Alienware m11x laptop review

Introduction

I want to dedicate my review to the Alienware m11x laptop. As many probably know, Alienware specializes in high-end PCs and laptops. Until recently, in their park there were models with a 15-inch screen and 17th, and now they have decided to take the 11-inch frontier. What they did I tell you.

In general, I have always had a weakness for such devices, at first I even wanted to take the HP Mini 311c-1010ER on an ion, but when alienware was announced I was stupefied. The announcement was about 8 hours of battery life, a full-fledged discrete graphics card capable of pulling most games, at maximum settings and small size, what else can you dream of? :)
')

Configuration

Processor :
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.3 GHz, 800 MHz, 3 MB) (via BIOS, it officially accelerates to 1700mhz)
RAM:
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
Video card:
1) NVIDIA Geforce GT 335M ( www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-335M.24060.0.html )
2) Integrated, on Intel GS45 chipset
HDD:
Momentus 7200.4 SATA 3Gb / s 500-GB Hard Drive
Screen:
11.6 inches (29.5 cm) glossy, with LED backlight 1366x768 pixels
Size / Weight:
(width x depth x thickness): 285 x 233 x 33 mm, weight: 2 kg.

Appearance

The top is made of matte plastic, which, nevertheless, catches fingerprints. True, it is enough to wipe 1 time and they will not.


The left side is rich in connectors, from left to right: Kensington lock, vga, usb, lan, hdmi, display port, card reader, IEEE 1394a (why it is needed in the 2010th year is a mystery)


On the right side: 2 usb, 2 headphone outputs and microphone input. If realtek audio drivers enable multi-channel output, the ports will become: front pair of speakers, rear pair and center.

Behind only the exhaust hole of the cooler and the connection of the power adapter.



At the bottom, a sticker with a servisteg (by which you can download firewood from the Dell website for your config, as well as get service support), a battery charge indicator, and a cooler's air intake.


Removing the cover, we get access to the hard drive, RAM, 2 mini pci boards and the battery. Notice how the speakers are located.


Inside the plastic is rough, which can not but rejoice. Fingerprints do not remain, do not get dirty, hands do not slide off. The touchpad is made of “bumpy” material, the fingers do not cling (as on the glossy HP's touch) and in general it is a pleasure to use it.


The keyboard is made of some kind of soft touch, slightly labeled, fingers do not slip. I have no complaints about the layout, but I am unpretentious in this regard, except that the arrows could have been bigger.


But the screen, in my opinion, is not very good. Glossy and covered with clear plastic.

- Backlight

It should also be noted zest Alienware laptops - backlight. Almost everything is lit here: the cooler, the logo on the lid, the logo inside, the name of the laptop, the keyboard, the “eyes” on the front panel and alert icons. The color of some of these things can be configured in the Alien FX utility, the interface looks like this: i6.fastpic.ru/big/2010/0419/31/6f71475c8004dc30a3052bf882fde731.png
Video Demonstration:

Admittedly, in a simple, this control center constantly loads the processor, so I found an alternative written in java:
ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1403399
Demo:

It performs its functions and does not load the computer.

In general, I can say that the laptop is assembled conscientiously, no parts of the case bend, the bottom is generally made of aluminum, does not hang out and does not creak, in general - solid brick.

Testing

The laptop was bought for games on the road, so almost from the first minutes of my acquaintance I went to test the games. I deleted the preinstalled Windu, rolling a clean seven home premium 64, and also dispersed the percentage from 1.3 to 1.7. Drivers are all official.
For clarity, I shot the gameplay on the camera, the format is simple: the first seconds of the video are the settings menu, and then the gameplay with the fraps turned on.

Left 4 Dead 2

It goes great, at the maximum settings, in fact, it is the source engine.

Half-Life 2 - Episode 2

The same source and again great performance. Sinks a couple of times, but then I went over with the FSAA.

Fallout 3

It is going well, even at ultra settings, at the end I found a place with 20 fps and lowered the quality to high, the picture almost did not change, and the fps became 40.

Bioshock 2

The unreal engine, as always, is democratic to system resources, so the game runs smoothly.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Here, the maximum settings were too tough, 23 fps on average, but people put on a playable frame rate, I have not yet penetrated.

Tes oblivion

It goes without subsidence.

The sabouteur

Maximum graphics settings and high CPU dependency do their job, frame rate sags.

Gothic 3 1.74 patch

It goes well, but because of the curvature of the engine, constant loads from hard, hence jerks.

Unreal Tournament 3

It is going well, but on large-scale scenes there are sinking. But do not forget that the graphics are at the maximum.

Just Cause 2



I play on TV, via HDMI, on Joy from 360th. The frame rate is not very high, but when the frequency falls below 30, the game gradually slows down and this creates only the effect of smoothness, not brakes. You can live.

This is what I shot the commercials for. From the rest that I have tested, they go great: Mirrors Edge, Tomb Raider Underworld, Thief III Deadly Shadows, Crysis (on average, of course, but I have not studied it yet).

Other people are great at chasing Mass Effect 2, World of Warcraft, Star Craft 2. In general, any non-CPU dependent games are going well. Any unreal engine games are going well. Total, in terms of games, there are no special problems. Somewhere, of course, the brakes are climbing, but they can be defeated by lowering the graphics settings.

Autonomous work

Another notable feature is the statement of 8 hours of battery life. I conducted 2 tests. To begin with, I just worked on the Internet (YouTube, surfing, played a little on the emulsion snes, Skype). When the backlight was killed, the Intel graphics and Wi-Fi turned on, the laptop lived for exactly 5 hours. Then he turned off the Wi-Fi and recorded several actions with the mouse (opening and scrolling pictures, copying from one text document to another), and turned on endless repetition. In this mode, the laptop worked 7 hours and 16 minutes.
Demonstration (true in English) here:


The final screenshot: i6.fastpic.ru/big/2010/0419/df/e9ba5e9a7e44556ef190e0d585fb75df.png

Briefly about different

- With the help of the Alien Sence utility, you can teach a laptop to log in by face, recognize your computer and log in, in the same way you can switch users.

- In a laptop, a hybrid video card is installed, there is an Intel video chip and there is a discrete graphics geforce 335. Switching between them occurs without rebooting through the simple fn + f6 key combination. When switching to Intel, discrete graphics turn off and do not consume power. If any application that is accessing the GPU is running, a window pops up indicating what kind of application it is, so it’s easy to calculate the scoundrel.

- As for heating, everything is rosy here, when surfing it does not heat up, if the cooler works and the cool air often drives. With games, the maximum GPU warmed up to 63.

- 1080 remuksy plays without problems with DXVA, just put the latest Media Player Classic Home Cinema.

- The sound is traditional for such small machines, Harman Kardon does not smell here. Plus, the speakers are strangely located, the left speaker is in the left corner, while the right one is almost in the center. The sound does not come from the "eyes" but from the bottom.

Price

When the review was written, the laptop was not yet on sale with us, only a brief announcement. Now there are “shuttle” copies, 50 000 rub. However, by the summer they promise from 35 000r models similar to my configuration. I apologize for not pointing right away.

findings

What can I say? Sure of course. Small machine, quietly pulls all that you want, and that does not pull, you can tweak to pull. Autonomous work exceeded my expectations, to be honest, I thought this can only be seen on frail business laptops.

Pros:
Small size
Powerful graphics card
~ 7 hours of battery life
Good build

Minuses:
Faint sound
Mark screen
Weak compared to the video card processor

Ps There is a spoon of tar. A not very high quality sample came to me, I found 1 broken pixel, a whole group of brightly lit pixels and a speck of dust under plastic. i6.fastpic.ru/big/2010/0419/38/8b970ae2cc235be8c55f131f644f338.jpg
And since I bought it in Denmark, then I can count on service only there. Well, logically so. However, by calling Dell, it turned out that I can freely transfer warranty service from Denmark to Russia and even more, I can repair my laptop once, without any of these operations. So after a small telephone (!) Diagnostics, the employee ordered a new matrix and said that a technician will arrive home who will install it, so I'm waiting.

UPD
1. Photo re-uploads to more reliable hosting :)
2. The comments were rude, gentlemen, I have a desktop computer, I play and work on it with pleasure, but sometimes you find far from a normal machine, but I want to play. As for 11d and 2kg, what can I say? For me personally, it's not hard. And I, at the same time, have 8 hours and full games.

Regarding GTA 4. Yes, this is one of those dependent games that puts the laptop on its knees, but you can play more or less if you don’t go too far with the traffic and the range of details. On average, 25 fps, but in warp sags. You can walk around the city without any problems :)

The laptop is not mine, I just posted a post. Invite to the person who made the review, you can send to the address babudzia [dog] gmail [dot] com