51 is no exception. As soon as I pulled this beast out of the box, I said to myself, “What is going on here?” On one hand, the Alienware 16 Area-51 shares clear DNA with the Alienware x16 R2 that came before it. It bears a similarly curved design, the big rear shelf and it borrows the illuminated trackpad. It also has a large grille above the keyboard, though Alienware didn’t go with the honeycomb design of the x16 R2. In fact, the Alienware 16 Area-51 is smattered with grilles and vents. More interesting than all of them, however, is the window on the underside of the laptop. 

This underside window gives a look right into a small section of the interior. It’s not a particularly engaging section, but it offers a peek at two of the four fans and a few ribbon connectors. Since it covers some of the space where a bottom grille would normally provide air intake for the fans, Dell has much of the air coming in through the grille above the keyboard. The window is on a little platform that itself has a small grille, allowing some extra air intake. There’s a second set of fans near the window that have their own bottom grille. All the air coming in gets blown out vents on the sides and rear of the laptop. 

Dell has tucked two speakers on either side of the keyboard behind grilles of their own. But in addition to those two, there’s another set underneath the laptop, giving the Alienware 16 Area-51 a two-tweeter, two-woofer setup. More speakers don’t mean better sound though. Maxed out, the speakers weren’t very loud, and at higher volumes, they managed to break up a bit and sound harsh, especially with Dolby Atmos features enabled. They sound better dialed back a bit but still have a harshness from overdone high-frequency sounds. 

The keyboard is curiously recessed as Dell has “pillowed” the lower part of the deck for ergonomics. I can’t say it feels bad, but I don’t think it feels any better for the pillowing. The more noticeable “feels” comes from the optional mechanical keyboard. You’ll hear that you’re using a mechanical keyboard, and if you use it in a quiet space, people are going to notice. It’s not loud like a set of Cherry MX Blues, but it is noticeable. Other than that, it’s a decent enough keyboard for quick typing, with a clear actuation and good stabilization. I was comfortable typing at over 100 words per minute, but I found I struggled to go much faster.

Despite the laptop’s size, the trackpad is actually fairly small since Dell pushed the keyboard down toward the front. It’s not tiny, but it would feel more at home on a 14 — or even 13-inch laptop. 

The 16-inch screen is decent. It’s plenty sharp thanks to its 1600p resolution and seems smooth with its 240Hz refresh rate. Ghosting is faint enough that it’s easy to ignore, though some light inverse ghosting is more noticeable. However the contrast is a bit lacking. Plenty of other manufacturers opt for OLED panels, but Alienware didn’t. It may be just as colorful, but the shortcoming in contrast can make dark scenes in games less impressive. 

The display hinge is also odd, sliding out on rails as the display opens up. This raises the display up ever so slightly and may help distract from the large-for-2025 bottom bezel. What it doesn’t distract from is the somewhat concerning amount of flexibility the display itself has. 

Aside from the bendy display, the rest of the machine feels well-built. The keyboard deck is firm and has a plastic finish, while the lid and bottom come with a metallic green aluminum that looks a bit like a beetle shell. The thermal shelf in the rear is made of a translucent plastic that lets additional lighting shine through.

Alienware put most of the ports on that rear shelf. It’s a decent selection, with three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, two Thunderbolt 5 ports, an HDMI 2.1 output and a power connector for the beefy 350-watt power brick (side note: Dell used GaN tech in this brick, so it’s at least smaller and lighter than it could have been). On the left side of the laptop, you’ll also find a headset jack and a full-size SD card reader.

With all that Dell has going on here, this was naturally going to be a big and heavy laptop. But even then, it’s surprising just how big and heavy it is. It tips the scales at 7.2 pounds and measures an almost absurd 11.4 inches front to back. The 1.1-inch thickness isn’t stellar, but at least the 14.4-inch width is par for the course with 16-inch laptops. 

While the size is a downside in and of itself, it does come with a perk. The interior has room for three M.2 solid-state drives, giving you plenty of upgrade potential. It also uses DDR5 modules — not onboard memory — which means if you want to upgrade to more memory down the line, you’ll be able to. 

Is the Alienware 16 Area-51 worth it? 

Generally speaking, the Alienware 16 Area-51 is an excellent 16-inch gaming laptop. Due to its size and weight, it is more of a desktop replacement than something you’ll want to travel with regularly. The display is a bit of a weak spot, and the option to swap it for an OLED would be nice, but it’s not a deal-breaker. Plus, its port assortment makes it easy to connect up to an external display and more. Its desktop-like processor performance is truly impressive; its GPU is less so, but it is still plenty powerful for a gaming laptop, and there is the option to pay for a faster 5090 chip. I also appreciate the lights and styling and the option to upgrade storage and RAM. Again, you might be paying a premium, but it’s a fair value for what’s on offer.