My Alienware M15x Review

Introduction

Ever since I saw an Alienware advertisement in one of my newspapers many years ago I had wanted one but had never been able to put aside enough funds to be able to purchase one of my own. However, I am now and in University thanks to extra scholarships I have gotten from here I was finally able to pull the trigger on one of these babies.

I decided upon the M15x mostly due to the fact that I needed something that I could take to class with me, game on, and have a decent amount of battery life. The M15x fulfilled all of these needs with style courtesy of the awesome design and lights. After about a week and a half of reading everything I could find about this laptop on these forums and other places I knew that it was "the one" so I went ahead and ordered it with the following specs.

Specs.

[1] Area-51® m15x

Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support
Design & Display: Silver Skullcap Design
Display: 15.4" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p)
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Blue
Video/Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® Series - 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 512MB
System Drive: 320GB 7,200RPM (16MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
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
Mobile Essentials: Additional Battery – 6-cell Smart Bay Battery
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mobile Binder
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Personalized Nameplate
Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Protective Cloth Sleeve
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Keyboard Diagram Overlay
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Smooth Mylar Touchpad
Avatar: Alienhead 3D
Window Style: Default Window Style
Mouse Pointers: Standard Mouse Pointers
Power Plan: Standard Power Plan
Automatic Updates: Automatic Updates On
Time Zones: (GMT - 5.00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

[1] Holiday Exclusive; Limited Time Offer
[1] Limited Time Offer; Free Shipping

SubTotal: C$3,194.00
Shipping: C$173.49
Discount: C$400.70
GST: C$148.34
PST: C$237.34
HST: C$0.00
Order Total: C$3,352.47

I had 4 gigs of ram sitting at home so I saved a good bit of money with that but other than that I went with as good of a laptop that I could afford with my Canadian $ 3400.00 budget.

Purchase and Transit Time Experience

I ordered the laptop on January 5th and since Alienware did not accept Paypal e-checks I had to use wire transfer as my method of payment. This did add a day or two alongside transfer charges of $ 30.00 to my purchase but it wasn't too bad.

The estimated shipping date was quoted to me as January 19th so I was all set for having to wait until the end of January until I would get my laptop. However, as luck would have it I was told by an Alienware rep on the phone that my laptop would be arriving even before the estimated ship date and boy was she right! January 16th arrived and I reached home from University to find my M15x ready for me drool over. Kudos to Alienware CS for their great speed in getting my laptop to me.

My Rating: 10/10

Design

The M15x is even more beautiful than all the pictures and videos that I saw suggested. It is sleek yet sophisticated and just screams style! One thing I was initially worried about when I oredered the laptop was that the chassis would be an absolute fingerprint magnet however, aside from the black border around the screen all areas of the m15x are very resistant to fingerprints and those that do sneak on are very easy to clean with a microfiber cloth.

The other concern I had was regarding the hinges since I had read so many horror stories but though there is a slight creaking sound I don't feel that the hinges are cheaply made and the wobbliness of the screen was near non-existent as well. All in all, quite happy with that aspect and I hope they last a long time.

My Rating: 8/10

Size & Weight

The laptop is not very large or thick at all and is quite manageable when you need to take it with you to classes. I have a 17" laptop backpack that has served me well over the years and I am using it now for my M15x as well. It became quite clear to me though that the M15x is quite close to my previous 17" though as it fit pretty snugly in my backpack but then again having a snug fit is always good in a laptop bag to avoid movement.

My Rating: 8/10

Keyboard

What can I say here that has not already been said by countless other reviews? The keyboard is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! It is by far the best keyboard I have ever used, laptop or otherwise. The keys have an amazing feel to them and give plenty of room for one to type. Keyboard lag is non-existent as well.

My Rating: 10/10

Touchpad

Now this has been one of the two disappointing aspects of this laptop for me. The touchpad, I found, was nearly unusable until I put the sticker on and though it did improve considerably with that, it was still below what I expect from a laptop touchpad. The sensitivity on it is not all that great and the rocker buttons were not a great choice by Alienware in my opinion. It is not that great of an issue I suppose since the only time I have to use the touchpad is during class but it is something that I would like improved.

My Rating:
3/10 Without Sticker
6/10 With Sticker

Speakers

This is the second and last of my disappointments with this laptop. The speakers give off an annoying hiss when played loudly, have no bass to really speak off and the treble is lacking as well. A pair of headphones or a speaker set are a must to really enjoy sound from this laptop.

My Rating: 5/10

Webcam and Built-In Microphone

The webcam works as expected as does the microphone. Nothing extraordinary but gets the job done. My cousin had no problems hearing or seeing me when I tested it out.

My Rating: 7/10

Battery Life

When I purchased this laptop battery life was one of my biggest considerations and with the smart bay battery alongside the regular 6-cell battery, the M15x does not disappoint!

I just had a whole day of classes (about 6 hours worth) with this laptop on stealth mode, binary gfx, brightness lowered to halfway, power saver mode and alien fx turned off and I HAD YET TO RECEIVE the critical battery notification. That is absolutely amazing for a laptop with this capability and thus I can easily say that this can function as both a desktop replacement and a computer to take to classes.

My Rating: 10/10

Fan Noise & Temperature

During classes when it was using all the settings I mentioned previously, the fan did not even spin ONCE! I was quite scared during class that this could be dangerous yet when I checked the temperatures of the cpu, it was idling in the mid 40's Celsius. That is absolutely superb!

During gaming, the fans can get loud but never is it a distraction. After about an hour and a half of Crysis I minimized the game to check the temps and even during all of that computer killing madness the temps never went above 80. That is well below anywhere that could do any damage internally so I am very pleased with that.

My Rating: 9/10

Gaming Performance and Benchmarks

Doom 3
Doom 3: 94.9 fps
3DMark 2006
Customer Information:
3DMark Score: 10,319.00 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score: 4,764.00
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 4,894.00
CPU Score: 2,264.00
Game Score: 0.00 Points
SM2.0 Graphics Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon: 39.61 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest: 39.79 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley: 0.72 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley: 1.14 FPS
HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests
HDR1 - Canyon Flight: 45.11 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze: 52.76 FPS
Unreal Tournament 3 Demo
Customer Information:
Average FPS: 60.50 FPS
Time Spent Over 30 FPS: 99.44 percent of total benchmark time was spent above 30 FPS

With a 3DMark 06 score of over 10 000 this is definitely a powerful laptop and my subsequent gaming only stood to prove this. I have not done extensive benchmarks on my games as of yet but the following will give a good idea on how well you can expect these games to run. The following games were played using the 185.20 drivers from laptopvideo2go:

Crysis
1920 x 1200
Triple C Pack Level 4
Fraps reports between 20-25 FPS at all times which is very playable for this game

Call of Duty 4
1920 x 1200
All Graphical Settings Maxed and 2x AA
Fraps reports around 60 FPS at all times. This game looks and runs absolutely beautifully alongside being one of the most fun out there as well!

Bioshock
1920 x 1200
All Graphical Settings Maxed
The game never dips below 65 frames according to FRAPS. Another gem of a game which has an amazing atmosphere that the M15x has absolutely no problem running through and giving the gamer an experience of a life time with it.

My Rating: 9/10 This system will play absolutely anything that you throw at it with ease bar Crysis which it will also run albeit worse than other games.

Conclusion

I couldn't be any happier with my purchase and though I was quite nervous initially on ordering it due to the large amount of negativity around the M15x, I am glad that I took the plunge. What you get with the M15x is an amazing laptop that has a rare combination of extreme power, great style, smaller size, and great battery life. That combo is just unbeatable in my opinion and I would definitely recommend the M15x to all potential buyers despite a few issues that it may have.

Overall Rating: 9/10

PS: I do not have my digital camera with me now but I will add many photos over the weekend.

 

I like your review. And you also recommended others to buy it too. Cool. +rep
Battery life is in my opinion the greatest asset for this laptop.

 

You seem to skim over it's expensiveness, which although was not a problem for you, is for many people.

However, I'm glad you feel that the hinges are okay, and I'd like to know if you feel anything giving way.

Overall, great review.

 

if that's an issue for you, you shouldn't be looking at AW. simple as that.

 

Good thorough review. Thanks for taking the time out to write it down.

 

I apologize if I seem like I "skimmed" over the expensiveness but I do feel I mentioned the fact that I always wanted one but never had the money until a recent scholarship.

Thanks for your and everyone else's feedback by the way and yes the I don't mind the hinges and don't think that they are giving way or anything of the sort

 

Nice Review i ordered mine on jan 5th also with most of the same specs as yours but its only on phase 7 right now =(

 

yea nice review and

i ordered the m17 on dec 23 and i am in phase 6 i was in hase 7 but i had to go back 10 days ago so lucky you lol

 

The power and battery ratio on this laptop is amazing. I love it. It's great.
I also go to school, and on a full charge, intergrated gpu, it will last me the whole day. Thats 10 periods (each period is 35mins)
With windows 7 I get an extra 30mins out the batery life as well .

 

Nice, review.

 

Nice review overall, do you have any pics??

 

Thanks for the feedback. I will have extensive amounts of pictures posted this weekend when i get access to my digital camera so stay tuned for those.

 

Great review, just like you, I Love my M15X. Great machine. runs like a charm

 

Good Review. I realize this may not be where I need to bring this but am looking for help and dont know where to go. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I just received my m15x on Thursday January 29 and was really excited to get my paws on it. I spent time over the weekend with the system and thats when I noticed some issues. I have a flickering volume light control, randomly changing volume indicator (its happening right now) and unresponsive touchpad, specifically when the volume indicator flashes. The machine isnt coming out of hibernation properly with lights not coming on etc. I was on the phone with tech support last night and they were not able to resolve issue. They want me to send in for repair and Im not sure thats what I want to do. Im not trying to bash Alienware here but this problem is well documented and has been an issue since the m15x came out. I find it amazing that the tester didnt notice this issue as its apparent when machine is on. I almost forgot to mention that this happens on battery power only except for the hibernation issue which occurs whenever I hibernate. Im hoping someone has a fix to this. I had many choices of portables and this is the one I want!!! Maybe Roswell can help?

 

How does vista 64 run with just 1gb of ram?

Are you planning on upgrading some more ram yourself?

 

@Diggity1

I'm sorry to hear that man. Have you tried using your restore partition and doing a recovery to see if that fixes your issues? Other than that I would definitely contact Roswell as they should be able to help you out more than the regular tech support.

@Spiral Trance

At the bottom of my specs I noted that I had 4 gigs that I bought seperately to save some money so yes I did upgrade myself

 

Hey, nice review, you convinced me that if I ever need a portable laptop for college, the M15x will be my first choice (unless something comes out in the next year )

+rep

 

im just about to start my exams at school and i need to start swotting up! iv been interested in this laptop for some time now but i dont want to purchase it if its not going to be of any use to me. i like gaming, dont get me wrong but i need to know if it will be any good with any of the basic office and photo manipulation software (probably a stupid question but there you go ) so any help i can get would be much appreciated, cheers!

 

I actually find the touchpad amazing to use Without the sticker
Its much smoother and you don't even need to touch hard to move.
with the sticker its just rough and horrible to use, its like moving on sand paper lol

leave it as it is with no sticker its the best touchpad I've ever used compare to the Asus G1S, Toshiba A300, Sony and Fujitsu.

You do need to wait for the touchpad bit to be a bit greasy for it to work best tho, so just spread your finger prints on the touchpad then you get the best touchpad ever ^^

 

I had the same problem with you too, I ordered from alienware uk, apparently the drivers they give me are not the most updated version = = In battery mode if I slide the volume to right it goes left then jumps randomly...I also get keyboard lags too.

I solve this problem by just downloading the OSD and command Centre(Don't use the one on support cd!)from myHive in the support section, uninstalled command centre and OSD, then reinstall OSD then command Centre then the problem is solved

I do however get the theme creating problem = = but then it maybe just the fact I'm using Chinese Vista, and I cba to download the english pack.

I also realised m15x won't switch on if I have the right USB slot plugged in during start up, so I now plug my mouse on the left side and leave the right slot free

 

@ DIGGITY1

This is the same problem affecting my brand new m15x delivered 2/27/09. It is a problem with the entire top half of the notebook body (not screen) that surrounds the keyboard. In AW's mind this is one part. According to Roswell, they will not ship this part to you. You must send it in for replacement.

In addition to wonky volume issues (light blinking and icon appearing repeatedly) I also experienced random shutdowns and restarts AW suggested were being caused by a loose battery connection. This is, in fact, the same shorting that I am experiencing with the rest of the failing piece. I was unable to draw this conclusion with AW as the problem is sporadic and it disappeared shortly after connecting the power brick while on the phone with them. To remedy this I simply deactivated the actions of the power button in the windows power options.

Furthermore, I have an entire dead zone (the right-most fifth) on my touchpad. Again, same failing part.

I have not sent in my notebook for service yet because the problem isn't bad enough for me to be without the notebook for most likely a month (if all the stars aligned it could take less than two weeks). Plugging in a mouse, and disabling certain features will hold me over until I go camping or somewhere I won't need a notebook for a stretch.

As to how they miss this...

One part using a usb mouse to configure the systems instead of the touchpad.

One part bad luck.

Two parts Peter Principle at work.

Too many to number parts failing at every level from assembly to shipping. Now that I've heard of others with this problem. The only thing I've read that tops this is the units (I think m17x's) that shipped with stickers still on the GPUs.

FIX YOUR 200 POINT JOKE OF A QUALITY CONTROL PROCESS ALIENWARE!!!

YOUR SYSTEMS ARE AWESOME, BUT YOUR ASSEMBLY LINE NEEDS IMMEDIATE AND SIGNIFICANT ATTENTION.

p.s. Any Admin want to migrate Diggity1 related stuff to it's own thread?

 

Oh yeah, BTW... Excellent Review. Sorry to hijack the thread, but AW's got me all worked up over this issue.

Also, if DIGGITY1 and/or yaure are still tracking this thread, I would be interested to know for sure if either of you went with Vista 64 for your m15x as I still have a tiny, inescapable, lingering suspicion this has something to do with it.

 

As a quick update guys it has now been almost 3 months since I have had the m15x and there have been no problems thus far.

Hinges are great and if anything the creaking has reduced a fair bit since I got it. I always look at the areas that people have posted pics of before in terms of breakage points and it is holding up great so far. Here is to its long life