So today I could check the m17x and the clevo i7...

Hello, I just had an interesting visit in Akihabara (Tokyo). There is a Dell Shop where the m17x in silver is available for checking. In a different shop (faith), there is the D900F and D900c next to each other. I also could check the m980u last month during an nvidia exhibition.

Well, please note that this is my personal feeling about these three gorgeous notebooks.
First of all I played Crysis last month with the m980u and my experience was positive.
I cannot give you fraps info or anything but it was with the very high settings and everything went smoothly. It was not in full HD though but 1600 something...
I became very interested by this laptop. My only problem was the numerous finger prints. No matter how careful you are It really gets everywhere in no time.
It might be just a detail but I don't think spending 10 minutes removing them after each gaming session is really something funny to do...It would personally get on my nerve pretty quickly.

Also even if the weight didn't surprise that much, this is definitely bigger than a 17 inch. I though I would not noticed it but It was clearly obvious.
Oh and yeah, on this version (probably the Japanese one) we had leopard (or Panther ) with glowing blue&red eyes...I am sure they intended well but this is great to impress your kids but in my opinion you will get annoyed with it very quick.

So today I saw the D900F which is EXACTLY like the D900C, I can tell because they were next to each other!
I could see that the gaming perf was higher on the D900C with 8800m gtx SLI. It was only mmos and monster hunter demos but still D900c>D900F...
A good discount was on the D900c so I see zero reason for a gamer to go for D900F. Of course if you need it for computing, the D900F is the best today.

Now the M17x....Well I didn't like all the desktop design from AW and I don't like the XPS notebooks (were in the shop as well). But this one is clearly amazing. It has a sleek design which is professionnal and at the same time you know it's a gaming machine. Difficult to express but I don't think people would be ashamed to bring it at work.
It would be the same effect than the 17 mac book pro. And yes the aluminum body is fantastic but it's not everywhere like for the mac pros.
You have also a plastic (or is it magnesium? I can't tell) which absolutely don't feel cheap and NO FINGER PRINTS. Your hands can firmly grab the plastic. Also They added some "carbon" design at different places. When you close the laptop the shape is just perfect, it's really a nice object and you wife may allow you to leave it in the living room : because it looks great.
Last thing: the screen... The whole glass effect with the double lamps...Well they really achieve something there. I have a Dell 30inch at home but I was quiet pleased by the game rendering of this screen.

Yes, it wasn't a performance review, just one opinion from a NON-Alienware fan. This m17x is clearly changing my opinion about AW products, I hope they will continue this way.

 

well that give us a little info. The frist M17x where solid also. and nice looking. But the new ones look nicer.

 

lol I know what you mean about finger prints. The toshiba satellite does the same with finger prints.

nice review

 

Also I want to add 2 things that might be usefull.

The model I saw was the silver one. But the silver is only on the aluminium part. On the top and the bottom. Nothing is silver when you open the notebook from the screen, interior body, keyboard, it's all black.

I thought silver would be inside as well : this is not the case.

Another thing for foreigners living in Japan: The price of the m17x is crazy right now. it's easily over 100 000 yens (1k USD) compared to the US version.

Same thing for the options :-(, in a place like Akihabara where spare parts are so cheap, it sounds like a joke!
The seller who wanted himself to pull the trigger on the notebook shared my opinion. He even told me : You should wait, don't buy it today in Japan.

He was not sure but he might have an explanation: since the XPS gaming line is still selling at the moment in Japan, maybe Dell doesn't want the next AW m17x to be a threat.
I am not sure, but in one month when the deliveries in the US and EU will be going regularly the notebook in Japan will probably have a fairly price.

It's just supposition but I think it makes sense to discontinue the whole XPS range BEFORE to push AW new item.

 

It's realy weard ... we here in germany => AW EU get the m17x with a Q9000 at least BUT if we ant the T9600 we have to pay extra!

@ US the P-something is standert and the Q9000 costs more than the T9600 (or was it even the T9800?)

All in all after trying to find a simmiliar configuration the m17x EU is quite the same "number" in price (X$ = X€) but the €/$ is more or less 1-1,4!

Even with shipping, buying in the USA would be cheaper^^ But It's all about the warrenty...

Do you think Dell did this to support their XPS?

Greetings
Julian

 

Thanks Natadiem. The real world experience are always great. You never know when you read published information on these system whether or not they are genuine. Thanks again!

 

A sry I forget^^ Thanks from me as well!

Greetings
Julian

 

Problems I'd have with an i7 laptop would be, well, for starters, i7 processors use 130W if I remember rightly compared to 45W for the higher end laptop processors. Meaning battery life would be far less even when just working. And not to mention cooling, where laptop processors have a much higher thermal limit than desktop processors, meaning the i7 would likely wear out faster.

And if that's the clevo I remember looking at, it's only got a single 280M, compared to 2 for the M17x.

I have a similar price thing to laugh at. I had my M17 shipped to the Middle East (where I live for most of the year, whereas I'm back in the UK for the summer) and despite the fact that the shipping was 193 euros (compared to £35 for UK shipping) the laptop was STILL cheaper because there's no tax out here

 

Well, it's just what I would do if I had overstock to use... That's what I thought when I saw the gorgeous M17x next to the XPS notebooks...If price is similar, there is something wrong.
You need to start your new item and think a way out for the remaining ones.

You launch the new item with an aggressive price on the main market and you leave a high price on the secondary markets in order to leave XPS as a good option. This would be temporary and gradually.

As long as the hype is on in the US and that you leave the opportunity for the rest of the world to get the new one (by adding one grand :-(...)...

In Asia PC games are mostly mmos, a 8700m is already perfect for most Korean games.

Sadly I cannot take the US version...I need Japanese keyboard.

That's my 2 yen

 

I take it you can just swap out the keyboard.

 

Ah the other problem^^ Normaly you can select which keyboard you want, now with the m17x I can't ... >.<

Greetings
Julian