Alienware M11x Review

I purchased an Asus 1201N earlier this year and tried playing games. I hadn't played games in a year or so. So i decided to get the M11x since it is designed to game and to be portable, something that is beneficial for a student.



Specs
Core i7
4 GB DDR-III Ram
320 GB HDD

Performance
Like others i was skeptical about gaming performance in such a small form factor. However the performance is there and it is very good.

The following games are completely playable at higher resolutions than the laptop display 1366x768, i used a 22" lcd with a native resolution of 1680x1050. I know some of these games like BioShock are older but it is one i really like
BioShock - 1680x1050 maximum settings
BioShock 2 -1680x1050 maximum settings
Call of Duty: World at War - 1680x1050 maximum settings
Crysis - 1680x1050 a mixture of high and medium settings. Shaders, Particles and physics on medium and motion blur off

From read other posts on this forum there does not appear to be a big difference in quality from the core2duo to the i5/i7 cpus. We may simply have to wait until games are more cpu intensive.

9/10


Build Quality
I have the hinge problem where the display does not close properly.


Others also have this problem it seems to put more stress on the hinges since it does not close properly. The reason why this is so disappointing is that this is an Alienware. This is not a cheap e-machine or hewlett-packard. Alienware to me has resonated quality and the lack of it here is going to cause a high point deduction. Other than that the build quality seems sturdy; it feels solid.

6/10


Display
11.6" 1366x768The display is ok, black is black on mine and not the dark grey that is found on other cheap displays. However there is a noticeable difference when hooked up to an external monitor. Also given the size of the bezel a 12.1" display could have easily been adopted in lieu of the 11.6" display

7/10


Battery Life
After optimzing and tweaking for a while i finally got to a battery life that seems good. Battery Bar says 4 hours 50 minutes and Windows says 6 hours 7 minutes. The decrease from the r1 is disappointing however in a few months the trade off for the faster cpu may very well be worth it

8/10

Absolutely a good laptop imo. The build quality with regards to the hinge and the so-so display are unfortunate negatives. In retrospect i would have seriously considered getting a solid state hard driver, other than that i would not have changed my order at all.

 

Good review. +1 Rep

 

Nice I haven't actually seen real pix of the silver one yet.

 

Simple & straight to the point.

 

good review. also, so glad I got lunar silver...it really does look nice in person.

 

Thanks. That's maybe the best closeup of the silver finish I've seen.

 

The hinge "problem" just seems to be that there are only rubber bumpers on the front of the laptop and not the rear where the hinge closes.

 

I actually like the soft touch black more then the silver, so it's a matter of opinion

 

Good review. I could not have agreed with you any more regarding m11's pros and cons.
+1

 

Agree. Those photos are not showing anything regarding the hinges other than they were designed low in the back and therefore won't accommodate bumpers in the back.