Sneak peek on the upcoming M17x and M14x

I am not understanding why we started a new thread for the exact same discussion. I will be merging this with the previous one. One speculation thread is enough.

Feel free to update the opening post of the original thread with new information.

 

I'm curious too, don't see any big flashy grill lights

 

To me that looks awesome - configurable lighting on the lid again, possibly on the sides too!

Charge port is on the side, don't know if that is a positive or negative...

 

Doesn't matter too much really. Ideally the back would be best, but as long as it's not on the right side, it's fine.

 

I personally don't like the "new look" if that's how it's gonna be. If the trackpad is gonna be some horrid colour, permanently - like the images on the first page where it seems to be a solid colour that sticks out like a sore thumb - that would do my head in. That keyboard from the first page also looks cheap, nasty and super-plasticky.

Ewwwww....no thanks, I'll stick to the R1/R2 aesthetics. Still, I will reserve "final judgement" for when we know more about construction, build quality, materials etc etc

 

Not everyone can think like a moderator you know.
First post updated.

 

Looks like they went with a clickpad

 

To me it looks like it's part of the lighting system, like the trackpad border is now. Basically having the entire trackpad glow instead of just the edges - and it would probably be black or grey when turned off.

Hope they keep the same keyboard though, it's one of my favorite things about this laptop.

I think I can see two buttons just underneath it on the m17x picture, not entirely sure though. A clickpad would really suck

 

It does look a lot cheaper now, although it seems reminiscent of the m7900 laptops and such.

I agree though, hopefully the trackpad is not some kind of horridly visible color like that, makes it look like some kind of cheap MSI gaming laptop. Still wish they would just go for a completely new design altogether, something different from the crowd

EDIT: Oh god, I just realized something then. On the first page, I thought the pink thing on the touchpad on the m14x picture was just some sort of manufacturing cover or something.

That is the touchpad.

What are they thinking?

 

IF, just IF the trackpad is a solid colour that is not actually "lighting", it's gonna look like someone's left a post-it note on the palmrest....yuck!. I'm all for a bit of nice subtle lighting, but having the whole thing light up is kind of a bit OTT. Heck, for one thing, I think it would be distracting as hell all lit up like a christmas tree - and on top of that, it would reflect something awful in the glossy (grrrr) display...

 

I would not pay too much attention to any of these images; pretend that Alienware knows what it is doing until the release.

unless the vote in my signature garners enough support.

 

Won't change a damn thing for this generation either way.

 

It's a great idea, something that we have banged on at Dell about for some time now. They appear to have not listened in the past but you never know for the future. Unfortunately, it's a bit late for this current line-up refresh so I guess we will have to wait another couple of years for the next refresh....

 

I agree if someone say most alienware models looks the same and I do agree if they need a redesign, but this is just not it..

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I believe it's japanese.. I wonder what it says too

Sent from my PadFone 2 using Tapatalk 2

 

Trying to extract the characters and then using Google translate makes some funny results, but the English words are enough. Probably a new LED design, comes with latest i7 and geforce graphics. World release at E3.

 

Also, bottom line of text for the X51 seems to mention something about the PS4, if I'm not mistaken??

 

That's pretty cool. I'm getting a little more excited!

 

I can't see what's so different from the current X51?

EDIT: Well since the X51 is getting the GTX 670 it will come with 330W PSU that's used for the M18x.

 

I am not a big fan of that design but e3 might change my thinking.

Edit: the more I look at the pics, the more it reminds me if early g-series asus laptops and overheating problems

 

need to see some close ups before I really decide if I want one, but that touchpad still looks like it could be annoying if lit up all the time. If I could turn it off or something though to make it look semi normal I'd be happy though.

 

My take on this:

Touchpad:
It lights up. Clevo does that as well with their newest Haswell P177SM notebooks ( picture). Personally I don`t see the fuzz about it or whats the use for it. I guess if you sit in a dark room it would be nice, but illuminating the entire area seems overkill. Better to light up the boarders around imo.
But I`m certain the light can easily be disabled for those who don`t want it.

Keyboard.
From the picture it is pretty much confirmed that Dell is abandoning the old AlienFX keyboard. Thank god for that. Me and a ton of people have wanted to buy Alienware notebooks but the keyboard was just too horrible and cheap looking. It seems that Dell goes the same way as Clevo and MSI and use a more professional look on their keyboards. With the right light effects, it looks georgous in the dark. And you keep the sophisticated and professional look in daylight.
A welcome addition in my opinion to Alienware notebooks.

Build quality.
Some may remember my post about the rumors earlier. One new addition to Alienware notebooks will be that they have ditched plastic and use Magnesium alloy instead. To my eyes it looks like that rumor is gonna turn out to be true too. Especially when looking at the lid. That silver colour and the way it reflect the light is a dead give away that it have a different surface than plastic, and its either aluminum or magnesium. I can`t describe how welcome that is. Awesome.

Design:
To me it looks like a sporty Asus G-series notebook. It have a sort of stealthy look but at the same time it looks really sporty with the lines along the sides of the notebook. They have kept the alien head on the top that clearly screams its a Alienware notebook. Cool

Note: Another rumour about the upcoming notebooks is that you can select IPS or matte screen

 

I don't like the new looks at all. AW has been attractive so far because it clearly stood out, both in terms of design and colors it offered (deep matt black vs. very unusual red). The device pictured above looks 'mainstream sh*tty', let's face it. There's nothing fancy about it.

I'd say it would be better to fix all the problems we've had with AW so far instead of brining something completely different (what will have its own new constellation of issues). AW could simply fix all the problems listed in this forum at the same time fulfilling most reasonable 'wishes' and would get a perfect line of issue-free notebooks this way.

For instance, this new lit-up touchpad (which will only annoy during nightly gaming) will not resolve AW's main issues: poor factory quality control and annoying, incompetent and never calling back sale reps.

Looks like after owning several of AW devices, I am going to part my ways with the brand. If I want to own a crap Asus gaming notebook, I will get one. I don't need AW to sell one to me for 3x the price. Too bad, I really liked AW so far.

 

I'd say just a few things in response to cloudfire's post above

Keyboard - there are obviously a lot of people who LIKE the current style keyboard. Sales would reflect that. Imitating Clevo/Msi/Asus would be a backward step IMHO, and heck...the pictures you posted picture a really horrid looking plastic, bland, run-of-the-mill KB that I expect to see when I walk into my local PC World and look at all the mass aimed crap that they sell. The current KB looks fine for professional use with light zones turned off - I fail to see the big hatred towards it

Build quality - I'd be VERY suprised to see AW reverse the trend of offering aluminium CASING on anything but the flagship. Let's not get confused between aluminium and magnesium alloy here, the latter is used to make the chassis light and strong, not to provide the external looks. It's expensive as hell and given Dell's current financial plight, I cannot see them making ALL their AW machines out of this type of construction AND offering aluminium casing for every notebook. There is simply no need on smaller models and seems a rather extravagant move given financial circumstances.

Design - if I wanted an something that looked like an Asus, I'd buy an Asus - period. I don't and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people that would agree that they bought their AW because of it's unique design that sets it apart from the likes of Asus, MSI, Clevo etc....

Other than that, I'd agree with the touchpad - as long as it isn't some great big blob of colour smack bang in the middle of the palmrest that has nothing to do with AlienFX. If we could turn it off and have it look like a normal trackpad, that's fine by me. Otherwise - bad move AW, that sucks. IPS panel options would be welcomed, still yet to be seen to be believed.....

 

At first I was about to laugh seeing stevie wrote pretty much the same thing I did. But there's really nothing funny here. The fact that steviejones133 and I said pretty much the same thing at exactly same time, and we both happened to be more or less brand connoisseurs, clearly proves a particular point here: new AW line will alienate a lot of (loyal) people.

 

Hahaha, yeah - great minds think alike, eh?

 

Meh, time is changing wether you grumpy old guys with your old habbits like it or not.

Dell have been hurting with negative revenue in basically every sector for the last year. If you can`t see that this new model is an attempt to ditch the toylike keyboard and to appeal to more than just Alienware fanboys, then move away. They might alienate (pun intended ) some of their die hard fans, but in the same process get a lot of new customers.

I`m very certain that the new design have been thoroughly thought through in every aspect. Once they make a new design they are kinda stuck with it for quite some time so you can bet there is a lot of tactic and planning behind these models.

As for the keyboard, GT70 Steelseries keyboard looks kinda cheap too from a certain angle, but it trump the Alienware keyboard in every single way. So don`t go all doom just because of that picture I posted. Like I said earlier, it looks really nice in the dark and keep a professional look in the daylight. I think the M17x keyboard in the picture does look a lot like a MSI/Clevo keyboard.
http://programming4.us/image/012013/MSI%20GT70%20Gaming%20Laptop%20Review%20_1.jpg

 

Same could be said about a $5 hooker, but once the daylight hits, you realise you have a nasty bit of stuff sat in your lap.........

As Dark Skies said (and said it very well), don't try and sell AW fanatics a plastic-fantastic machine and seriously expect us to fork out three times the cost for a MSI mutant imitation...if my machine looked like that last image you posted, I'd toss it off the nearest hi-rise I could find.

 

hahaha, that made me laugh out loud

 

Hehehe - glad I gave you a laugh, Bro!

 

Oh you smirk at MSI now....

 

Nah, each to their own. If we all liked the same things, life would be boring as hell...

 

I think in time this style will grow on people..its a major change in design

and if they're magnesium alloy wouldn't everyone be happy?

and in the words of massive breasted Dolly Parton "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap"

 

There is not a single thing I like about that new design. It looks horrendous IMO. They have gotten rid of everything I liked about the older styling.

 

Considering I'm fairly new to the whole Alienware scene, I have to say I like it. Their goal with this refresh is to probably attract new people to their systems, and I feel like this is a good strategy to do so. The appearance -- while it may not be the classic Alienware style -- is unique in itself and I'm sure you guys will learn to love it.

I'm just wondering what has been changed besides the appearance. For example, more/all SATA III? Thunderbolt? Cooling? Double-ball bearing fans for silence? etc.

 

Yup loving the cleaner lines of the new design. Hopefully, they can remove the flex in their keyboard and ill be very happy with the update.

 

To be honest, we know there will always be good specs offered on AW machines. What I am mostly interested in is if we can have a quiet gaming, and good ergonomics. They should take clues from Asus' cooling system and wedge shape here, in my opinion. I bet they didn't care about it. We'll probably continue to get a blocky leafblower with lights. Don't take it the wrong way... I just hope they could care about those things, because it's important to me.

Anyway, look forward to their launch.

 

It may be a bit louder than an asus machine, but my r3 stayed a lot cooler under load with a 460m back in the day than my friends g73 with equivalent specs. Not sure how the g75 is as I haven't really had the chance to play with one though. Each to their own.

 

the m17x looks like an MSI with the angular shapes

 

Give me the aluminum/magnesium shell and I'm a very happy man. Oh, and more than just Space Black, too.

 

I understand new line up is a new design and made to attract new customers, but it's not a radical new design, it's just a bit modified from what Sony had in vaio laptops with p4 processors, too old.

Rather than focusing on design alone, dell/aw needs to go back to its roots, go for simplicity lik 6400/9300/9400 inspirons, super easy to dismantle the whole laptops and upgrade, go for twin lcds like m1730, offer super high resolutions panel options, offer customers to buy laptops with odd-to-hdd converter, take a hint from Lenovo and offer same keyboard, offer more colour choices (I know many girls, that bought a vaio just because it came in a pretty colour they like and didn't even care about price and performance and these were worse laptops when it came to price vs performance), throw crazy options out there, add a pico projector to m18x lid, add dual/quad msata with lsi controller, be crazy and offer things that attract new customers and keep old customers, do the things that competition cannot afford to do, or even think about.

Don't just focus on design alone. It's aw for gods sake, go big or go home.

/rant.

 

After seeing the new pics/design I have to say it's much better now than when I first seen them, still not a fan of the lighted touchpad but I'm sure you'll have some control over it with FX. More interested in the M14x and hopefully they did this new model justice and added a top end GPU (770M would be great) and fixed the extremely loud fans, I know most gaming laptops are generally not exactly quiet but the last M14x was annoying and took it to another level of loud.
Wonder what reference to the PS4 was.

 

I don't see why people are complaining about designs that may not even be real.

By the way, this design is for the Playstation 5. Discuss.

 

You right. But right now no one know ones knows if its real or not. This is all just speculation.

Regarding your PS5 pic, as much as id like to say what i think its better if you started another thread for it

 

do you think the keyboard will be steelseries? or at least steelseries replaceable?

and how viable is the 780m how long will one be able to game with such a card? i viewed the benchmark threads and i must admit my ignorance of the numbers and what they mean

 

No, and no.

Haven't a clue, depends on games. It's a bit more powerful than a 680MX.

 

The 780M is about 10%-15% better than already powerful 680M, those aren't official just from what I've seen so far,( I could be wrong but it's my best estimate) how that translates to games is still to be seen but it should be viable for years to come.

 

GTX 780M is way better than 10-15% over the GTX 680M. Probably around 30% faster in average. With the new cool Alienware design, the new notebooks are gonna be a blast.

Here are a few game benchmarks
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/718021-i-m-upgrading-you-gtx-780m-review-inside-49.html#post9208931

 

I took a look at this thread and Its like reading a foreign language..I have no background knowledge...I was hoping for some perspective..you says its 10% stronger than a 680m well how strong is that? my current lappy is shameful i don't want to embarrass myself but i want to understand more than I care about looking stupid

 

At stock, it's more. Overclocked, not so much. But I suppose 15% - 25% increase in one generation is substantial.

The GTX 780 is amazing... It's just as good as the GTX Titan, and half the cost! I can't wait to replace my GTX 690 with a 790.

Back to the topic!

 

what is this i am hearing??? is there gonna be an alienware 21x ? google it up.

as for the new generation, god knows whats dell gonna show up with on e3, and that ps4 reference i am sure they are saying THE PS4 SUX, it can play games in medium settings, buy the X51 for 3 times the amount of a ps4 and enjoy lights and ultimate performance!

the new alienware series looks good from top, idk like i said earlier i would have gone 4 msi and stuff, and u ppl just pointed out d errors its got and stuff, thing is alienware looked good from THE OUTSIDE and msi THE INSIDE. [My opinion ]. maybe they did something 2 d borders this time? i dont think so, i think that alienware went for some cheap remodification of the design to as to make some more profit, the new designs look thicker so i guess dell is trying to improve the cooling [ NO THROTTLING!!!! maybe ] as for the alien fx, dell would be stupid to remove that, since the launch of the alienware series, its main marketing strategy 2 sell alienware was WE GOT CHRISTMAS LIGHTS ON OUR LAPTOPS!

As for the mouse pad, PLS PLS tell me they improved it to something like 2 button apple mouse their trackpad is real SMOOTH!!

i have been trying to enlarge the pic and optimise it 2 check out whether i can c the ports. but hell.

BTW, my alienware been out for d last week, something's wrong with the motherboard, as of know its been less than a year and i have got 5 new motherboards , 1 new keyboard, 1 new led (or lcd ?) i love their warranty, do u think i can ask them to replace my laptop if it goes out 1 more time and get the r5? ?

hope the new alienware's are worth it. oh if only asus get 780m then only will alienware get some competition