M11x at the "Simify your Fatboy? showcase in Vancouver

Was walking around the Vancouver Olympics venues near Main street today and decided to stop by Bungalow (2152 Main Street for the locals... ) to see if the M11x was there on display.

It is!

They have 3 units (Lunar Shadow) sitting on Fatboy furniture all setup for people to use. I was there around 11:30 and there was nobody playing with the systems. Talking to a gentleman who works there I found out Alienware sent them the systems and nobody from either Alienware, EA or Fatboy as yet to show up in the store.

So after a little small talk and with not much time to spare as I was with my wife and daughter I was able to look at one of the units more closely.


First impressions:

The unit had the RED Dell sticker under so I suspect they are no production units. What I saw could be different on production units.

The Lunar Shadow is beautiful and shows no fingerprints. I took a picture of the cover without flash, the store is very bright, and it show a very close rendition of what the original is.

The m11x feels solid yet very light. Comparing it (for size only) to the Lenovo Ideapad S10 it is much larger which for me at least is a good thing.

The screen was nice, horizontal viewing angles were good while vertical angle presented greater loss has you flopped the screen further back. The brightness was acceptable, like I said the store was very bright with sunlight so in a darker location that screen will rock.

The screen was my main concern, my M1530 1680x1050 is and I had concern about the usability of a 11.6 1366x768 screen. I didn't have much time but suffice to say I feel I could work with this screen.

The unit was dead silent, at no time did the fan turn on. It was also cool despite the fact it was sitting on a cube with a somewhat soft surface which was partially blocking the air intake.

The power brick was small.

What else? Oh yeah, IT SO FREAKING COOL , the M1530 is going on ebay and this little puppy will be replacing it. I wil order it first thing Monday morning!

I will try to go back at lunch time Tuesday or Wednesday to spend more time with the M11x. If anyone wants me to look at or confirm something for them I will gladly try.

And the pictures:









Additional pictures and comments by Chuck Dugan at the same location:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5885977&postcount=39

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5886040&postcount=48

 

So there were no black ones? Dam makes me want the silver instead of the black since it shows no finger prints.

 

No black ones, I was hoping they would have both so I could compare.

I will be ordering the Lunar Shadow myself, the constant fingerprint cleaning up is not for me.

 

Wow this single thread is 10x more informative than all the "owners" thread combined.

Thank you good sir.

 

I would totally cancel / change my order but I have one of the early estimated delivery dates so guess I am keeping black.

 

There aren't any owners yet... :wink:

 

thank you Rhodan! it looks like a solid machine.

If you can, please take more pictures for us!

 

That's the plan for the next visit. I'll try to spend at least 30 minutes looking at it.

 

It looks like the screen is very reflective, which is not good.

 

Yes it is, keep in mind the pictures were taken around 11:45, it was sunny and the store has windows all over making it a very bright environment. The flash was on auto and didn't go off.

I'm sure my M1530 is as reflective excepft my office is darker so I don't notice it as much.

 

And it will be reflective, just like the M17x and M15x.

All E2E displays will be reflective due to the glass or plastic covering the screen.

 

That Lunar Shadow looks awesome. Can't wait to get mine. I don't know why the companies are building semi gloss or gloss black laptops. Makes no sense seeing as soon as you touch it you have smudges and finger prints all over the place.

 

Thanks for the pics. The Lunar Shadow actually looks very good and I'm surprised there are very few people getting it.

Keep in mind these pics were taken in a well lit store.

 

If i knew i'd be in the lots of black i would have considered it but i do like black oh so much!.
The size looks very similar to the HP311 and I have one of those so this is just like an awesome upgrade!!
I can't wait even more!! argghh!

 

Thanks for the pics, the silver is really sick looking was a bit disappointed when I saw the european version of the silver but the american version is drool worthy It's funny how excited people seem to get after using this thing. I am going to play with mine before I decide to sell it on ebay but who knows if I get as excited as everyone else seems to I might end up keeping it and forgetting about the Sony altogethor LOL

Can I ask how thick it felt? And have you ever used an 11-12" netbook as to compare the size? Just wondering how much bigger it is, it looks so square in the pictures as opposed to rectangular.

 

I want to say thank you very very much for this!! +rep for sure. Man I've been soo up and down on the Lunar Shadow/silver due to different pics and you finally answered my desire of "in the wild" pics. That color looks beautiful, glad it's more gray than bright silver. mmmm cannot wait! The gray/black combo looks sick. And yes, this thread is already better than owner's lounge 3. Looking forward to your next visit please sir!

I know you're already doing a lot for us just by posting pics, but if you get a chance, test out the Fn+F2 for battery charging disabled/enabled/status can you? I want to make sure it works via that way and not just via the bios from what I was told by HH. Thanks again man!

 

I can compare to what we have in the house which is XPS M1530, Ideapad S10, Thinkpad X60, X200 and T400.

Felt thicker and larger than the Ideapad. It is smaller than the M1530 but about the same thickness. Holding it did feel nice, like when I hold my X200 although slightly thicker.

 

how does the keyboard feel compared to a full sized keyboard and a typical netbook keyboard?

 

yea, I want to know more about the keyboard, too. Does it have any noticeable flex on it?

 

wow that picture actually made it seem like the silver is actually better looking than the black. im glad i chose silver now because my original reason was because black was a finger print magnet. Hope to hear more news +rep

 

wait, so the top is a gloss finish? i thought it was a matte finish. i have a gloss finish on my gateway p-7811 and fingerprints aren't that bad at all. not once in my year having it did i feel the need to wipe it because of too many smudges. then again, i don't handle this 9lb rig that much

 

wow Rhodan thats a huge info! i live in dt Vancouver! going to go over and check it out on tuesday too! i need a hands on experience to make final decisions!

ps. are you enjoying the Olympics festivities? any other venues thats interesting to share? i went to livecity yaletown and its pretty cool, check it out when u have the time (=

 

^ are you talking about the black? From all the videos I've seen it looked glossy to me. If you look at the owner's lounge first post, check out some videos, you'll see the fingerprints on there. I'll find one for you haha

Hot hardware vid

check out @ 0:35 seconds.. I remember this vid is which kind of scared me off of the black.. but still wasn't sold on silver til HH's review pics.

 

naw, it's kool. i answered my own question. i'll probably be getting silver, too. though, i would jump at the chance to get it in some shade of purple (it's royalty!)

EDIT: You're right, that's just as bad as my black Nintendo DS lite! silver (or purple) it is!

 

Thanks, it is so hard to get a feel for the size of it from pictures and videos. The thickness will probably be the deal breaker for me but will wait and see.

 

Hey when you go back, can you please check and see which CPU is in it? And if it is the SU4100, could you PLEASE see if you can overclock it in the bios? Thanks btw first post.

 

@dominator
It has been confirmed numerous times already that both cpus can be overclocked.

 

But, this would really confirm it. lol

 

you dont need to if its already confirmed ...

 

Show me a link.

 

go dl the manual and they tell u how to overclock in the m11x manual

 

We need moar pictures! This thing is absolutely gorgeous.

Lunar Shadow is so freaking amazing. One of the reasons why I didn't go for it was because I've been using a silver laptop for 3 years, but looking at these pictures........regret comes to mind.

 

@exiled

Yeah, but it also tells you that it has Virtualization Technology, which the SU4100 dosen't.

 

Thanks guys!

 

I live in Yaletown and work downtown so I get to experience the festivities every day!!! It's really crazy down here, never seen so many people. Been out for the last 2 days going around the venues, didn't have a chance to do the livecity in Yaletown as the lineup is lenghty...

 

I know it's been confirmed already and I suspect they may not appreciate me mucking around the bios on their demo units.

But Tell you what, I'll add it to the list and see if I can get to it.

 

Thanks man, I don't mean to be pushy.

 

Ok, here are some pics

 

Honestly I didn't spend much time on the keyboard. I do remember it feeling nicer and larger than the Idaepad S10 though.

 

Thanks for the awesome pics and info!

I'm the other way on the color - glad I picked black. I know it'll be a fingerprint magnet - but I guess I'll just keep a polish cloth with it all the time.. Maybe it's because all of my other machines are grey/silver that I'm so turned off of the black.

 

I had a black car once, never again... A glossy black laptop would drive me crazy. My blackberry drives me crazy as it picks up every little print.

 

That picture with the Iphone and your face in it is the best size perspective I have seen yet! Thanks. It really does not seem as big in that picture. I am going to hold off until it gets here before ordering anything else.

Cheers

 

I can link your pics (with proper credit )to the first post of the thread so they don't get lost in the traffic.

 

My thoughts on the unit:

It's small for sure, but not too small, It's gonna be good fun to game on. The screen is pretty reflective but no more than my alu macbook and I rarely have any problems with that. My friend who was with me is a Sims player, on a 2.4ghz macbook, and he couldn't believe how much faster and smoother it was on the M11X. Before he tried it he was very skeptical about it and I had yet to convince him it was a powerful machine.
The grey, as mentioned, is fantastic. I was pretty disappointed when it looked glossy silver on a recent youtube vid but it's way closer to the gun metal that everyone thought it would be. I'm glad I didn't get black for sure.
As Rhoden mentioned, it was completely silent. One thing that did suprise me was the weight, it did feel heavy for it's size but i had it's no heavier than my macbook.
All in all I am very happy that I purchased it and cannot wait to have it in my hands. My wife may divorce me !!!!!

 

@Chuck.

Love your photos man. I would gladly drink gallons of milk in one sitting for March 4th to arrive quicker.

 

yes please.

I didn't play with the keyboard either, tho I found the trackpad and buttons to be better than expected.

@bluehaze that was my buddy, I'm sure he won't mind be plastered all over the web! It's small but just doesn't feel small when your using it. I was really pleased with the size, I was getting worried that the black border was stealing too much screen space but it doesn't

 

lol nsxrr..

thanks chuck for the input, hands-on input from community is always the best.. awesome.

 

if they have a 13'' laptop there can you get a picture side by side... i just want to see how the keyboards and over all size compares..

If not its no big deal... im just curious on the keyboard size... im addicted to my m1330 and need a replacement... looks almost too small for a main comp

 

yeah the crowd was insane all over dt! worse part is.. the road blocks ugh, hard driving around! pardon me for asking a noob question, is the customizable name plate on the alienware available for canada?

it sucks to see its 100 bucks more and no name plate here oh well at least its better off than some parts of the world.

when is your m11x scheduled to arrive?

 

No name plate in Canada. If you factor in the exchange rate and the fact that Bluetooth is included it's not much different... The rebates is what makes a big difference. I know EPP up here will give me 7% off so that's a welcome break.

Mine is not scheduled to arrive yet as I still need to order it. Started the process last week but the rep was annoying me so I didn't go ahead.