Even as Dell EMC World, which took place the past week in Las Vegas, focused on enterprise customers, closer to home there was another announcement that may excite gamers, as the company announced that the new Dell Alienware gaming noteboooks are headed to South Africa as of the middle of May.

Dell also confirmed that it will be Prima Interactive, which are also the sole supplier of Microsoft Xbox hardware, including the Xbox One, Xbox 360 and peripherals as well as the Halo and Gears of Wars franchises, that have been tasked with distributing the Alienware notebooks locally.

“The Alienware brand has always set the standard for high-end gaming on laptops, rivalling desktop systems,” said Chris Buchanan, Director of Client Solutions at Dell EMC. “They play in a very competitive market, where second-best won’t do. This requires a specialist distributor that has the credentials and reputation the gaming market respects. Prima Interactive is a giant of that industry, having represented many of the top gaming titles and studios for years. It is without questions the partner to take the Alienware family of gaming laptops to new heights,” he elaborated.

More power to you

The new Alienware family of gaming notebooks run on the latest 7th generation of Intel Core i chipsets, with the flagship model powered by the new i7 7700 Intel processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8GB graphics processor. Available with dynamic overclocking and in 13”, 15” and 17” screen sizes, every new Alienware machine runs on Windows 10. The family of notebooks further supports DirectX 12 and includes additional features designed specifically for gamers.

The chassis are designed with carbon fiber, inspired by aerospace technologies. This sturdy and reliable design reflects in the keyboard, which is reinforced with a steel plate and guaranteed for up to 10 million keystrokes. Customisable keys can be set to 15 unique commands, including in-game macros, programmed via the Alienware Command Center software.

“Being appointed the Alienware distributor is a very exciting opportunity for Prima,” enthused Ian Hepplewhite, the CEO of Prima Interactive. “Alienware is the premier brand of gaming laptops, and it’s the device most PC gamers aspire to have. Apart from cutting edge specifications, the build quality is awesome, and Alienware laptops are finely tuned to deliver peak performance”.

Fringe benefits

Owning a new Alienware notebook also includes access to Microsoft Play Anywhere. This cross-platform service lets players purchase just one digital copy of a game and play it on both their Xbox console and Windows 10 PC. The Play Anywhere family of games keep growing and already includes the likes of Halo Wars 2, Forza Horizon 3 and Gears of War 4. Thus, gamers can  play on PC or Xbox, and use the same save games and progress across all supported devices.

As with the Xbox, Prima Interactive will similarly distribute Alienware accessories, such as the Alienware Graphics Amplifier. The latter expands the graphics power of the user's Alienware experience, including 4K graphics, support for multiple monitors and virtual reality. Other accessories include Alienware backpacks, Tactx headsets and Alienware sleeves.               

The rub with gaming notebooks in general has traditionally been their high cost. However, it looks like there may be some relief on this front too, as Dell noted that the new Alienware gaming notebooks will retail from R23 999, below the traditional R 25 000 mark previously seen in the market, while the top of the range offering will cost R50 000.