Hi Reddit, happy new year!

My name is Frank Azor, Co-Founder at Alienware, and I'm here with my team in Las Vegas to kick off 2019 with our latest announcements coming out of CES.

We're excited to come to this year's CES with some truly groundbreaking products, next-gen software, and new strategic partnerships that will enable us to welcome more people into the world of PC gaming while also working to advance the industry.

Yesterday Alienware announced the new Alienware Area-51m, the Alienware m17, exciting news about our continued expansion with Team Liquid and, last but not least, our new partnership with League of Legends Esports via Riot Games.

I'll be replying from u/AlienwareFrankAzor with support from my team via u/OfficialAlienware. We invite the Reddit community to submit your questions below. Ask us anything!

Proof: https://twitter.com/Alienware/status/1082767789579010048

Check out our newest gaming systems: Alienware Area-51m and Alienware m17

Learn more about Alienware’s announcements at CES: https://blog.dell.com/en-us/dell-news-ces-2019/


12PM PT Update.

Hi everyone, unfortunately I have a few more meetings to take from here on. Thank you very much for all the questions today. I've got to run, but my team will still be responding via u/OfficialAlienware for a few more hours. Thanks again!

Comments: 200 • Responses: 32  • Date: 

OnlyTopRengar80 karma

Why your products are so expesive even tho they have same specs with some other brands?

AlienwareFrankAzor145 karma

If you only care about commodities then we are absolutely more expensive and our G-series products are going to appeal to you much more. Beyond the commodities, Alienware designs use premium materials like aluminum and magnesium alloy - if you've ever owned, held and/or handled an Alienware it feels more solid and rigid than any other notebook available. AW systems are designed to our highest quality specifications, they allow for overclocking headroom, include better displays, higher battery capacities, upgrade-ability, more premium warranty support, Alienware graphics amplifier support, better looking industrial design, AlienFX lighting, Tobii eye-tracking... If you follow us and know our history we make huge investments in helping push the success of PC Gaming as a whole and bring more and more gamers over to the PC platform as their preferred. Our strategy is to grow PC Gaming and then earn business within that with great products. It's this strategy over the past 20+ years that has helped us contribute to the success of PC Gaming as we know it today and these investments are expensive.

squid50s28 karma

What’s your least favorite thing about the technology industry?

AlienwareFrankAzor53 karma

Hi squid,

Great first question, had to give it some thought.

My least favorite thing about the tech industry is when I see great companies fail because business, or lack thereof, gets in the way.

There are so many companies with great ideas, products or technology that unfortunately fail because they can't raise money or don't immediately meet expectations around revenue or profit goals. It's a tragedy to see.

  • Frank.

_Atoloski_0717 karma

Will the 144HZ panel in the G5/G7 have G-Sync? and what will the new software be used for?

AlienwareFrankAzor29 karma

No, g-sync draws too much power and reduces battery life faster than we were comfortable with for this product.

Alienware Command Center is now available on the Dell G5/G7 . Allows you to control the RGB keyboard lighting, set game profiles for lighting, AW peripherals like keyboard, mouse and displays, and power settings. More features coming through frequent updates. Over 30 updates made in 2018 alone.

MogRules13 karma

Morning Frank!

Now that Alienware is going back to replaceable hardware in their laptops can you shed any light on what pushed out the MXM GPU's and changeable CPU's in the first place? Why did the industry go to BGA?

Having changeable hardware seems like it's always been one of the most requested features, and I know from personal experience around Reddit and other forums that it was widely used by people for upgrades so it's odd that everyone ( not just Alienware ) moved away from it for the last few years.

THANK YOU for bringing these features back to us, it really makes it seem like someone IS listening to the community and what they want.

PS: The new Area51-M looks awesome!

AlienwareFrankAzor24 karma

BGA offers thinner profile notebooks which is what the majority wants so CPU and GPU suppliers moved to them exclusively for mobile components years ago. Desktop CPUs aren't power optimized to run in notebook environments which is why battery life struggles on desktop replacements like Area-51m. The market for thick, heavy, extremely powerful notebooks has been shrinking over time so most companies have abandoned the category. We feel the category has been declining because the innovation within it has been weak. We are hoping that by raising the bar with Area-51m it will reinvigorate demand for desktop replacement notebooks and bring focus and innovation back into this category.

Whiskeyjax1713 karma

With the new League of Legends partnership and the release of the new Alienware Area51m, is there any chance esports competitions will be played on a laptop?

AlienwareFrankAzor13 karma

The good news is that League of Legends will already run great on laptops like the Alienware m15 and m17. We have some plans brewing with the Riot Games team to try and host something fun and different with the Area-51m and their pros.

It's a bit too early to make any announcements or promises but know that we look to showoff our hardware in some cool ways through the League. From a performance perspective, we will have a ton of overhead to try new things.

Opa638270185738572910 karma

What is your favorite color?

AlienwareFrankAzor28 karma

Blue.

When I used to watch cartoons after school as a kid, the good guys fired blue lasers and the bad guys usually fired red. From that point on, it was blue for me.

thedramirezx10 karma

How did the name Alienware come about?

Sincerely, Non Techy

AlienwareFrankAzor24 karma

Alex and Nelson were talking about what they wanted to name the company. They knew that they were going to build some of the most advanced hardware and using the most advanced software to power it.

They've always been big sci-fi fans and X-files was one of their favorite shows back then. The thought was that Aliens would be using the latest technology and hardware and thus' Alien' + 'Ware' came to mind.

Mitch_Buchannon8 karma

[deleted]

AlienwareFrankAzor20 karma

It starts at $2549 at launch with a RTX 2070 and will come down to about $2200 or less when other GPUs become available in coming months.

istandabove8 karma

What speed memory does the alienware 51m support? Also the new chasis is beautiful.

AlienwareFrankAzor12 karma

Thank you, were really proud of it. Our designers pulled out all the stops for the Legend design.

As for RAM, Area-51m will launch with DDR4 @ 2400Mhz and faster speed configs coming soon.

genkli7 karma

How likely is OLED on Area 51?

Why does the FHD screen have such a bad color gamut (72%) (for current gen IPS), or is that NTSC Color gamut, what is srgb? does it have argb? Will it be better in the mentioned 4K 60hz monitor that will come later this year?

AlienwareFrankAzor14 karma

As soon as more of these narrow border panels become available from suppliers you can count on us offering them. The FHD 144Hz we are offering is the first and only one available at this time. It's the consequence of being the leader, sometimes it takes a while for everyone else to catch-up.

skyerocketing6 karma

How would someone go about contacting someone on AW's team for a potential sponsorship relationship? My manager dug around a bit but couldn't find the right leads.

AlienwareFrankAzor13 karma

Reach out to AW_Umar on Twitter

andreelijah5 karma

What's the first game that you played on the first pre-production Area 51m that you got your hands on?

AlienwareFrankAzor9 karma

PUBG. When you have a 144Hz display in a laptop, it would be a miss not to put it to the test.

MogRules4 karma

Hello again Frank,

Do you have any information on the pricing surrounding the DGFF GPU's? Any idea what an upgrade might look like in terms of cost?

The main draw back from MXM was the cost....they were , in most cases, REALLY expensive to buy and replace. When I did my 780m - 980m in my Alienware 17R1 that was almost $800 CAD for just the GPU :(

Are the DGFF cards expected to be around the cost of a desktop card or are they expected to be quite a bit more? I understand RTX cards are insanely expensive top start with these days so I am sure that will factor in.

Thank you!

AlienwareFrankAzor7 karma

RTX is more expensive as compared to 10 series GTX GPUs as you see already in desktop compared. Pricing for mobile is fairly comparable to desktop so expect them to be fairly pricey but less expensive than buying a whole new notebook. Don't forget that Area-51m also support AW graphics amplifier so you can use it with desktop GPUs to upgrade over-time as well in case the mobile upgrades are more expensive than the graphics amp plus desktop GPU combined. Just an option to consider. We don't have upgrade pricing ready to share yet still working on putting it together.

illBug3 karma

Whats your favorite PC game of all time?

AlienwareFrankAzor13 karma

Half-Life

excitingsprink3 karma

Can we please get a QHD 120hz panel for the Area-51m? Otherwise my 17R5 runs circles around it for productivity work. 1080p is too low, and 4K never has anything higher than 60hz; the 1440p/120hz on the 17R5 is the perfect sweet spot...

I saw something on Twitter about the thin bezel making it impossible, but then why even go with a thin bezel and therefore directly compromise performance for thinness in a product with a 1hr battery life that is in no way thin to begin with?

AlienwareFrankAzor6 karma

Narrow border and thinness are 2 different things. We didn't go narrow border to drive thinness. We went narrow border to remove size and weight. We are early with a 17" narrow border products and the display manufacturers are working hard to catch-up. More resolutions are coming in 2019 and 2020. If 144Hz FHD isn't good enough for you right now we offer plenty of other options on m17.

Ssj9252 karma

Will 119W be the max limit for CPU OC? Thanks

AlienwareFrankAzor3 karma

Yes.

AlienwareFrankAzor6 karma

Update/Correction after speaking with Joe.

The 119W limit occurs when the GPU is also at full thermal load. If not, the CPU will have a max limit of 136W.

madman11012 karma

any plans to bring back the x51? that was and still is my favorite model you've made to date. compact, portable, powerful.

AlienwareFrankAzor3 karma

One of my personal favorites as well. If you put an Area-51m on it's side isn't thinner and more powerful than an x51 and you get a free monitor, keyboard and touchpad :P

RelykTerrah2 karma

I've gotta ask, because I plan to purchase an Area-51M, how hot does it run? How does the mobile 2080 inside compare to a desktop 1080ti? I'd love to have the power of my desktop in a laptop.
This isn't my first time purchasing Alienware. I bought one back in 2014 and it has served me well, though outdated now, I still love Alienware products.

AlienwareFrankAzor8 karma

I don't know how to answer the 'how hot' question. Are you asking skin temps? We use a 150W RTX mobile 2080 that we enable for overclocking up to 180W, and yes, it bests 1080ti in performance. Stay tuned for benchmarks to come in February when we can begin shipping RTX based notebooks. Thank you so much for your support, you're going to love the Area-51m as your next rig, it's really amazing.

Whiskeyjax172 karma

Do you play League of Legends? If so, whats your main Role/Champ?

AlienwareFrankAzor10 karma

I don't, I'm mostly an FPS, RTS player. Been playing PUBG, Overwatch, Beseige, and some old school Rise of Nations.

JHutch99231 karma

I'm about to head to the Alienware booth in CES, are you guys offering discount coupons like you do at most conventions? haha

AlienwareFrankAzor2 karma

No sorry

equinoux1 karma

Is it true that Umar smells like Vanilla and pastelitos?

AlienwareFrankAzor8 karma

Yes and with a hint of cinnamon.

madman11011 karma

What are your thoughts on laptops getting bigger and bigger? your new area 51m is much bigger than what laptops have been for the last few years. I feel as if it defeats the purpose of them being portable, thoughts?

AlienwareFrankAzor5 karma

As we were creating the m15 and m17, which are our smallest and lightest weight laptops, we felt we were moving away from our roots of building the most powerful uncompromised notebooks possible. That led to the inspiration for the Area-51m which despite being big and heavy for a notebook it's relatively very small and lightweight for a desktop with comparable components and performance. It's also 50% more powerful than the prior AW17 and 32% smaller in volume while about 1lbs less in weight.

If you're looking for something thin and light, there are a lot of options in the market today. We set out to create something specifically different from that.

LxpF3211 karma

Will the new G5/G7 really have slimmer bezels and what GPUs will they be sold with? 1060/1070/TI by any chance?

AlienwareFrankAzor2 karma

Yes narrow borders and up to 2080 RTX graphics.

AltruisticGate1 karma

Frank, should we expect the older M15 and M17's to go on sale since the newer laptops will be released?

AlienwareFrankAzor2 karma

They are on sale right now

VK19011 karma

Hi Frank. I waited for months before buying my first Alienware hoping you would release a new model and luckily you guys did. I want to ask about the Alienware Area 51-m. I just got 1 question. What would be the choices for the display? Will there be a QHD, 144/110Hz and IPS panel option?

AlienwareFrankAzor3 karma

Answered this above, please take a look.

Just to clarify, all current panels offered on the Area 51-m are IPS.

graybandit1 karma

Hi Frank! Love the new Area 51m, still have a couple of the older models I use often. Any chance of a Ripley Skullcap throwback case in the future? It's over the top but I think it'd be cool as hell.

AlienwareFrankAzor5 karma

Love this idea but not likely, I will discuss with the team though, you never know.

A_Lo231 karma

Can I give you back my 17R4 and pay the difference?

AlienwareFrankAzor5 karma

We offered a trade-in program once but the values weren't good enough for most people to want to take advantage of it so we no longer offer it. Most folks sell their systems for good values on eBay and other sites. Alienware's get good resale value.

Invoker811 karma

Hi Frank!

I’am about to buy new monitor. Should I buy aw3418dw or wait new to come in Q1/Q2 ?

AlienwareFrankAzor3 karma

You won't be disappointed if you buy the AW34. We are always working on something new and better but you're good for the next couple of quarters.

Sweetragnarok1 karma

Do you think there will soon be a market of more affordable and budget friendly gaming laptops? Prices these days of most graphic & gaming computers and tablets are expensive. I just go puppy eyes now in BB or Amazon.

Also is there a new gaming tech innovation you wish to go into the consumer market say in the next 2-3 years.

AlienwareFrankAzor5 karma

Checkout out Dell G series notebooks, we made these precisely to serve this purpose. They are great gaming notebooks at great prices.

AwesomeShizzles1 karma

Is there a way for you to use name brand high quality components in your desktops (for a fee). Like a normal 2070 and then a good name brand aib 2070. Same for motherboards?

AlienwareFrankAzor5 karma

Long explanation but I'll give one example to make the point: Most AIB GPUs are not designed to be assembled into PCs that are going to ship thousands of miles across the world before arriving to end-customers so they don't pass our shock, vibe, and drop testing specifications. AIB cards are mostly designed to be assembled in by DIY end-users so they follow different specifications in their designs, for these reasons and others we have to design and define different cards for integrating and shipping in our systems.

AlienwareFrankAzor5 karma

Another example is quality. Most AIBs design to 1 or 2 year warranty criteria, we self-warranty our products for up to 4 years so we have to drive for more stringent quality and lifecycle/longevity specifications.