Alienware’s m17x: Look and Feel
Of the four notebooks included in our roundup, Alienware’s Area-51 m17x is the most professionally put together. It’s all-black design and lighted Skullcap lid offer just a taste of how far gaming notebooks have come.
On the outside, the chassis’ lines are smooth. The ventilation screens in the front and back look similar to what you might find on the grill of a supercharged R-series Jag, be it the XK, XJ, or S-Type. Available bays sit flush with the notebook’s body, and each externally-accessible port lines up precisely, also flush to the chassis.
The 17” screen does not latch to the body when it’s closed, but there’s enough resistance upon opening the screen that you won’t have to worry about the body accidentally falling open as you carry the m17x around.
Once open, the Area-51 is turned on in much the same way as a PS3—with barely-there pressure on the power button, in this case an alien head. Though we despise touch pads, the m17x’s is at least well-integrated, laying flush with the keyboard palm rests. The full-sized keyboard is also welcome. And while the numeric keypad off to the side helps demonstrate just how much room there is on a 17” chassis, you’ll still find common functions like Home, Page Up, Page Down, and End sharing keys, unlike most desktop keyboards.
Perhaps the most unique aspect of Alienware’s experience—if you want to call it that—is its AlienFX system lighting, which comes standard on the m17x. When you fire up the Command Center software and enter the AlienFX lighting controller’s setup, a graphical representation of the notebook lets you pick and choose colors for a number of different lit zones. What results is completely customizable lighting that goes beyond a conventional single-color scheme, and if you want something like this, Alienware is your only choice. The closest competitor is ASUS, which lets you control a handful of LED effects but doesn’t yet offer customizable colors.
Weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 pounds, the Area-51 m17x is no lightweight. However, everything about the machine is classy despite its gaming heritage. Solid construction is conveyed by parts that fit very well together. And everything—even down to the quality of the notebook’s onboard speakers—is clearly intended for a premium audience. Early on in the game, Alienware’s m17x is the notebook to beat.
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Please use Propper size pictures as i am not zooming every one (takes 3-4 secs to load each one when doing that)
even when i use the Print option thay are still in 200 x 120 pixels when it should be 450 x 271 pixels for both print and per page viewing
rest of the review is good
Okay, I have no idea about the battery life of ANY of the contenders - no mention of them in the text and that one vital image of the battery chart is missing from Toms. Good going guys!
Not that you can claim credit for any of the graphs on this article - all the rest are borked as well. They do show up - as tiny thumbnails. Nice one. Real classy.
Now back to the actual article subject, aka Rant#2. Hasn't it occured to the OEMs that we have a major niche going unfulfilled here? I can think of several nomadic user bases (how about students for starters anyone?) who want gaming laptops but who are unwilling to part with €5000 for something that has the same performance as a €500 desktop. Even with Centrino 2 bringing the RAM and motherboard back up to scratch the near-inability to run games such as SupCom and Crysis shows that the gap between standard and mobile CPUs and GPUs is now reaching crisis point.
You'd think that with such a large potential user base some of the big facs or OEMs would be innovating, but they ain't. AMD seem to have given up on mid-high-range lappies entirely, which give nVidia and Intel carte blanche to sit there doing very little (note to Nintel fanboys - this is what would happen to desktops if your hated AMD died for you - €5000 desktops to not-run Crysis). And yet OEMs continue to specify WUXGA screens that the tiny GPUs cannot hope to power, and all that HD clarity will go out the door if you drop down the res - LCDs suffer badly when running resolutions that aren't native or a root of 2 of the native (and the root-2 res for WUXGA is 950*600 - nonstandard and way too small for use!). Why aren't OEMs using high-quality (and potentially cheaper) 1650*1080 or even 1440*900 screens instead?
As for processors... if Intel really gave a damn they should have implemented mobile quads that electrically isolate half the cores when away from AC, halving TDP. Even without this some OEMs should have put in BIOS tools that overclock and underclock CPU/GPUs depending on power status (battery, AC...). Nope. Asus did try, bless 'em, but their lappy isn't even a high-end gaming machine! Desktop-replacers take note. Alienware should be taking notes - they could really do with those features, especially as their machine is supposed to be a gaming lappy - unlike Killer, who isn't afraid to admit their "laptop" is really a small desktop light enough to be carried
At least AW got the ventiltion right... everyone else still has easily-blocked fan ports on the bottom. Why hasn't Clevo tried to put some side intakes on their larger units yet?
guess thay do not bother to read these posts any way
them pictures are to small mite be ok if my desktop was at 640x480, mite even be viewable on my PDA (if it was not for the best of media stuff)