Alienware M17x
Whenever you call something ‘the most powerful laptop computer within the universe,’ you’ve a lot to live up to. And Dell’s flagship gaming system, the Alienware M17x ($4,649 as configured), mainly lives as much as these claims. This anodized aluminum beast is loaded using the fastest hardware you can place in a notebook today, such as two of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 280M graphics cards along with a 2.53-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX9300 CPU. It’s a semi-truck of a pc, and it’ll shred the newest 3D titles like a diamond-toothed chainsaw through a zombie skull, but is it really worth nearly five grand’
Design
Measuring 16.0 x 12.6 x 2.1 inches and beginning at 11.6 pounds (depending on your configuration), the M17x will be the kind of notebook that demands a hernia belt just to lift off a desk. But that just indicates there’s much more to adore. Having a case made of anodized aluminum, this notebook looks and feels as difficult because the Batmobile. Two speakers around the front of the computer possess a sports automobile look, and every includes a honeycomb grill that reminds us of the physique armor in Crysis.
Our system had a matte Room Black end, but it’s also obtainable in Lunar Silver and Nebular Red. There aren’t any visible screws anywhere but on the custom-made name plate, which resides on the underbelly with the beast. Like a private rave, Alienware managed to cram customizable lights in a number of locations, such as the Alienware logo below the 17-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution display, along the touchpad, beneath the keyboard, on the Alienware head-shaped energy button, as well as on the back again with the lid.
Our greatest beef with the M17x’s industrial style is its lid. It feels like the hinge isn’t powerful sufficient to last via thousands of openings and closings. Whenever you flick it lightly, the lid bounces back and forth a bit’a testament to its weight. We’d have preferred a much sturdier hinge that stretched the breadth with the computer’s underside to make certain lifelong sturdiness.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The M17x’s keyboard is huge and strong. The keys don’t have any flex to them, so it’s as if you’re typing on a genuine desktop keyboard. As with Alienware’s previous desktop replacement methods, there’s a complete quantity pad, too, which indicates you can store all of your macros in video games like World of Warcraft. As mentioned above, you are able to tweak the keyboard’s backlight colours, and Alienware even enables you to alter the keyboard by area. So, for example, you are able to possess the far left of your keyboard glow blue, the middle-left glow red, the middle-right glow orange, and also the far correct glow green. It’s a truly awesome snow-cone-looking impact, but one numerous will probably pass up for fear of generating their keyboard appear like a clown’s wig.
Over the keyboard are soft-touch buttons for ejecting Blu-ray discs, complete media controls for skip and play/pause, volume controls, a wireless start button, and quick-launch buttons for that system’s AlienFusion control panel (1 for controlling lights and an additional for its power-tweaking Stealth Mode).
The touchpad on the M17x is large and flush with the wrist rest, except for a little glowing border; its honeycomb texture allows for swift finger glides across the surface. The two touchpad buttons provided good feedback, but when you’re playing an initial individual shooter you’ll wish to resort to a complete gaming mouse for quicker button presses.
Ports and Webcam
The M17x has an assortment of ports, but some are awkwardly placed. On the left side of the unit are: HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, two USB 2.0, eSATA, DisplayPort, FireWire, along with a Kensington lock slot. The best side has two additional USB 2.0 ports, an 8-in-1 memory card reader, and an ExpressCard/54 slot. The mic, line-in, and line-out jacks are positioned around the back right side, which means that you’ll need to run your headphones around the computer; we choose these to become around the front of the chassis. The charging port is conveniently positioned around the back again of the M17x.
The webcam was satisfactory for video clip chatting throughout our Skype exams, but we discovered the colors to become a little oversaturated, and had been informed that our face could be a little brighter. There was a bit of motion blur throughout quick movements, like when we waved our hands around, but the high quality was great overall.
Display and Speakers
The M17x includes a large 17-inch show having a flushed glass plate that covers the whole surface. It sports a crisp, 1920 x 1200 high-definition resolution for each a killer movie watching and gaming experience. The high-gloss end resulted in a fair quantity of glare, so you’ll wish to maintain off on playing video games or viewing films until you dim the lights.
The speakers around the M17x had been a few of the very best we’ve heard on the notebook. They were loud and crisp, permitting us to clearly hear our commander’s voice belting out commands in Call of Duty: Globe at War, together with the click-clacking of footsteps about us. They’re also loud enough to fill a small room with music. When we streamed the New Country station from Slacker Radio, the audio didn’t distort at high volumes, and the guitars in Kenny Chesney’s ‘I’m Alive’ sounded in stability with his voice.
We watched an episode of Heroes on the M17x and discovered the playback was extremely good at the display’s full 1200p resolution. We did notice, nevertheless, the Blu-ray looked a little grainy, and there had been a few hints of artifacts when we looked closely in the edges of a house in opposition to a blue sky. Sitting back again in our chair, though, these were barely noticeable; an action scene of two with the main characters operating from a police officer played back easily, voices stayed in sync, the audio was clear of any popping, and we didn’t experience any frame stuttering.
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