The Alienware M11x, Dell’s new disco-delicious ultraportable gaming laptop, may have the looks, but is its relatively high price tag justified by rip-roaring performance? We put it to the test, so read on and find out if it lives up to the hype in our Alienware M11x review.
Read the rest of our Alienware M11x review:
Alienware M11x review: Perfect PC gaming on the go?
Alienware M11x review: Out of this world design?
Alienware M11x review: Graphics for gaming?
The problem with putting out a relatively tiny gaming laptop like the Alienware M11x is that the designers can’t just cram in top-end performance hardware without compromise. The engineers have been forced to balance size, performance and portability to crack the conundrum, rather than just sticking in the latest graphics card and knocking off for the day.
So how does the Alienware M11x fare? On paper, there’s a lot to be excited about. A 1.3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor is plenty powerful enough for tackling heavy online use and a multitude of open apps, and the 4GB of DDR3 memory (upgradeable to 8GB) qualifies the Alienware M11x as a workhorse of an ultraportable, and ideal for hooking up to a larger screen to better cope with all those open applications.
FutureMark’s Peacekeeper benchmark software, which puts a value to heavy internet usage, scored the AlienwareM11x at 1921. That’s significantly lower than the 3000 points and higher scored by many 15″ laptops, but it’s an awful lot more than the meagre sub-1500 numbers of the other “everyday usage” competitor category – the piddly Intel Atom netbook.
On two recent road trips to the UK’s Lake District which we spent writing, browsing the web and playing Solitaire, we were able to eke six hours and a half hours from the Alienware M11x with the screen at full brightness while using the integrated graphics chipset. That’s a significant shortfall from the eight hours claimed on Dell’s website, but we think you’d get quite a lot closer to that figure with WiFi disabled, the screen brightness turned down and Overclocking disabled.
Yes, we did say overclocking – this is an Alienware laptop after all, and the nice chaps at Alienware will have already overclocked the M11X all the way to 1.73 GHz when you take it out of the box. You can toggle it on and off quite easily at start up, and while having it on will get the fan whirring, the speed boost really is visibly noticeable. At the higher clock speed we achieved PCMARK05 performance benchmark results of 4,641, quite a bit faster than a similarly specced Asus UL50VT (3,682) thanks to the dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 335M graphics card.
Naturally though, you aren’t going to sit around inside with the Alienware M11x running benchmarks – you’ll want to tote it around on all manner of planes, trains and automobiles. The eight cell battery will power your mobile gaming sessions for just over two hours before giving up the ghost, so you may need to intersperse Modern Warfare 2 firefights with some Minesweeper solitude. Somewhat limiting is the fact that the battery is not hot-swappable, as it’s built into the chassis, so carrying around a spare isn’t an option.
The Alienware M11x really does prove that good things can come in small and speedy packages, albeit at the price of reduced battery life and a larger financial outlay. But if you’re a gamer looking for portable playing time, you likely won’t care a jot.
Read the rest of our Alienware M11x review:
Alienware M11x review: Perfect PC gaming on the go?
Alienware M11x review: Out of this world design?
Alienware M11x review: Graphics for gaming?
