Rich Shibley/Digital Trends
Months after promising to make the option available to new laptop buyers, Dell has added an OLED display to its notebook configurator tool. It is only for the Alienware M15 Gaming laptop at this time, but the option is there. The 15.6-inch display has a 4K resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. It joins a selection of other displays, including 240Hz 1080p screens, and a 4K LCD option too.
Dell first announced its intention to add OLED display options to its laptops during this year’s CES in January. At the time it detailed plans to add the OLED option to its XPS 15, Alienware M15, and Dell G7 15 laptops. The screens would support HDR, 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and a dynamic contrast ratio that could read 100,000:1. We were told these additional options would start rolling out at the start of March, but it’s taken until the start of April for the first to appear.
The Alienware M15 is the first laptop to gain this option, but it remains the only one for now. At the time of writing, the Dell G7 15 and the XPS 15 only have options for 1080p and 4K LCD screens, respectively, with no choice of an OLED display. NotebookCheck believes that that will change soon, however, citing Frank Azor, vice president and general manager of Alienware, Gaming & XP, who suggested in February that the OLED panels would arrive on various laptops in April. It may be that in the coming weeks those other laptops can also enjoy the new option.
The OLED display on the Alienware M15 enjoys the same specifications as the standard 4K IPS panel, including an anti-glare coating and 60Hz refresh rate, but the OLED implementation should improve its color clarity and deepen its whites and blacks. It remains one of many options for the entry-level and midrange Alienware M15s, including 1080p 60Hz, 1080p 144Hz, 1080p 240Hz, and 4K 60Hz. It is, however, the only option for the top-of-the-line model, which sports an Intel core i9-8950HK processor, 32GB of RAM, an Nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics chip, and 2 terabytes of SSD storage.
If you’re looking for something else in a gaming laptop, though, have a look at our guide to the best ones available today.
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