A review of the M15x by Lineazy89

The Alienware M15x
A review by lineazy89

These are the specs on my unit:

Alienware m15x: recieved 6/26/08
Reviewed Specs:
Design & Display: Silver Skullcap Design
Display: 15.4" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p) with Clearview Technology
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Blue
Video/Graphics Card: 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800M GTX
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2GB
System Drive: 120GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW) w/ LightScribe Technology
Wireless: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with surround sound
Keyboard Options: AlienFX® Illuminated Keyboard – Exclusive Design



Initial Impression:

I have never owned an alienware before and was worried after ordering based on the complaints of other site members. I even considered canceling my order for a time, but then decided if it didnt work, i would ship it back and order another system. Well, after testing it for several days, i have found almost none of the flaws that people are flaming AW for. The system does have its flaws and i was certainly unhappy about the keyboard breaking, but on the whole, i was surprised to find it is actually a pretty good system in my opinion.

Upon taking it out of the box i was wowed by the size of it. Its not big compared to other gaming rigs, but it is on the larger size for a 15.4 inch notebook. The skullcap design is surprisingly sleek. It adds very little height to the laptop when closed. The notebook had no physical defects out of the box and no scratches or damages to the paint. I was happy I went with skullcap immediately after I opened it up. I was unsure how much extra size the skullcap was going to add and I thought it might look very unprofessional. Much to my surprise the skullcap is very sleek and does not add very much size to the lid. In fact, it looks awesome in my opinion and is much better than ripley, but to each his own.

Case design:
The m15x feels sturdy. If you pick it up from one side, it does not creak or bend. The case feels solid and feels smooth. It is very fingerprint prone but they are not obvious from a distant. I would definitely recommend some sort of cloth or cleaner to keep the finish clean. I am constantly wiping fingerprints off. The screen hinges are moderately sturdy however; there is a slight amount of creaking when you first start to push the screen up or down. The screen however, does not creak once it starts to move.
The screen wobbles slightly when pushed on; however it is not more than most laptops that exhibit the same behavior. Just moving the laptop on a table or picking it up barely wobbles the screen. Only by pushing on it and letting it spring back to place does it actually wobble. The screen itself is sturdy and has little flex to it when pressure is put on the back of the screen. If you push on the back of the lid, you can see small lines appear in the LCD, but they are minimal showing that the lid is fairly solid.
As a whole, the laptop feels fairly strong and I feel confident it will hold up physically for at least 2-3 years, if not more with care.
The usb ports are very tight and you have to put some force into putting things into the ports, but it holds them well and does not feel weak.



Screen:
The screen is clear and there were no dead pixels when i received it. The brightness adjusts fine and the 1440x900 pixels resolutions was a good choice for gaming because crysis looks beautiful but is also runnable on very high due to the resolution. On the higher resolution I do not believe very high is achievable. dvds and games look very good at the resolution and all text is readable.



Speakers/camera
Both work fine. The speakers have been good for laptop speakers. There is no static noise, no crackling and no problems with them form a sound standpoint. They do not get incredibly loud, but they are more than loud enough to play games or movies on if you are in a quite-moderately loud room. With headphones the sound is great, and I noticed no problems in sound quality. For laptop speakers the speakers work great and will more than good enough for most users.


Touchpad and keyboard:
The keyboard is comfortable and easy to type on. There is no skipping of keys when I type. The alien FX looks good but i noticed a small color bleed under the left arrow key. There is small amount of red light that leaks through no matter what color is on. It is noticeable but only from an aesthetic standpoint. One problem with the keyboard happened when I first played crysis. The left control key, when I pressed it to crouch, popped off. It seems that of the small plastic hooks that keep it on, one was broken. The control key no longer stays on properly but I will call tech support and see if they will send a new keyboard to fix the key breakage and the small amount of light bleed. The control button is still useable and the key stays on by the other hook but it does not feel as sturdy and come off if you hit the very top right corner of the key.
There is very little keyboard flex. The only flex at all is at the arrow keys, but it is not noticeable and you have to push hard to get the flex. Other than that it is stable and comfortable.



You can see the red dot, where it is red instead of blue

here red over white

The touchpad works fine and i like the smooth feel without the Mylar touchpad. I have had no trouble adjusting to the touchpad even though it had no edges. I never found myself going to far or anything. However, I wasn’t able to get the scrolling on the touchpad to work for some reason.

Fan noise/heat:
The fan is very quite when not gaming. If you are just surfing the internet or typing, it is hard to even notice the fan and with people talking cannot be heard at all. I compared it to the fan on a macbook pro and the macbook fan was much louder. You could always hear its fan over the m15x's fan. When gaming, the fans do kick into high gear and the back of the system gets very hot. I dont think it would bother anyone even in a classroom. The only place besides the back that gets hot is on the right side where the graphics card is, but it is only warm to the touch and doesnt bother me at all. If you use a mouse to game which most people probably will, it won’t even be noticeable.
---When idle, the computer was at 60 when in total stealth mode and the integrated card.
---When idle on performance mode, it stayed at about 70
---When playing crysis temps were at 80
From these temps it did not seem like there was any overheating at all.

Battery:
I do not have the smartbay battery yet but with total powersaver mode (Integrated graphics, stealth and powersaver) i was able to get 3 hours and 35 minutes. When you put up the screen brightness, the battery life drops to 2 hours and 45 minutes. On performance and on battery i got about 1 hour and 40 minutes of battery life. When actually gaming the battery actually lasted about an hour.

Benchmarking and performance:
There seemed to be no downclocking at all with the t9300 processer. I was impressed at the gaming capabilities. The framerate during non-crysis games stayed about 35 fps or higher. My system got 10055 3d marks on 3dmark06. I tested crysis on the system and was able to play on maximum settings at about 14 FPS. It worked very well but i would play it on high because it runs perfectly smooth then vs very high were there are slight lags during big firefights.

Some other addresses:
I installed the newest nvidia beta drivers available on myhive. With the driver updater the issues with sleep mode that many users had disappeared. The touch controls work when coming out of sleep mode.

Conclusion:
I am more than happy with the m15x. Aside from a key popping off, there were no problems with it. The 3d mark score is very good and there are no problems with overheating or the graphics card. The case design is much sturdier than I expected and I feel the notebook will last a while. Overall it is light enough for me to carry around with no problem but it can play any game that is out right now with absolutely no problem. It is perfect for a gamer on the go and offers very good portability.

My laptop has almost none of the general problems that are being harped on in this thread. There was no downclocking, although that issue has been mainly solved. Both the camera and the speakers worked fine. The lid is not wobbly in any alarming way, the touch controls are very responsive even after coming out of sleep mode. Stealth mode works without any problems. Perhaps the only cons so far are the slight color bleed which is barely noticeable, and the breaking keys. The system is not perfect, but none are. Overall, its pros far outwayed its cons and i will be keeping my laptop. Clearly most of the issues have been resolved and while there are certainly a few problems like the lock slot only working with expanding locks, I found it was well built aside from the keyboard and very stable.


no caps or cracks by the ethernet port
Some more pics:

 

Wow, really nice review and pictures! Enjoy your new beast ! Skullcap looks amazing. BTW, you have a MacBook Pro? Would you mind comparing the screen and build quality of the m15x and the MBP? Some pictures comparing the size of the m15x to a typical 1" thick notebook (the MBP) would be nice, too. So far, the only problems Alienware have been having now are with the keyboard of practically everyone's m15x, which is a huge step forward for them.

 

sorry, it was my friends MP, but when i get a chance ill get some pics of our laptops side by side. He has the 17 inch macbook pro so it is actually a bit bigger, but not thicker than mine. Ill see what i can do about pics of it.

 

man this makes it even tougher to choose a new system

 

Spectacular review with tonnes of pics. Skullcap rocks and I am very happy for you that your system was so solid and perfect (apart from the key). Gives me confidence to order one!

 

Grats on the Alien once again and really glad to see that Alieware have taken good care in making your notebook as good as it is
Kudos on an informative review that covers everything in a good amount of detail (not too much either )
One more thing.. THANK YOU for the realllly nice Skullcap pics !!!
I soo want that in black now

+ Rep !!

 

That case design looks amazing from my point of view.
Congratulations and nice review.

 

Sorry about the keyboard. I had the Same problem but It was the I key. But I just use it to test it. And it happen. On a M17X so the problem in both setups. They are sending me a new keyboard.

But the laptop is rock solid and the sound is great.

 

great review nice pictures too!

 

Very NICE Review!! Another happy m15x owner!! I'm happy for you. I had the same impressions as you when I received mine. I found almost none of the flaws that people are flaming AW for!!! (Screen wobbles too much...etc.)

 

Congratulations on your flawless machine (minus the key popping out, which is not a big deal).

I hope you will keep being pleased and only have positive experiences with your M15x.

Just one question! What's is flaming and where did people "flamed" AW?
I did read a bit on the flaming definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_(Internet), but I really can't see where so called "flamming" comments have been done or endorsed to AW.

Oh, and another request Line. Would you be kind enough to make a video while opening your laptop, turning it around on a desk, applying some pressure on the screen while it's opening (by gently pushing it back and letting it go). I'm interested in finding out if the wobbliness did really improve. (and I'm sure most of us do as well!).
If you check CNet video review of the M15x, you will be able to see what is the wobbliness we are talking about.

Good luck and have lots of fun.

 

Great review and great pics!

 

Great review! Always good to hear someone getting a good system speaking up! I love the pictures

I guess the interpretation of the word "flaming" differs from person to person, but just as an indication i think that your thread "why you shouldn't buy the m15x" is not based objective or that it's primarly purpose is to inform, it is to influence and convince people of your views as can be seen by the title you gave the thread.

 

Dear Svarto,
Allow me to disagree (partially) with what you say.
My thread is based in facts. The problems described there are common problems that have been experienced by several owners. It's all based on reports made by different people and are not isolated cases. These are facts...

Now, my opinion is, like I say... my opinion. What's it worth? Maybe nothing for you, maybe something for others. Yes, I do not recommend the M15x. But to contrast with my opinion, many others do recommend the M15x. It's all a matter of balance. It's a matter of subjective interpretation of the facts/knowledge that each person has regarding theirs (and others) M15x.

Yes, I do get angry and frustrated when I come across the 3rd owner saying that after 5 months of use the lid breaks. Yes I do feel angry with Alienware's lack of answers to their costumers. But yes, that's completely my own personal attitude.

I want to push Alienware forward... I want them to rise from the ashes in which I think they are. Believe me, that's everything I want.

Anyway... Let's leave this thread for it's main purpose. Line's M15x.

 

Great review!! Another person can now join the im happy with my m15x club

 

flaming remarks are made to be sensational and to rile people up instead of simply stating problems and trying to fix them. Pretty much the entire, "why you shouldnt buy an m15x" thread is this. At this point, we know about the known issues and simply repeating them over and over even though most of them seem to be resolved is overkill. move on please.

Ill try to get a video of my laptop. I have seen the cnet video and i can assure you that it is not nearly as wobbly as in that video when moved around.

 

I can just say I do take this as quite an ofensive comment. Just on a side note... What have you ever done to try and get anything fixed? More... what are all my posts besides seeking for some action on Alienware behalf to try and fix things?
But thanks for being able to see my true intentions and disregard all the time and effort I've made to put pressure on AW to fix things up. You definately sound like a very responsible (two days old) M15x owner.

Cheers,
M

 

i agree ..ur so true man

 

@ milcs, AW is fixing your computer. What more should they do. To me it seems you are trying to convince people not to buy a laptop by stressing problems even though they dont seem to be the norm. There are many positive reviews of people who have not had many of the issues you had. We know you had issues, and that sucks, but not everyone has had these problems, so to try and convince people that they shouldnt buy it because yours was bad and not take into account that many people are happy is a bit selfish. You compiled your information very professionally, but at the same time, your info comes form a few systems and cannot represent the entire population of m15x's.

 

yeap,enjoy

 

Very nice pics indeed! +rep for these and the nice review,makes me consider m15x even more with all this stupid (the least) m17x release on uk side...

 

Ok here goes:

I do not have an AW, would I get one if they fix the issues, yes.

I have said this before, this forum does not represent the truth, yes more tech ppl come here, ppl that have more issues etc, sample size and so on, we can talk for hours on this.

What I base it on, is the following:

Only ppl who have not paid for a system are objective and will not "I am not admitting to getting crap" ask any serious reviewer and they will tell you, there has to be objectivity. This is why a Cnet employee get's a laptop to review, they do it as a professional.

So if we can agree that there needs to be objectivity ( I can give more reasons, such as you will have higher expectations the more money you spend etc)

So to my point:

http://blog.laptopmag.com/alienware-m15x-crack-explained
http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?55011

these came from here, so let's then get even more objective:

http://www.notebookreview.com/revie...randID=24&reviewSiteID=1&productReviewID=4913
wobble wobble

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=2107
good enough

http://compreviews.about.com/od/thinandlight/gr/AWArea51m15x.htm
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2290318,00.asp
http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2008/04/24/Alienware-Area-51-m15x/p1
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/194277/alienware-area51-m15x.html
http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review/5166/alienware-area-51-m15x-review
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/506
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Alienware-Area-51-m15x-Notebook.8835.0.html

some are ok, the standard review one can expect, some go more into details, such as flimsy case, heat
Plastic case with modest workmanship
- Wobbling and squeaking display hinges
- Hot keys not very responsive
- Noisy and hot under load

one mag I have called custom PC: quote" poor build quality" chassis is flimsy etc

so OBJECTIVE reviews give AW some good, but many (!) find the same thing
-heat
-bad,poor,flimsy,plastic case design
-looks stunning
-cool
-fastest 15 laptop out there
-good battery
-many other

so yes a lot is good, but some id crap and it's somewhat constant- it's not down to one lemon here and there, you get that with the Mac's.. this is basic issues, as they are the same again and again..

so either you are lucky or the way you use your AW, you will not have the issue and depending on expectations, you might not care as much.

E.g you have 3 laptops and 2 desktops- what's a week back at the headquarters...

so please let's all be real- if negative or positive- you can't really comment, everyone is entitled to their opinion such as milcs, I can understand him.

lineazy89, if you don't have this problems, good for you.

Post your info, let us see that your screen don't wobble, make a noice, let's see you lift your laptop by the eth0 port in one hand, like I throw my Ibm laptop away etc.

Then a user that comes in here to read can make up their own mind if it's you telling tales or milcs being a psycho

my 2 cent's

and I would get an AW if these basic issues where fixed:

keeyboard flex
better case
less heat
better scree ( less wobble and more stiffness- some of the reviews mentions that screen can be damaged due to bad design)

 

Also CustomPC here in the UK also did a review and awarded it 75% overall and sited that the touch buttons dont work well, screen was dull and lacked quality and chassis was flimsy.

THis is the August edition.

 

I'm a psycho alright!
Wise words maceto. Nice to have a man of insight around!

 

One quick question for you Line...
If you will ever come across a problem (well... actually you already did!), will you admit it and share it with us or are you going to keep it for yourself?
I mean... it's funny that you say "Oh the keyboard is already broken just as soon as I receive it... but that's OK!". Honestly... is it OK to receive a laptop with a broken keyboard? Is it OK that so many people's keyboards have the same as you? Well... maybe I'm too demanding. Or maybe you are too complacent...

I promise I will make an effort to be objective and leave "passions" aside. It would be nice if all of us could do the same. It's on everyone's interest.

Thanks.
M.

 

I understand that, however, people can return their m15x's. For example, i fully expected to have to return it up to the day i recieved it. I was actually surprised to find out that everyhting was working and i shared my experience. I did an honest review. I could still send it back and to be honest, i might, but i reviewed what I recieved and certainly did not review with an "i dont want to show that i payed for crap" bias. If it was bad i would certainly have posted it and jumped onto the milcs bandwagon. This is my first aw laptop and if it didnt work i would have returned it and bought the m860tu. I know when i was trying to decide if i wanted to buy the m15x, i wanted to read user reviews of what real consumers thought of their laptops. Im not an alienware fanboy and didnt even really know much about the company before i started to shop for a laptop.

PS: video coming very soon. like in a few minutes of my screen wobble and creakiness.

PPS: of course i will show negative things. im not bias for or against. i have shared my honest opinions of the laptop and written them out pretty clearly. Its sad that you guys can just attack people who think the m15x is good and share their positive experience and call them bias and then claim that you are not biased against AW at this point.

 

Hey Linz in that video can you show us how responsive the touch key controls are, and what your temps are idle/load thanks

 

i forgot the temps, but i did show the responsiveness of the touch controls.

 

I hope you didn't think I was attacking you. I wasn't. In fact it was you that pretty much said that my thread is a handful of crap. But let's put this behind our backs and move on.

Let's see that video then. Try and shake the table or move the laptop around for us to have an idea of what to expect when we are typing or something.

Thanks for your help and unbiased experiences.

 

My screen doesn't shake while I'm typing. It's pretty sturdy. Now, shaking the table...that's another story.

 

Hopefully the table never shakes unless there's an earthquake lol.

 

LOL. Who would intentionally shake the table for fun? I believe every lappy will shake no matter what brand it is. Sorry, Lineazy89 back on topic

 

Let's then imagine a bit, not to force anyone's inteligence too much.
Let's say you are in a car, a plane, a bus, etc... There's terpidation. Is that more acceptable for you guys now? Or you only have a shacking plane when there is an earthquake?

 

Thanks for making it clearer, milcs.

I have used it in my car & the van numerous times and the screen doesn't wobble unless the car is hitting some hard bumps which is expected. I've used it on a plane to play Mahjong and the screen doesn't wobble. Of course it will wobble if the plane hits turbulence.

 

i kind of doubt you will use the m15x on the bus unless you really trust the people on the bus. And we can also imagine that some people wont use a laptop while their moving since they will puke....like me...

i kind of think the screen wobble issue has been blown out of proportion. I think my screen is pretty stable. It doesnt shake when im typing. It only shakes if i decide to pick the laptop up and move it or if theres a earthquake...which i never experienced before in my life. I think the screen wobble issue is just a matter of perspective. In some people's eyes its not a big issue and then in some other people's it might be a pretty big issue.

 

Yeah, that's what I think too. But, I don't know. I can't make any judgements about other's m15x since I only have mines.

 

Well... As I said, mine did wobble a lot (I could clearly see it while writting and that was really driving me insane) and was really not "stiff". I obviously believe people reporting that their screens are hard and solid. I am confident that when I'll receive my new M15x the screen won't be wobbling like my 1st M15x.

So yes... for me, the screen wobbliness and the overheating were the only issues (oh, and the lock, of course). My touchbuttons worked well, keyboard worked fine, sound was not great not bad, etc etc... But if I had to pinpoint "THE PROBLEMS", the screen hinges and the overheating would be the ONEs.

 

Well. I really do hope they get the issues fixed for you so that you can enjoy your m15x.

 

Did you figure out how to get the scrollpad working on the touchpad?

 

Has anybody tried doing what you apparently do on those Eee PC's and other laptops... to scroll. And that's putting two fingers together on the touchpad and pulling them up or down together. I think. Can somebody try that?

 

It's automatic, when you brush your finger vertically on the side of the touchpad, it scrolls.

 

Cat- It didn't work when I tried it. It only "feels" one touch. It sounds weird said like that!

 

what i do to get the touch pad to scroll is by using the indicator on the start bar near where i can see the time. the top most part of the touchpad and the right most part of the touchpad are the scroll places i believe. i look at the indicator icon to see what color it is. if the indicator icon has a green dot it means im moving the mouse. if it has a blue dot im using the scroll thing. i only have to use 1 finger and move in the direction i want to scroll.

 

my review movie is uploading to veoh right now. It will be up at some point tonight. i cannot get the scroll on the touchpad to work so far though. idk if its some setting that i dont have checked or something

 

x2 And I have tried what you guys have listed. Sounds like we need to just set it up somehow.

(will get my review up asap)