Dell's Alienware m17 is the thinnest and lightest 17-inch gaming laptop yet

Alienware m17

CES 2019 has arrived, and with it a deluge of new gaming laptops. Alienware has announced the m17 gaming laptop, which it claims to be the thinnest 17-inch gaming laptop yet.

Alienware has managed to shove Intel Coffee Lake H-series CPUs, Nvidia Turing graphics and a 17-inch display into a chassis that's just 0.91 inches (23mm) thin, weighing just 5.79 pounds (2.63kg).

Configurable with up to an Intel Core i9-8950HK CPU, RTX 2080 graphics, 32GB of RAM and dual 1TB PCIe SSDs, that's a lot of power in a small package. Luckily, the Alienware m17 packs Dell's unique Cryo-Tech v2.0 cooling technology.

Alienware's Cryo-Tech v2.0 cooler sucks cold air through dual fans in the bottom of the laptop, and exhausts through vents in the sides and back of the laptop. Paired with load-balancing heat pipes, this cooling system is able to optimize cooling across the CPU and GPU to ensure high performance.

This thin and light gaming laptop uses Dell's new 'Epic' design language, and will be available in two finishes: Epic Silver and Nebula Red, and will feature Alienware's new m-series keyboard, featuring four zones of AlienFX RGB lighting.

The Alienware m17 gaming laptop will launch on January 21, starting at $1,649 (about £1,300, AU$2,350).

Alienware m15

But wait, there's more

The Alienware m15 has also been updated with Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics, making  both thin and light gaming laptops in Alienware's stable up to current spec.

Beyond the GPU, however, the specifications remain largely the same, with up to an Intel Core i9-8950HK processor, a 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160) HDR display, 16GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.

If you've had your eyes on the current Alienware m15, but were waiting for Nvidia Turing graphics, you can get the refreshed model on January 21, starting at $1,579 (about £1,250, AU$2,230).

Want more CES 2019 highlights? TechRadar is hands-on with 8K TVs and foldable, rollable displays, along with new laptops and Alexa-enabled smart gadgets. Check out everything we've seen, live from Las Vegas!

Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas (Twitter) is TechRadar's computing editor. They are fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but they just happen to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don't be afraid to drop them a line on Twitter or through email.