Alienware m15x Gaming Laptop

Full review of Alienware m15x Gaming Laptop

Enclosed in a silvery design that attempts to mimic a space ship from out of this world, the Alienware m15x doesnt look anything completely striking. In fact, it seems Alienware wanted to maintain a more conservative look with the m15x than their typical offshoot Alien-looking design found in the past. In terms of build-quality, the m15x faces creaks and groans. If one moved the lid, even before the lid angle is adjusted, it emits a creaky staircase noise. Even worse, it doesn't make much difference where you grip the lid.

One striking new feature is the the 86-key keyboard that emits a blue LED light that surrounds each key. Typing on the keyboard is excellent, while keeping perfect key travel and ample space for large hands. However, flex evident as we noticed a fair amount of keyboard flex, but only to the dead center of the keyboard.

Moving on is the astounding 15.4-inch display with a native resolution at 1920x1200. Yes, that means: WUXGA! That is plenty enough pixels per inch. Although we did notice the monitor seemed to produce a softer image than most displays at this resolution. However, this may be a better thing because it made it easier to stare at the screen for longer periods of time.

The Alienware m15x weighs in at 7 pounds and can increase or decrease depending what drive you insert in the hot swappable Smart bay: 2x Blu-ray Disc Burner, secondary 300 GB hard drive, or an extra Li-Ion battery.

In terms of connectivity, its fully loaded. And we mean fully loaded. Youll get latest internal Intel a/b/g/n wireless card, Gigabit Ethernet port, three USB 2.0 ports, connections for both headphones and microphone, Firewire B, HDMI, ExpressCard and 7-in-1 media card reader. Inside the space ship, the m15x is powered by the high-end NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX video card with 512 MB of discrete memory. This offers a strong performance punch, but can really suck yourbattery dry like an icy-cold lemonade on a hot summer day.

Luckily, Alienware included a feature called BinaryGFX which can enable video to run off of integrated memory only, really saving you some battery time on those long business journeys. Feeling colorful? Bundled is the AlienFX technology (available through the Command Center) allows you to change the color of the lid border, keyboard, touchpad border, and all associated lights (Blue or Red) depending on what program you're running.

Recommendation

Combined with the powerful Core2Duo Xtreme processor with a speedy 512 MB 8800m GTX video card and 4 GB of RAM, this machine simply screams in power. With that, carries some baggage. The base machine will cost you $1,799 and our model with all the bells & whistles comes to a close $4,808.00. Granted our m15x came with all the extras, like a secondary hard drive, Blu-ray disc burner, and an extra battery. We love the addition of an HDMI port for home theater connection. So, if you want the market a high-class gaming laptop -have money to spend, and love the new Alienware design, this is an excellent purchase. Buy me one too.

Alienware m15x Gaming Laptop Technical Specifications

• Processor Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 2.8 GHz
• Memory 4 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM
• Harddrive 200GB 7200 RPM
• OS Windows Vista Ultimate
• Weight 7.8 lb
• Screen 15.4-inch Widescreen
• Screen resolution 1920x1200
• Graphic Card 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX

Pros

• Powerful and extreme performance
• Unique LED design
• Excellent Keyboard
• High Native Sharp Resolution

Cons

• Expensive
• Poor Build Quality