Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Darragh Murphy

Alienware 16X Aurora just got an OLED upgrade, and it pushes entry-level gaming further

Alienware 16X Aurora OLED 2026.

Alienware's goal for CES 2026 is to "push the boundaries of what’s possible in PC gaming." And it's certainly looking to do so with its entry-to-mid-level gaming laptop that now packs an OLED display.

Tom's Guide at CES
(Image credit: Future)

Follow all of our CES 2026 live coverage for the biggest gadget news straight from Las Vegas. And be sure to follow Tom's Guide on TikTok for the coolest videos from the show.

As announced at the world's biggest tech event today (January 5), the Alienware 16X Aurora will come equipped with an OLED display, being one of the first (along with its mighty Alienware 16 Area-51 sibling) to feature a 16-inch premium anti-glare OLED panel.

Not only will this panel reduce gloss by 32%, which keeps glare and reflections to a minimum, but you can also expect a wicked-fast 0.2ms response time for fast-paced gameplay, 620 nits peak HDR brightness and HDR True Black 500 support.

Otherwise, this is the same laptop that stole the show in many sales events, boasting Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5070 GPUs for the latest in gaming performance (DLSS 4 included). What's more, we can expect more Intel Core Ultra 200HX CPU options, although current models are also available with Core Ultra 7 255HX and Core Ultra 9 275HX on Dell's store.

(Image credit: Future / Tom's Guide)

When I tested the Alienware 16X Aurora, I was impressed by the performance it offered (especially at a discount) and its sizeable 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display with a 240Hz refresh rate. With the all-new anti-glare OLED panel it's getting, it moves the needle into becoming a proper mid-range machine.

Deeper blacks, brighter colors and getting rid of reflections boost visuals to make those stunning single-player titles shine. We'll have to see it in action, as we have yet to see if this laptop will still deliver its high 240Hz refresh rate with OLED now onboard. But it's a welcome upgrade nevertheless.

For a taste of the performance you can expect in this laptop, check out the benchmarks I tested below (equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX CPU, an RTX 5060 GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD).

Game benchmarks @ 1600p (frames per second)

Alienware 16X Aurora (RTX 5060)

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI (RTX 5080)

Black Myth Wukong (Cinematic)

21 (DLSS off), 60 (DLSS x4)

57 (DLSS off), 167 (DLSS x4)

Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra)

24.1 (DLSS off), 82 (DLSS x4)

36.7 (DLSS off), 189 (DLSS x4)

Doom: The Dark Ages (path tracing)

7 (DLSS off), 42 (DLSS x4)

39.67 (DLSS off), 127 (DLSS x4)

The Alienware 16X Aurora with OLED will be available in the first three months of 2026, with pricing yet to be announced. I was already impressed with this laptop last year, and the anti-glare OLED upgrade is sure to see this machine push more affordable gaming even further (we'll see about that price first).

For more of the latest announcements from Las Vegas, we've got it all in our CES 2026 live blog.

Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.

More from Tom's Guide

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.