Lu's M15X Review

As promised to the few that shared my plight of obtaining one of these beauties... here is my review after nearly a week of varying usage.

The Sales Period....

Described over all my previous posts, there were delays like almost everyone else. I'm sure alienware bit off a little more than they can chew with this laptop, at least in the inital stages of supply and demand but I got it in the end and now all the supply problems seem like a distant memory!

The First Day....

Worked like a dream. One slight error message that was caused by a nero installation file being where it shouldn't be anymore but it didn't cause any issues and was swiftly removed. Spent the rest of the day installing office and all my essential sofware, and the day after that was spent installing a few games i bought especially for the big day!

Vista and Normal Usage....

I like Vista... unpopular opinion on the Internet but there.. I said it. Sure if you've got a reasonably old or underspecced PC it may seem like a bit of a dog but on this laptop it's really smooth. A couple of issues I had, one involving my wireless connection and the other involving the touch controls. Sometimes when booting up, Vista would fail to find my wireless connection and I'd have to re enter my WEP password. Everytime I woke up my laptop from hibernation the touch controls (volume, wireles etc) were unresponsive. Luckilly, after recently upgrading to the latest BIOS, the touch control issues seems to have dissapeared.

Gaming....

I have installed the following games: Company of Heroes DX10 version, Team Fortress 2, LOTRO DX10, Stalker and The Witcher. I've not experienced any hitches at all on either of them, no obvious downlocking, no framerate issues and no crashes. Company of Heroes seems to be the one that struggles the most, but I think this is because of how the game is designed rather than the hardware being too weak.

Overall....

I'm happy. This laptop does everything I want it to do and even though i wish I wasn't so weak as to agree to spend so much money on it, I love it and I try and show it off as much as possible at all times.

Sorry for the less than technical review... some pictures to follow soon.

My Specs:

Display: 15.4" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p) with Clearview Technology
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Aqua
Operating System: Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium - English
Graphics Processor : 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 8800M GTX
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 2048MB
Turbo Cache Memory: None
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 200GB 7200 RPM SATA
Smart Bay: None
CD/DVD/RW: 8x Dual Layer Writer (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Sound Hardware: Intel® High-Definition Audio (24-bit, 192Khz) with surround sound

 

Congrats,

And please enjoy your fine laptop.

 

Congratulations on a working system

 

yep, good to hear yours is going without a hitch.

 

Yes nice to hear.

 

nice one Lu
at least one of us has a fully working computer.

ive been playing half life 2 today for the last 5 hours and my eyes have had it.
no problems playing games at all only the odd not responding as i close it.

also got the x-fi card working today. had to re load it 3 times and have only got the basic player installed now and its fine.

 

sounds good laptop lu...

 

the source engine is kinda messed with vista (or the NVIDIA drivers for vista, one of the two) so that is to be expected

 

That's a nice working machine! How's the keyboard for you? any keyboard overheating issues?


Good luck with the machine in the future; glad to see not all the machines dispatched these days are defective.

 

I would just like to add my own M15Xperience.

When I ordered, my estimated despatch date was 28/04/2008 and I have already had it for several days.

So far, every application or peripheral I have used has worked with no problems and I am delighted with my purchase (& Vista). When I compare any other system to my M15X, I just know that I would not have been this happy with any of them.
Before logging on; I had just spent the last five hours playing Assassins Creed until it felt like my soul was leaking out my eyes... (Did anyone see the new Heroes this week?) What more do you want to know?

There is still so much for me to discover. I am sure I will be back to the forum again. If not for some help, then to see how things are going with the rest of the Alienware army.

 

Very nice review, thanks for sharing LaptopLu ;-)

 

Congrats nice review!!

 

Just a quick one before I properly update my review, I've noticed that the wireless network takes ages to connect when first booted up. Initially it can't find any wireless networks then out of the blue after a couple of minutes and finds them all and connects to mine straight away. Is there a fix for this?

 

Aww.. No pics

 

I always had problem connecting to any wireless network on a Windows machine. On the other side, my Macbook Air and iPhone takes just a few seconds to connect.

 

LOL! i love your avatatar!!! Alienware. Whats the worst that could happen!

 

Please be aware that the hibernation issue is Vista and laptop hibernation functions, so this I believe is not an issue only with Alienware laptops.

 

actually i believe it is as the m15x is the only one with those types of touch controls. Its was built for windows vista, so it should work perfectly for windows vista.

 

Well once I updated the BIOS everything worked coming out of hibernation so if you have this issue just update you BIOS and everything should be ok!

 

yes i know, but i just dont like it when companies blame other companies for their own problems.

 

Oh I'm not defending them, they don't owe me anything and this sort of thing should work from day one with no need to update anything. But at least they did fix it, and reasonably fast too. I like to stay positive.

 

yes, ive noticed. you are very sparky it seems^_^.

Yes though i do agree, if they can fix it, then it ok.

 

Yeah, this hibernation issue is different than the standard Vista hibernation issue with all other laptops, and has been fixed with the X32 bios

 

yeah, it's good that they fixed. related question: under the volume control, there are CAPS, NUMLOCK, etc. signs. are these touch controls as well or just "indicators"?

 

Just indicators, they light up when the according button is "activated" eg capslock but as with a normal keyboard have no toggle function themselves

@LaptopLu_Girl
Nice review, thanks for your words and good luck and much fun with your system, may it be crackless forever

 

Unfortunately, they are just indicators. Yeah, I also thought it would be cool if they could be touch buttons (especially with scroll lock and num lock, since you need a Fn key combo to activate those via keyboard). That said, if they were touch-activated, I would still want the ability to turn them on via keyboard.

 

yeah it would've been really neat if they were touch controls as well.

 

what's your spec??

 

Hi LaptopLu_Girl,

I liked your review and it's nice to hear from somebody who has an M15X, has had a few teething problems but, instead of sending it back and cursing AW, has solved them and is now enjoying there new baby.

I thought that this may help you with your network connection issue, it's the NBR guide to tweaking Vista Top Vista Tweaks

Hope it helps?

OB

 

Cool, there's a couple of interesting tweeks I will try when I get home tonight. Luckilly I've not had the wireless network problem recently so maybe Vista has calmed down about it now.

Also, I've updated my review to include my specs. Pics will follow soon I promise.

 

I see that you haven't gone for a Blu-Ray drive, if you don't mind me asking, eh, why not? (i'm asking because i'm waiting for the M17X to be released)

OB

 

Because I have a PS3 and a HDTV for that. I'll never be watching blueray movies on my laptop and if I ever want to watch HD content i'll just download it instead (legally of course!)
I just couldn't justify to myself the extra money for something that I wouldn't make decent use of, especially on a 15 inch screen with 720p.

 

Cool, sounds like a plan, i've not got HDTV or a PS3 so i;ll be using the 1920x1200 LCD for that lol

OB