Alienware M11x

It's taken us a while to get hold of the Alienware M11x, so even though we're only just publishing our review today, a new version has just been released.  The new models are more powerful than the one we tested thanks to their new mobile Core i5 and i7 CPUs and also get Nvidia's Optimus technology to change graphics hardware on the fly (from the Intel chipset to the dedicated Nvidia graphics card and back).  We reckon their performance can only improve with this update, but we're still going to test them as soon as we can.  Note that the new versions with the Intel Core i5/7 CPUs start at £100 more expensive.

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Although their fast processors and powerful components are attractive attributes for the intergalactic starships that pass for modern gaming laptops, limited battery life and unwieldy form factors have limited their appeal for many

In a galaxy far, far away, though, Alienware has decided it's time to offer up a speedy shuttle for more mobile gamers.  The new Alienware M11x claims to combine both stamina and flexibility along with its powerful performance.  We'd expect nothing less from a laptop that's just landed from outer space!

Handling: solid and well made, but sometimes loud

The M11x is the smallest member of Alienware's fleet, but its design is similar to that of its big brothers the M15x and the M17x.  For a gaming laptop, it actually looks quite classy, with an all black exterior.  The back uses a slightly glossy plastic, which doesn't pick up too many greasy fingerprints, while the metal underside reinforces the impression of a solid unit.  The whole thing feels robust and is well finished.  We especially liked the slightly grainy matt plastic used for the wrist rest, which reduces the amount of dirt and any problems with perspiration when you're playing for a long time.

Like a spaceship, the M11x lights up as soon as you turn it on, and there are coloured lights everywhere, including the Alienware logo, the alien face that stands in for the power button (and whose eyes flicker according to hard drive activity), the fan on the bottom and the panels at the front and the backlit keyboard.  All of these visual extras can be customised using the Alien FX software, and there are twenty different colours for every element, allowing you to customise your laptop according to your mood.
 

The keyboard occupies all of the space available (275 x 101 mm) and uses flat 16 mm square backlit keys.  Typing is gentle and quiet, and controlling your favourite game is a real treat.

The multi-touch trackpad, supplied by Synaptics, is wide and matches the screen's 16:9 aspect ratio.  It's a decent size, and we like the matt beehive texture that makes sliding your finger over it fluid and accurate.  We like the left and right click buttons a little less, as they're a little deep and not stiff enough.  They are quiet though.

There's a good quality webcam, although it does miss out on some detail.  Movements are fluid and colours are reproduced accurately.  The webcam is the basis of Alienware's facial recognition system, AlienSense, which handily avoids the need to type your password in every time you want to log in.  Despite the manufacturer's emphasis on the security benefits, the system is pretty easy to get around—a printed photo does just as well as your real face.  If we had the choice, we would have preferred a fingerprint reader.

In space, nobody can hear you scream—but you can certainly hear the Alienware M11x.  Like an alien hunter in search of its prey, it's stealthy when doing something relatively untaxing like office work.  As soon as it gets a whiff of the action, though, it roars into life.  When you're gaming or doing something tough like encoding video, it gets loud enough to be annoying.  It's not the loudest laptop out there, and the noise is easily covered by music when you're gaming, but it isn't very discreet.  At least the fan does its job properly and heat is dissipated well.

There's a complete range of connectivity options, including VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, three USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, FireWire, a memory card reader, two headphone jacks and a line in.  We would have liked an eSATA port or even an extra USB, and why not USB 3.0?  The item that's really conspicuous by its absence is a DVD writer.  Given the choice, we'd rather go without to save some weight and not give the cooling system to much hard work, and if you often burn CDs and DVDs, then you can go for an external DVD writer.

When you flip it over, the metal panel underneath comes off to reveal all of the components apart from the fan.  It's a pain that you have to take everything else out to clean it.

Alienware M11x from on top	Two headphone jacks, mic input and two USB 2.0 ports
VGA, USB 2.0, RJ45, HDMI, DisplayPort, card reader, FireWire	Trackpad and buttons

Processor Power: take a good low-energy CPU—and overclock it
Windows 7 index: 4.9. Detail: CPU 4.9 - Memory 5.4 - Graphics 4.9 - Gaming graphics 5.9 - Main hard drive 5.8

As ever with Alienware, you can add to the basic configuration when you place your order to make a more powerful laptop.  The basic version with an Intel Core 2 Duo SU4100 and 2 GB of RAM starts at £749, while the more powerful version we tested, which has a Core 2 Duo SU7300 and 4 GB of RAM comes in at £869.

With this configuration, the M11x reached 68 on our index of CPU performance.  This great performance is explained by activating overclocking in the BIOS which pushes the processor up from 1.3 to 1.73 GHz.  It's hardly the speed of light, but the acceleration is still worth it, gaining the M11x an extra fifteen points on our index.  It's not as impressive as the Core 2 Duo T9400 in our reference laptop, the Fujitsu Siemens Xi3650.  That said, it's not a bad performance at all for a low-energy processor, and the battery life would really suffer with another processor not designed specifically for energy efficiency.

In reality, it's fast enough for most users, as long as you're not in too much of a hurry to start editing and encoding video.  For really power-hungry users, the latests versions of the M11x, which will come with Core i3 and Core i5 processors, will no doubt do even better (and cost even more), which will be useful for everything, including gaming.

The processor can handle playing Blu-ray equivalent 1080p Full HD video by itself using the built-in Intel graphics chipset, or you can turn the job over to the dedicated Nvidia graphics card.  It works well whichever component you use, but we suggest you let the graphics card take the strain to free up the CPU.  We also like the Intel chipset which offers better battery life (with the Nvidia graphics card turned off), which brings the CPU load down from 73% to just 9%.  That figure falls to 3% if you use the Nvidia graphics card, but that requires a little more power.

3D Gaming: we've never seen anything like it on a laptop

The M11x won't do anything to dint Alienware's reputation for producing excellent 3D compatible computers.  It can run all of the latest games in native resolution thanks with the Nvidia GeFore GT 335M graphics card.  Of course, you'll have to make a few concessions on the level of detail, but the performance is worthy of plenty of praise as it's not at all a given on such a small computer.

To talk in specifics, Far Cry 2 was fluid with detail set to average, while a more demanding game like Crysis worked with details at low to medium.  Although the game is playable with average detail, it's better to curb your ambition because it isn't always as fluid as it could be, with occasional drops in the framerate.

Other games, though, work with the detail turned right up.  That's the case for Race Driver: GRID, HAWX, and titles from Valve including Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead.

It's still worth pointing out that by default the performance is less good when the laptop is running on battery power.  To get back to the very best results, you need to change the graphics mode using Nvidia's software.

Audio: decent for a PC of this size

The speakers are underneath the laptop, towards the front.  They're hardly exceptional, but the results are decent given the limited amount of space available on such a small laptop.  However, we were surprised to find the audio quality was a little better when we activated SRS.  The sound is a little stuffy, but the reproduction of stereo is much better and definitely easier on the ear.  Be careful, though, SRS isn't a silver bullet and the treble easily becomes saturated when you turn the volume up.

There are two headphone jacks and the audio produced is acceptable.  It's a shame there's no optical audio output, meaning that you'll need to use the HDMI for digital audio, which means you'll also need a compatible amp, although all recent models offer this feature.

Portability & Battery Life: the longest lasting gaming PC

5 hours 19 minutes of video playback: no gaming laptop has ever managed such great battery life in our standard test, which sets the display backlight at 100 cd/m², turns off all other backlighting and WiFi and uses headphones.  This incredible stamina isn't down too some secret Alien technology, but a 'tactic' that we're getting used to, sharing the work between an Intel graphics chipset and an Nvidia graphics card.  When you're not using 3D (which is the case in our battery life test), Intel's GMA 4500MHD is more than capable of handling office work, films and photos, while Nvidia's GeFore GT 335M swings into action only when you use software that makes the most of hardware acceleration, as is the case with encoding video using Badaboom, for instance.

The problem with this solution is that it only works manually.  For more advanced automatic control, you'll need the next generation M11x with Nvidia's Optimus technology.

Avoiding the Nvidia GPU adds an extra 1 hour 48 minutes of battery life: it's only 3 hours 31 minutes using the graphics card but 5 hours 19 minutes with just the chipset.

The other factor behind these excellent results is the presence of a large, eight-cell 63 Wh battery, which adds noticeably to the overall weight.

Despite being fairly restrained for a laptop aimed at gamers, the Alienware M11x is still one of the largest laptops in the ultra-portable category.  If you wanted to compare it to a real alien life form, then it's closer to a Predator than Star Wars' Kamonian, and at 2 kg, Alienware can't argue—that's the same weight as the Asus UL80Vt, which is only 14''.  That said, it's still a design success because the manufacturer has managed to get a dedicated graphics card and a large battery in an ultra-portable that's easy enough to carry around.