Alienware is introducing a pair of new, more affordable gaming laptops: the Aurora 16 and 16X, starting at $1,149 and $1,949, respectively. Unlike the flagship Area-51 laptops announced back at CES, the Auroras are meant to be a little more versatile, portable, and comfortable for general laptop use. They replace the older Alienware M, X, and cheaper Dell G lines — which will be slowly phased out as part of Dell’s streamlining of its products.
Some configurations of the Aurora 16 and 16X are launching today in North America, with additional models arriving later.
The duo of indigo-colored 16-inch laptops are lighter, smaller, and cheaper than the 16- and 18-inch Area-51 models. They’re still pretty hefty at around 5.5 to 5.86 pounds, but much lighter compared to the 7.6 to 10 pounds of the Area-51. And the new models even have a stealth mode button that switches the RGB lighting to a simpler white light and tones down the fans. The Auroras get their name from one of Alienware’s desktop lines, but they’re meant to be taken places, as the 16 and 16X were designed to fit in a backpack thanks to a lack of thermal shelf (the big butt behind the hinge many gaming laptops have). Instead, the Auroras have a protruding bump beneath their chassis where their fans pull in air.
Spec-wise, both laptops have 16-inch displays, but the Aurora 16 has a 300-nit 120Hz 2560 x 1600 IPS panel, while the 16X has the same resolution but gets up to 500 nits and 240Hz refresh rate. The Auroras have two USB-A, two USB-C, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, a 3.5mm combo audio jack, a proprietary power plug, and Wi-Fi 7. Each has its ports on the left and rear, freeing up the right side for unhindered mouse movements while gaming. One of the USB-C ports on the 16X gets faster Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort 2.1 instead of just USB 3.2 Gen 2.
Both laptops can be outfitted with up to an Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, but the Aurora 16 is the entry-level option — with a base configuration in North America equipped with a last-gen RTX 4050. In some countries, such as Brazil and India, the base Aurora 16 comes with a two-generations-old RTX 3050. The pricier Aurora 16X starts with a newer and more powerful RTX 5060.
The Aurora 16 is also a step behind on CPUs. Its Intel “Raptor Lake Refresh” chips are based on architecture from 2022, while the 16X has the latest Intel “Arrow Lake” configurations up to the Core Ultra 9 275HX.
Dell-owned Alienware is angling these new models at gamers on a budget or those who can only justify one device for both play and work (or school). I just can’t help finding it funny that, between Alienware and its parent company Dell, it’s actually Alienware with the clearer and more pleasant-sounding naming scheme. Somehow, the try-hard gaming brand with an alien head logo understands that names are better than a mishmash of Plus, Premium, Pro, and Max.
Update, May 8th: The base configuration Aurora 16 in North America comes with an RTX 4050 GPU. Dell initially told The Verge in a product briefing that the base model uses an RTX 3050 GPU, but clarified after publication that that model is not coming to North America.