Dell announced the new Alienware 16X Aurora at CES 2026, one of the company's first gaming laptops with an anti-glare OLED display. Besides gaming, it could also be a potential competitor to the MacBook Pro if Windows is a tough requirement.
This new version of the Alienware 16X Aurora is still the same mid-size gaming laptop with a 16-inch screen, aluminum lid and bottom lid, rounded corners for ease of portability, and a dark “Interstellar Indigo” color scheme. Unlike many other gaming laptops, there's no thermal shelf – a ridge behind the screen – so it's a bit sleeker than some other comparable laptops. It is 0.92 inches (23.4 millimeters) deep at the rear and 0.76 inches (19.2 millimeters) at the front.
The main improvement here is the 16-inch OLED panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 240Hz refresh rate and WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution. It has an anti-reflective coating that “reduces gloss by up to 32% for less glare” and prevents fingerprint smudges. The Alienware 16X Aurora is one of the first Dell gaming laptops to feature this display panel, along with the larger Alienware 16 Area-51.
In its announcement, Dell said: “These panels solve one of the most common problems gamers face with OLED—glare and reflections in bright environments—while retaining everything that makes them extraordinary.”
This updated model can be equipped with Intel Core Ultra Series 2 HX processors, ranging from the Ultra 5 235HX processor to the Ultra 9 275HX processor. There are two dedicated graphics options: GeForce RTX 5060 or RTX 5070, both with 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM. This is enough power for PC gaming and GPU-intensive productivity tasks such as 4K video editing, 3D modeling, or running local AI models.
To keep these components cool, the Alienware 16X Aurora uses a “Cyro-Chamber” at the bottom of the laptop to direct airflow using “Alienware Cyro-Tech Cooling Technology.” Previous models seems to have decent coolingso in this updated version it shouldn't be a problem.
Other hardware includes Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort 2.1, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with DisplayPort 2.0, HDMI 2.1, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, Ethernet LAN, 512-2TB NVMe SSD, 16-64GB DDR5 RAM, and 1080p webcam with support Windows Hello. The keyboard also has programmable RGB lighting, this is a gaming laptop after all. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 are provided by an Intel or MediaTek wireless module, depending on the model.
The high-quality OLED screen and dedicated GPU can make it a worthy alternative to the MacBook Pro, especially if some of the software you need is only available on Windows. It will be likely work with desktop Linux distributions too, but if you want a high-performance laptop with excellent Linux support, System76 laptop would probably be the best choice.
Dell hasn't confirmed the price of the updated Alienware 16X Aurora, but it will be available sometime in the first quarter of 2026. current model with LCD screen starts at $1,500, so the OLED version should be more expensive.
Source: Dell
