M11x or HP Envy 14? And other similar laptops?

Hey guys, I'm deciding between the M11x (holding out a month for any news on a refresh) and the upcoming Envy 14 (releases end of June). Can you guys lay out the pros and cons of each system? I know that the laptops are different sizes, which may make some comparisons useless, but I'd just like to find out the main differences in portability, power, features, etc.

And are there any other laptops I should consider in terms of highly portable powerhouses? The M11x has pretty much dominated this niche but there have gotta be *some* competitors, right...?

Thanks in advance for your input!

-KO Mouse

 

The M11x has dominated the niche because of the lack of competition actually.

As far as pros and cons, might be good to actually qwait for the envy 14 to be out before we list the pros and cons of something that isn't even out yet.

 

big thing will probably be battery life, m11x will probably have a much longer one, my guess

 

Also, is the Acer 3820TG a valid competitor? I hear that laptop mentioned once in a while in comparison to the M11x.

 

The Acer 3820TG with the HD5650 and i5-430M definitely has the best specs.

 

Alienware M11X would be a pretty good laptop for your needs.

 

Nothing really competes with the M11X, other small notebooks with gaming specs still use the regular processors and such. This means that they get like 3 or 4 hours max (if even that, might be 2-3 when not gaming, or even less) while the M11X get 7 to 8 hours max.

Basically, if you want something portable with long battery life I don't see anything competing with the M11X. If you want something portable but with less battery life but potentially better specs you might want one of the others.

 

you are comparing apples to oranges.

If you want raw performance go with envy. If you want portability, go with m11. Envy will be better than m11 in performance.

And when i say portability, i mean you're gonna be frequently carrying your laptop outside of your residence, not between rooms of your residence.

 

This would have been my alternative, but not out in UK yet. Also I am not a fan of Acer build quality since the last laptop I had from them wore out the trackpad/buttons/keyboard.

As for the Envy 14 I read CPU is throttled back when on battery. It's also much bigger than the M11x, but add the battery-slice and it seems a decent small laptop.

 

I would go ahead and get the Envy. Probably more optimized out of the box for the general user or game player. No need for special configs or anything like that. Almost like having a portable console (ie xbox360).

Good Luck,

StevenX

 

The only two machines that are <14" that are gaming-capable are the Alienware M11x and the Sony Vaio Z. The Sony Vaio Z is a 13.3" laptop, with a GeForce 320M video card. The video card is slower, and the laptop costs close to $2000. But it has an optical drive, is about 1lb lighter, and a FANTASTIC screen.

If you are looking for a great general-purpose machine that is capable of gaming, then the Sony Vaio Z is a great choice. However, if you're looking for a portable gaming machine that is capable of being used as a general-purpose machine, then go with the Alienware M11x.

Once you get 14" and above, your options for gaming-capable machines open up quite a bit. The HP Envy 14 is deifnitely in that group, because the ATI Mobility Radeon 5650 is a pretty decent mobile GPU.

But I wouldn't try and compare the Alienware M11x to the HP Envy 14. The significantly different sizes and form factors make them pretty much two different classes of notebook computers. I would first try and figure out what class of notebook you want (size, weight, battery life). Once you pick a class of notebook, then start looking at the gaming-capable options within that class.