I have a constantly rotating roster of gaming laptops to review year-round, so when I find one that already offers strong value out the box at MSRP on sale, it immediately piques my interest. I already rate the Alienware M16 as the best value Alienware laptop on the shelves right now, but with $600 off an RTX 4070 configuration Dell's early Black Friday gaming laptop deals are working particularly hard this week.
You can pick up a solid upper mid-range configuration, with that 240Hz QHD+ display no less, for just $1,399.99 right now at Dell. That's a significant saving over the $1,999.99 MSRP - and a price position I've only seen much cheaper rigs hit over the last couple of weeks (budget Asus A15 and Acer Nitro rigs, for example). Considering the boost in build quality, this is one of the best early Black Friday gaming laptop deals I've come across so far.
This rig is more powerful than the RTX 4060 model I tested, and I was still seeing reliable three figure framerates in at highest settings in games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and managing to squeeze a minimum of 80fps out of more demanding titles like Returnal in the same conditions. That's some serious engineering at a price few of even the best gaming laptops can beat right now.
Should you buy the Alienware M16?
At the time of my review, the Alienware M16 was one of the cheapest gaming laptops I had had my hands on. This configuration holds a $1,999 MSRP - miles better than the $2,500+ alternatives from the likes of Razer and Asus. Even without today's massive $600 discount, that's pretty impressive. At this low price, I was impressed with the M16's performance. Even in an RTX 4060 build, this machine can go toe to toe with far more expensive models - so I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for new generation components to push their games at their highest settings.
However, there are some drawbacks to all that power. While the M16 goes to great lengths to remain as thin as possible (and it achieves this form factor far better than the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16), it's heavy. The Scar 16 weighs 2.5kg, but this monster storms in at 3.25kg. That means I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who regularly takes their laptop on the go. For a similarly priced alternative I'd suggest taking a look at the HP Omen 16 Transcend in that scenario.
Overall, this is the best Alienware laptop on the market for pure value right now - and that's not even taking today's early Black Friday gaming laptop deals into consideration. If you're going to keep your rig on the desk for 80% of its life and you want as much power as you can get for under $1,500 - this is the offer I'd be looking at today.
Of course, we're getting you prepped for all of this year's Black Friday Alienware deals. However, if you're after a more permanent setup, we'd recommend checking out the early Black Friday gaming PC deals rocking around, as well as the latest Black Friday gaming monitor deals.
