The relaunch of the XPS brand dominated Dell’s CES 2026 announcements, but its Alienware gaming laptop line is also receiving some exciting screen and silicon upgrades.
The 16X Aurora and the 16 Area-51 will see brand-new 240Hz OLED panels, while these two and the Alienware 18 Area-51 will get Intel’s refreshed Intel Core Ultra “Arrow Lake Refresh” HX processors. I had the opportunity to spend some time with Alienware Aurora and Area-51 laptops at a Dell CES press preview event in New York City. Since we’ve seen the same general Alienware designs before, in this article I’m going to focus on the specs and details that set them apart. The video included here provides a visual tour.
OLED Makes an Alienware Return
I reviewed Alienware’s 16X Aurora gaming laptop in the fall of 2025 and rated it an excellent option. It’s well built and packs fast parts from Intel and Nvidia, but one of my noted drawbacks was its lack of an OLED screen option.
OLED panels initially burst onto the laptop scene in nearly every category, but retreated somewhat from the gaming space. OLED has certainly not been the default over the past couple of years, and many gaming laptops no longer offer OLED options at all. The screens are expensive, and it’s tough for gaming companies to balance the reality of price with all the dizzying display options gamers demand across resolution, refresh rate, and more.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Now, however, Alienware has once again embraced the technology, at least in its enthusiast systems. So, meet the all-new OLED panel for the 2026 16X Aurora and 16 Area-51: a 1600p 16-inch display with a 240Hz refresh rate and an anti-glare finish.
A 240Hz refresh rate is the sweet spot for hard-core gamers looking to boost frame rates in competitive titles, and it’s more than enough for fast AAA gaming and everything in between, too. The 2,560-by-1,600-pixel resolution is a sensible sub-4K pick.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
As for the anti-glare finish, it’s more impactful than you might think. I reviewed a few laptops with extra-glossy screens last year (such as the Razer Blade 16), and while they deliver fantastic picture quality, the glare is highly distracting. I could see my own reflection as much as the game when I was in well-lit rooms, or when the game environment got dark.
By contrast, the new anti-glare panel is much less reflective. It doesn’t deflect glare quite as well as a matte screen does, but it also looks better than a true matte display. Even in an event space with overhead lighting, the screen doesn’t reflect nearly as much as a glossy screen, while still looking OLED-sweet.
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(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
As you can see in the image above, you can only do so much about a direct overhead light, but average ambient room lighting is far less impactful. The sharp resolution and OLED technology really pop without my own reflection staring back at me. The panel also boasts a 0.2ms response time, HDR 500, and 620 nits of peak brightness to maximize the color profile and refresh rate.
As of now, this panel is not coming to the 18-inch Area-51. OLED has largely dodged 18-inch laptops, but it may come to this screen size in the future. (Still, can we see a mini-LED panel on the Alienware 18, at least?)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
New Intel Processors, Too: The ‘Arrow Lake Refresh’
The 18 Area-51 will see a processor upgrade, however, along with the other two laptops. Alienware has adopted Intel’s latest Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200HX silicon for these three systems.
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(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
For clarity, we reviewed the previous versions of these laptops with the original Arrow Lake chips, so this isn’t a big departure. However, the silicon in these models will be new iterations of Intel’s Arrow Lake mobile chips, dubbed “Arrow Lake Refresh,” which either company has yet to share more information on. We’ll have to wait until the systems become available to judge the performance of these chips, though I don’t anticipate a sizable improvement.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Less of a mystery are the remaining components. The 16X Aurora can be equipped with GeForce RTX 5060 or RTX 5070 graphics, while the 16-inch and 18-inch Area-51 models present more firepower with the RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, or RTX 5090. All three can be kitted out with up to 64GB of memory; the 16X maxes out at 2TB of storage, while the Area-51 laptops can support up to 12TB of storage in a RAID 0 configuration.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
As mentioned, the designs of these refreshed Alienwares are generally unchanged in terms of chassis flair, shape, or feature set, but you will find high-end inclusions such as chassis lighting, aluminum construction, Dell’s Element 31 thermal material (used in the Area-51 laptops), and Cherry MX keyboard options that set these systems apart from the gaming laptop pack.
Check back to PCMag for more coverage of CES 2026, and later on, for test results from Alienware’s updated laptops when review units hit our lab.
About Our Expert
Matthew Buzzi
Principal Writer, Hardware
Experience
I’ve been a consumer PC expert at PCMag for 10 years, and I love PC gaming. I’ve played games on my computer for as long as I can remember, which eventually (as it does for many) led me to build and upgrade my own desktops to this day. Through my years at PCMag, I’ve tested and reviewed many, many dozens of laptops and desktops, and I am always happy to recommend a PC for your needs and budget.
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