Dell is offering a new deal this week on one of its highest-end Alienware gaming laptops. The Alienware 16 Area-51 16" gaming laptop, equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU and RTX 5080 mobile GPU, has been marked down to $2,699.99 with free delivery after a $750 discount. New for 2025, the Area-51 is Alienware's highest-end gaming laptop. It's pricier than other RTX 5080 equipped laptops (less so with this deal), but that's because the build quality and performance exceeds most of its competition.
Alienware 16 Area-51 RTX 5080 Gaming Laptop for $2,699
The Area-51: new color, curvy design, metal construction, and upgraded cooling
The Alienware Area-51 is a considerable upgrade compared to the previous generation's Alienware m16. For starters, it's clad in anodized aluminum for both the lid and bottom chassis and features a unique iridescent finish that sparkles in direct lighting. The frame is made of a durable and lightweight magnesium alloy. Cooling has been upgraded with generous amounts of copper and a new thermal interface. Dell claims that it can handle up to 240W TDP without raising acoustics.
Design-wise, the Area 51 has a sleeker, more contoured shape compared to previous models, with rounded edges and soft corners replacing the traditional squared off design. The hinges are internally positioned so that they're near invisible. There's a transparent window on the undercarriage to show off the internal components. There's also plenty of RGB illumination, although most of it can be turned off if you don't like that sort of thing.
The GeForce RTX 5080 mobile GPU is better than the RTX 4090 mobile
The Alienware Area-51's aggressive cooling allows it to accomodate the RTX 5080 mobile GPU without throttling it. The RTX 5080 is roughly 15%-20% more powerful than the RTX 4080 that it replaces. In fact, it's even more powerful than the RTX 4090, which was the previous generation's flagship card. You'll be able to play any game at frame rates of 60fps or higher on the 1600p display. You could even enable ray tracing in most games, something that was unheard of in laptops just a few years ago. The general consensus is that upgrading from an RTX 5080 (mobile) to RTX 5090 won't yield significant performance gains relative to the huge price difference.
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Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
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