Gaming notebooks are generally bulky and weigh a ton but not so with the Alienware M11X.
ANNOUNCED earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Dell's Alienware M11X netbook is certainly an impressive piece of hardware packed in a small form factor.
Indeed the M11X is a small gaming netbook that packs a powerful punch when it comes down to performance, capable of running modern games while keeping things nice and light for easy transport.
On the outside, the M11X is a stylish netbook that feels very well built. Its compact form factor allows the netbook to easily slip into your travel bag when you need to hit the road.
Though it weighs more than your average netbook, it still feels light enough to be carried around.
It's hard not to notice the M11X's trademark Alienware design - it comes complete with glowing LED lights for the keyboard, alien head logo on the outside and external "vents" on the sides that you can customise to any colour of your choosing.
I have to say the backlit keyboard is a nice touch that comes in useful when typing in the dark; the lights weren't too bright that it draws your attention away from the screen either.
The honeycomb pattern trackpad feels nice to use and provides sufficient coverage to scroll from one screen to another. Disappointingly, the trackpad doesn't feature multi-touch capabilities, which is a severe handicap that makes the netbook less enjoyable to use without a mouse.
COOL: The M11X's keyboard is comfortable to type on and even features backlit keys for easy typing in the dark. Take a closer look at the M11X and you'll see that it's quite well decked out with three USB ports, multi-card reader and an Ethernet port thrown in for good measure.
If the M11X's 11in screen isn't big enough, you can consider blowing your up your images using the VGA or HDMI-out on to a larger screen or projector.
We hooked the M11X up to a 1080p monitor and the netbook generally proved it could handle the higher resolution both in games and movies.
Considering this is a gaming-centric netbook, the lack of an optical drive serves as a hindrance if you want to install games or software from physical discs. Gamers however can still puchase and download games from online game distribution services like Steam, which comes pre-installed on the M11X.
Performance
It's amazing how Dell managed to pack so much power into this small 11in netbook. I would dare say the M11X can go toe-to-toe with some notebooks twice its size.
The M11X comes standard with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) and runs it marvellously well - the operating system managed to boot up in less than a minute.
Under the hood, the review unit provided was powered by a very capable Intel Core 2 Duo (1.3GHz) processor, a step up from the usual Intel Atom processors gracing most netbooks.
Dell has since upgraded the M11X with Core i3, i5 and i7 processors.
MOBILE GAMER: The M11X is a small and lightweight enough for you to take along on your travels. While most netbooks are typically designed primarily for web browsing and light computing tasks, the M11X can do much more than that.
We put the M11X through its paces under a variety of circumstances and it held up very well in most cases.
We played a HD movie using KMPlayer, listened to music on Windows Media Player, surfed the Web on Firefox with seven tabs open and even did some photo-editing on Photoshop all at once without experiencing any slowdown.
Aside from games, the M11X makes for a great entertainment netbook for playing HD movies. We played a couple of 720p videos and despite the smaller screen, things looked great as videos were silky smooth even during fast-moving action scenes.
The only time the netbook strained under pressure was when we attempted to play two 720p HD videos side by side. While one was playing smoothly the other struggled to keep up.
The M11X is also great for travel with a battery life of over five hours on average when used purely for web surfing or doing light work.
The netbook offers you the option to switch between its discrete and integrated graphics solutions to prolong the number of hours you can get out of the notebook.
Naturally, battery life is shortened significantly when playing games unplugged from a power source. Still, you can get a good solid hour or two of gaming on the go though your mileage will vary depending on what type of graphics settings and game you choose.
Great for games
Obviously, the main reason you would want an Alienware machine is to play games and the M11X certainly delivers. This is a fairly solid machine that can run a good number of modern PC games on the market.
The M11X's Nvidia GeForce GT 335M graphics card is a powerful piece of hardware that is well suited for games. Granted the graphics on the 1,365 x 768-pixel resolution screen aren't going to blow your mind but it is still pretty impressive.
Left 4 Dead 2 ran really well even with the graphics setting maxed out. The game ran at full speed with a smooth frame rate while looking exceptionally good. The netbook didn't show any signs of slowdown even as the game threw dozens of zombies in our path.
For some chaotic and open-world action, we also fired up Just Cause 2 on the M11X. Depending on the situation and terrain that you are exploring in the game, the frame rate will vary.
We set the game at above-average settings with tuned down anti-aliasing and it typically ran at an average of 20 frames per second (fps) in most situations.While this wasn't as smooth as we would have liked, the game was still very much playable.
However, the frame rate took a nose dive to about 15fps once we started to move into dense urban environments with large towering skyscrapers.
Still, the game ran well enough that it was still playable and was great fun when we needed to play on the road.
Conclusion
All in all, the Alienware M11X makes for a great gaming netbook as well as a competent one for normal-to-heavy everyday tasks like photo-editing on Photoshop.
On the road it is a pretty efficient machine that can last for at least five hours when it's running on integrated graphics.
It's also a very good entertainment machine that will come in handy during your travels.
There's very little not to like about the current M11X. Perhaps the only drawback is the device's high asking price.
Pros: Great multitasking capabilities; fast performance; capable of playing modern PC games; extremely portable; good battery life.
Cons: High asking price; can't run certain games at highest settings.
| Editor's Rating | |
| Manufacturer | Dell |
| Class | Gaming netbook |
| Other Features | Built-in webcam, backlit keyboard, built-in front speakers |
| Dimensions | (W x D x H): 28.6 x 23.3 x 3.3cm |
| Weight | 2kg |
| Price | Starts from RM3,999 |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.3GHz) |
| Memory | 8GB DDR3 RAM |
| Graphics | nVidia GeForce GT335M 1GB |
| Display | 11.6in LCD (1,366 x 768-pixels) |
| Storage | 250GB |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11n, 10/100 Ethernet port, Bluetooth 2.1 |
| Optical Drives | None |
| I/O Ports | Three USB ports, 3-in-1 card reader, HDMI video output, 2x audio-out connectors, audio-in/ microphone jack |
| Battery | 8-cell |
| Contact | Review unit courtesy of Dell Malaysia, 1-800-88-0301 |
No comments:
Post a Comment