This is the most expensive laptop we’ve seen to date. David Hollingworth considers whether you’re getting what you pay for Design-wise, Alienware’s high-end gaming gear can often be either liked or disliked based on looks alone. The company’s design philosophy is so unique that people either love it or hate it; which is why we were quite surprised when this rather understated laptop came through for our testing.
In fact, its simplicity could almost be called retro, and if it weren’t for the alien-head logo in the middle of the flap, you might think of it as an ancient desktop replacement from the past. Flip the lid back, though, and you’ll find Alienware’s designers are still hard at work. Apart from
A standard laptop keyboard and panel might not be much to look at except for the non-standard font on the keys, but open up the m15x and it’s a completely different story. Keyboard letters, outlines, and various other bells and whistles light up from within. There’s even a slim strip of lighting along the entire edge of the screen bevel and touchpad!
This may seem a bit too flashy, but if you’ve ever been in a dark room staring at your keyboard trying to find the B key to bandage yourself in a game, only to hit the G key instead, this is pretty cool. Even better, you can completely indulge in adjusting each piece to one of ten or so colors, from icy blue to dangerous red.
There are more than enough ports scattered around the left and right sides of the phone, and thankfully there are no ports on the back. Of particular note are the USB 2.0 ports and HDMI outputs on either side of the keyboard for high-resolution output on a large screen.
Speaking of bigger screens, the other thing that was obvious from the get-go is that the 15.4-inch screen on the m15x is, well, just a 15-inch screen. Many “gaming grade” laptops opt for 17-inch models – so they’re heavy and take away from portability a bit. The 15-inch screen is still very useful and requires less effort. It’s an interesting choice, and we think it’s a smart one in the long run.
But all the smart choices in the world are for naught if your well-thought-out gaming laptop can’t keep up with the pixel requirements. With an 8800 GTX, you can expect good performance – and you won’t be disappointed! When we realized someone had secretly turned on the m15x’s “stealth” setting (and thus reduced performance to save battery life) and left our machines running at maximum speed, both 3DMark06 and Crysis returned pretty impressive scores.
The former scored a respectable 9312 3DMarks, easily beating the Dell M1730 for the top spot, and ran Crysis at 1280 x 1024 resolution with all settings cranked up quite a bit – averaging 12fps was no mean feat. Turn those resource-intensive settings down a bit and you’ll get a smoother gaming experience, but frankly, it’s smooth enough even at high settings.
Our only option – and a common choice for high-end systems – is 4GB of RAM. The m15x isn’t running a 64-bit OS, so with the 512MB of onboard video taking up Vista’s allocation limit, you’re just wasting all that RAM. 2GB is a more realistic number and brings the price down a bit.
That said, while you’re paying a lot for the m15x, you’re at least getting some great performance, great peripherals (like a Blu-ray drive), and some unique lighting and flash.
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