The Alienware 16X Aurora with Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 graphics is my favorite gaming laptop for most people. It’s a solid mid-range monitor that offers stellar performance for the money, a stunning 240Hz matte display, and a dreamy keyboard. It’s also not very shiny, so if you don’t want a machine that looks like a gaming laptop, step up (although its loud fan will give it away).
Note: The 2026 Alienware 16X Aurora will have a resistive OLED display and new Intel Core Ultra 200HX processors. It will be available in Q1, but we don’t know its price yet.
The 16X Aurora delivers surprisingly good performance for a laptop right under $2,000 as tested. Its Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 19,774 means it’s the third-fastest laptop we’ve tested behind the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 OLED (20,369) and the $3,650 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro chip (22,758). That’s not much of a surprise, considering the 16X Aurora I tested packs a new, higher-end Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, but hey, so does that Lenovo model. You get the comparison omph for half the cost.
In TimeSpy’s 3DMark benchmark, which we use on gaming laptops to measure their graphics performance, the 16X Aurora scored 14,023. That’s the fifth best score on our database, and 15 percent better than the Alienware m16 R2’s score with the latest RTX 4070 graphics. (That’s its predecessor and our previous top pick in this category.) Suffice it to say, AAA games run well on it. We tested some RTX 5080 laptops, and they scored at least 20,837 — that’s a big jump — but cost at least $3,400.
The downside of this power is that the 16X Aurora is very runny and warm. Its keyboard and the space above it were always a bit toasty during my tests, even when I was using the laptop to browse the web. Plug it in and play Cyberpunk 2077 made the fans roar, even though its face didn’t really develop it’s hot stains, so I think they are doing their job. Switching off the 16X Aurora reduces the fan noise a bit, but the problem is that the device doesn’t last long on battery. When I had it test our video rundown with its dedicated GPU and RGB keyboard lighting, it died after five hours and 40 minutes. (Turning both features on will kill you very quickly.) You’re in a tough spot: learn to schedule your playtimes with their charging cycles, or invest in a pair of amazing noise-cancelling headphones.
Even better, I have no serious doubts about the design of the 16X Aurora. I don’t find it too divisive, as the look of gaming laptops can sometimes be. It’s bathed in a dark blue color called “Interstellar Indigo,” and its only accent is the shiny Alienware logo on its lid. Its top and bottom panels are made of smooth aluminum; it resists fingerprints but has a different feel. My hands flew over its clicky island-style keyboard, which included a number. The touchpad is plastic like the rest of its keyboard deck, but it felt nice and smooth. (I will say it’s not in the middle, which might bother some people.) Its webcam is a grainy garbagio, but that’s not bad. Anyone doing live streaming with this thing will buy a separate webcam.
My favorite part is probably the 16X Aurora display. It has a refresh rate of 240Hz, a clean 2.5K resolution, vibrant colors, and, most importantly, a matte finish. I haven’t seen a laptop screen this matte since I tried the Dell XPS 13 (RIP), and I think it makes for a comfortable, pleasant viewing experience.
Like most gaming laptops, the 16X Aurora is large and heavy. It weighs about six pounds on its own, and its 280W charger adds another two. Arrange for it to be parked on the desk.
