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of the Fujitsu Laptop Battery
On its own, the Alienware 13 is a solid little 13.3in laptop that is noticeably thicker (28mm) and heavier than an Ultrabook (though at 1.98kg, it's still not too heavy). The chassis needs a bit more space than an Ultrabook in order to accommodate the graphics adapter, which is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M with 2GB of RAM, as well the extra cooling that it requires, via heat pipes and fans (there are two fans installed).
When the fans kick in at full speed, they are reasonably loud with battery like Fujitsu BTP-C0K8 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP79 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP225 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP230 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP91 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP88 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP94 Battery, Fujitsu LifeBook N3500 Battery, Fujitsu Esprimo Mobile X9510 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP105 Battery, Fujitsu FM-42 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP78 Battery. There were occasions during our tests when they revved up and down during general usage, which was a little annoying. Vents for drawing in cool air are at the bottom, and the fans push this air through the fins of the heat sinks and out of the chassis via two exhausts on the spine.
On its own, the Alienware 13 is a solid little 13.3in laptop that is noticeably thicker (28mm) and heavier than an Ultrabook (though at 1.98kg, it's still not too heavy). The chassis needs a bit more space than an Ultrabook in order to accommodate the graphics adapter, which is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M with 2GB of RAM, as well the extra cooling that it requires, via heat pipes and fans (there are two fans installed).
When the fans kick in at full speed, they are reasonably loud. There were occasions during our tests when they revved up and down during general usage, which was a little annoying. Vents for drawing in cool air are at the bottom, and the fans push this air through the fins of the heat sinks and out of the chassis via two exhausts on the spine.
To keep the system as cool as possible within the confines of the chassis, an ultra-low voltage Intel CPU is the only offering, either a Core i5 or a Core i7.
Our test model came with a fourth-generation Core i5-4210U CPU, though fifth-generation CPUs are what you will find on the Dell site. Even with this CPU, the performance of the laptop was mostly smooth, and in concert with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M graphics adapter and 16GB of RAM (the maximum via two slots), it provided a largely enjoyable experience for gaming.
We could play Battlefield 3 at Full HD while experiencing an average of 57 frames per second (and a low of 44fps). Similarly, Metro 2033 Redux achieved a low of 44fps when it was time to kill things, and it was visually engaging in high detail mode. That said, we did notice slight stuttering in the image as we turned to examine the environments around us, which was made better once we enabled v-sync.
Older games such as Tomb Raider were a breeze for this laptop to run. Using 3DMark, the 860M graphics adapter recorded 8181 in Cloud Gate, 8792 in Sky Diver, and 3305 in Fire Strike, all of which are solid numbers.
When ordering the Alienware 13, you have to select the model with the CPU that you want, and you can also select the the type of storage. There are hard drive options of 500GB (a hybrid drive) and 1TB, which are great for installing lots of games on the laptop itself. For a speedy system, you'll want an SSD. The lower capacity of an SSD (unless you go for 512GB) means you might have to juggle which games you take with you on the road, rather than just installing everything you own.
Our test unit had a 256GB M.2-based Samsung SSD installed. In CrystalDiskMark, this achieved a sequential read speed of 525.3 megabytes per second (MBps), and a write of 236.8MBps. Considering that we've seen business Ultrabooks with faster writing drives (such as the Toshiba Portege Z20t), we think there is room for improvement in this area.
A 52 Watt-hour battery is installed in the chassis. During our standard test, in which we disable power management (that is, use high performance), maximise the screen brightness, enable Wi-Fi (it's 802.11ac via a Killer 1525 2x2 module) and loop a Full HD, MP4 video, the laptop lasted 4hr 48min. The laptop used the CPU's integrated graphics for this test. You won't want to play games under battery power, unless you don't mind a short session before having to plug in to the wall.