Alienware vs Dell G Series: Dell's gaming brands compared

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You could be forgiven for not realising Alienware is a brand within the Dell family, due to it keeping the naming scheme separate. Alienware is indeed a gaming PC and laptop offshoot of Dell. However, there is the Dell G Series too. So what’s the difference? Let us explain.

Alienware is a popular gaming brand, largely recognised for its hyper-futuristic design and often accompanied by strong gaming PC specifications. We’ve also seen the range become more innovation-focused over recent years, with the Alienware Concept UFO grabbing attention ahead of the PC gaming handheld boom of late as well as the thinner X-series being introduced.

By comparison, the Dell G series flies much more under the radar, with a greater focus on the mainstream end of the market. A less flashy take on the Alienware formula. Here are the key points of differentiation.

As with many PC brands and their plethora of models and ranges available, there is some crossover between specs with Alienware and Dell G series machines – with both dabbling in the mid-range. But, only Alienware covers the high-end of things and only Dell G covers the budget portion of the market.

This largely comes down to the graphics offered across these ranges. For example, you won’t find better than an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics chip on a Dell G series laptop while the Alienware range goes all the way up to the high-end RTX 4090. However, it isn’t cut and dry as some Dell G series models do still afford you the option of adding a high-end CPU as well as plenty of RAM and storage.

But, the price of the Dell G series machines starts far lower, at £629 for laptops. Alienware’s cheapest laptop comes in at a far higher £1598.99.

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Until recently, it would’ve been easier to separate the design philosophies of these two sub-brands. It would mostly boil down to the Dell G series being, frankly, boring and the Alienware style taking some risks to stand out from the crowd.

But, in 2023, Dell G upped its game by adding some quirky colour options to grab more eyeballs from curious gamers. There are will plenty of design differences though, with Alienware largely focused on its blue, white and black styling.

Ultimately though, the Alienware devices stand head and shoulders above the G series for the quality of materials used. The Dell G series laptops simply use plastic for their chassis while Alienware devices offer a more luxurious feel through the use of various metals.

You get higher quality in terms of pushing the boundaries of thin-and-light design too. Plenty of Alienware options can’t be said to be thin and light but, even at their heaviest, they usually still weigh less and come in thinner than the Dell G series range. In particular, the Alienware X series comfortably tops the budget options in this area.

This is a cut-and-dry win for Alienware, with the Dell G series not featuring any desktop options if that’s what you are looking for. Dell does offer non-Alienware PCs, including some with graphical capabilities, but this is done through the XPS, Inspiron and other non-gaming ranges rather than the G series.

Like the laptops, the Alienware desktops have a stand-out futuristic design too. The range starts at around £1899 and can go all the way up to above £4000 for top modern specifications.

Alienware offers a powerful cooling solution on board its laptops that feature an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080/AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT or above. Alienware laptops tout this tech as “Our advanced cooling technology, Alienware Cryo-tech™, is designed to maintain system stability — even during the most demanding sessions.” This solution includes the Element 31 thermal interface material and a large vapour chamber.

Now what’s strange is that the latest Dell G series laptops can be specced to feature these cooling solutions on models with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 and above. That means you can get Alienware’s Element 31 and Vapour Chamber solutions on more (and cheaper) models of the Dell G series than you can on its own ranges.

This article was written in partnership with Dell

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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.