New Price: £900 / Jan 2010
When the M11x first came out I remember being really interested in it. A laptop the size of a magazine (although not in thickness of course) that can last 8 hours on a battery or play almost any game, that's just stunning! This 'Custom PC' magazine is the newer / smaller type, slightly smaller than A4 and it's nearly identical to the footprint of this gaming laptop. There was nothing else like it when it was new, 2 revisions and nearly 2 years on it still has little or no competition. The base price when new was £900, as great as it was I had fears that it would be uncomfortable to use and I ended up ignoring it. I then found Dell discounting this original version to just £450. For little more than a netbook I could have a thoroughly capable portable graphics machine with 8 hours of battery life, a backlit keyboard, fast (7200rpm) hard drive, decent speakers, VGA / HDMI / Display Port outputs. I was still a little worried that the small screen and keys could be an issue but at this price I was willing to give it a try.
Comparisons
OK time to be silly... If you read my first post you would have seen that I came from using a behemoth of a laptop before getting this. A nearly 10 year old 15" Dell Inspiron from 2002 weighing nearly 4Kg and measuring 45mm thick. Perfect for some extreme comparisons to the new stealth notebook. I should point out that the old Inspiron 8200 isn't just a paper weight, its still working and has served my wife and I well (apart from the batteries - which I could fix if I really wanted to). OK on with the comparisons...
I must say that side by side the difference is not as massive as I would expect considering the specifications. The keys don't look a lot different, although they do feel smaller during use. The bigger issue is really the spacing between them, a chiclet style, with bigger spaces in between would have been nice but never mind. At least they glow in the dark (and in any colour no less). That leads me to my first rant: backlit keyboards are a feature still commonly (and annoying) missing from a lot of new laptops, even high end ones like the Portege models (sorry to pick on you Toshiba). In the sub £500 market you just wont find it so discounted older models like this are the only way to go if you value this feature and are on that budget. Having used 2 laptops with backlit keyboard now I would never buy one without it again because I often use it in dim lighting and cannot properly touch type.
This shows the scale difference a little better. It still doesn't look as different as I would have expected although it's worth noting that the Inspiron 8200 is a 4:3 ratio screen whereas the M11x (and every other laptop today accept Apple perhaps) is 16:9. Personally I think 16:10 is the best but that's just me and again at this price I wont make a big thing about it.
Last but not least the side shots: I would not call the M11x a thin machine @ >32mm but for what it is I think they have done a very good job. Most of the M11x's weight and thickness comes down to the discrete graphics card and the massive battery. They don't make laptops like the Dell Inspiron 8200 any more, you would really struggle to find something as thick or heavy these days. What is not uncommon however is plastic laptops with bad designs and lots of panels. Walk in to any PC World at look through the ones they have on display. I found that many of them look pretty shocking, in a market where you really need to be noticed to succeed it's amazing how many manufacturers just don't seem to care.
Build
What the M11x does give you is a really sturdy smooth metal shell with good access for upgrades and nicely arranged ports.Two headphone sockets so you can share what you are listening to is brilliant! Having an HDMI and a Display Port is a really nice touch, especially good for me with a 30" Dell Monitor! Personally I would lose the VGA but I know some people complain about the lack of a modem *rolls eyes*.
The single access port underneath daunted me a little at first but after upgrading the RAM to a single 4Gb stick (you can have 2x4Gb max) for £28 from Crucial I really like this design. It has retention clips on the screws so you don't lose any of them, there are no stickers on anything to tell you it's evil to upgrade stuff yourself and everything is very easy to get at. All of what you see here is a very solid metal!
Heat
The above image also shows my one big gripe with this machine. The two groupings of holes at the front of the underneath are where the hard drive and RAM are kept. Because the holes get covered when using it on your lap it gets pretty warm during light use here. It's ok if you leave it on a desk but I think it would have been nicer to put some porting in the front and sides to get some airflow going right through the machine here. Do some slightly more heavy tasks (still not gaming though) and the machine heats up a bit more, it then starts the GPU cooler (top right) and it happily kicks out cold air while the rest of the machine gets hotter. Saying all that it does take about an hour to start getting toasty during browsing so this would not put me off recommending it, well not for £450 but I hope they addressed this in the newer models.
Backup
Ok back to the good stuff but first for a problem... Thin laptops with no DVD drives are becoming pretty popular these days, I certainly don't miss an optical drive but it does present a problem if you need to re-install your Operating System. Most manufacturers put a DVD for this very purpose in the box without a word of how annoying it would be to re-install it. I am probably one of the few people who actually have an external DVD drive but I still find it annoying. This could easily be remedied by having your factory reset installer on a USB stick, this is totally possible and easy too but it doesn't happen because Microsoft is very scared of Piracy related to distributing software like this. Personally I think they are stupid for not embracing USB installs, after all Apple have just done it with their new Lion OS so come on M$.
Anyway the good thing is that Alienware machines come with a bit of software (Alien Respawn) that lets you put your factory reset re-installs on to a USB stick. All you need is a stick of at least 8Gb, I just bought 2 Sandisc Cruzer Blade USB sticks on Play.com for £14 inc. postage! Reliable, small, fast enough and I even have a redundancy if anything goes wrong with one. Brilliant! Thanks Dell, I hope you do that for all of your machines.
I am mostly going to use this as a machine for internet browsing, the size for travelling is a huge plus for me because I want to be able to edit photos anywhere. Photoshop performs incredibly well with the Nvidia GPU on! HD movies run brilliantly too (seen here at max brightness in the sun). Heck I can even play Crysis in a field it I want to, I love it!! :).
I'm afraid that since I bought this it has now disappeared from the Dell website. However I do see one on Amazon for £500 that already has 4Gb of RAM and a bigger HDD so if you really want one all is not lost.
Price Now: £450 / July 2011
Specification:
Screen: 11.6" 1366x768 LED (Glossy / glass)
CPU: Core 2 Duo ULV 1.3GHz (factory overclockable to 1.7GHz)
RAM: 2Gb DDR3 1066 (2x1GB upgradable to 2x4Gb)
GFX: Nvidia 335M (1Gb dedicated memory)
GFX: Nvidia 335M (1Gb dedicated memory)
HDD: 250Gb 7200rpm
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
K/B: Backlit (configurable to 30 colours / 2 levels / 4 other zones)
Batt: 8 hours web browsing / 3 hours gaming
Ports: 3x USB 2.0 / Mini Firewire / VGA / HDMI / Display Port / SD / Sim
Network: 802.11 b,g,n wi-fi / Bluetooth 2.1 / Ethernet (10/100)
Size: 285x233x32.7mm
Weight: 1.99Kg
As I explained in my first post, looking for a 'thin & light' notebook on a big budget shattered my hope for perfection at a price. When spending upwards of £1000 I'd hoped to be able to hand pick every feature but instead I grew more disappointed with each model I examined. Stepping the budget down to below £500 (same criteria) I expected too much compromise but I was wrong! This was the first bargain that I just couldn't resist: The Alienware M11x r1
Comparisons
OK time to be silly... If you read my first post you would have seen that I came from using a behemoth of a laptop before getting this. A nearly 10 year old 15" Dell Inspiron from 2002 weighing nearly 4Kg and measuring 45mm thick. Perfect for some extreme comparisons to the new stealth notebook. I should point out that the old Inspiron 8200 isn't just a paper weight, its still working and has served my wife and I well (apart from the batteries - which I could fix if I really wanted to). OK on with the comparisons...
I must say that side by side the difference is not as massive as I would expect considering the specifications. The keys don't look a lot different, although they do feel smaller during use. The bigger issue is really the spacing between them, a chiclet style, with bigger spaces in between would have been nice but never mind. At least they glow in the dark (and in any colour no less). That leads me to my first rant: backlit keyboards are a feature still commonly (and annoying) missing from a lot of new laptops, even high end ones like the Portege models (sorry to pick on you Toshiba). In the sub £500 market you just wont find it so discounted older models like this are the only way to go if you value this feature and are on that budget. Having used 2 laptops with backlit keyboard now I would never buy one without it again because I often use it in dim lighting and cannot properly touch type.
This shows the scale difference a little better. It still doesn't look as different as I would have expected although it's worth noting that the Inspiron 8200 is a 4:3 ratio screen whereas the M11x (and every other laptop today accept Apple perhaps) is 16:9. Personally I think 16:10 is the best but that's just me and again at this price I wont make a big thing about it.
Last but not least the side shots: I would not call the M11x a thin machine @ >32mm but for what it is I think they have done a very good job. Most of the M11x's weight and thickness comes down to the discrete graphics card and the massive battery. They don't make laptops like the Dell Inspiron 8200 any more, you would really struggle to find something as thick or heavy these days. What is not uncommon however is plastic laptops with bad designs and lots of panels. Walk in to any PC World at look through the ones they have on display. I found that many of them look pretty shocking, in a market where you really need to be noticed to succeed it's amazing how many manufacturers just don't seem to care.
Build
What the M11x does give you is a really sturdy smooth metal shell with good access for upgrades and nicely arranged ports.Two headphone sockets so you can share what you are listening to is brilliant! Having an HDMI and a Display Port is a really nice touch, especially good for me with a 30" Dell Monitor! Personally I would lose the VGA but I know some people complain about the lack of a modem *rolls eyes*.
The single access port underneath daunted me a little at first but after upgrading the RAM to a single 4Gb stick (you can have 2x4Gb max) for £28 from Crucial I really like this design. It has retention clips on the screws so you don't lose any of them, there are no stickers on anything to tell you it's evil to upgrade stuff yourself and everything is very easy to get at. All of what you see here is a very solid metal!
Battery
You can remove/replace the battery but you have to take off the entire bottom panel to do it and that's 8 screws, not the end of the world when it lasts so long on a charge. One nice feature is the ability to check the battery's charge without having to turn it on. There is a small button on the bottom of the laptop with 5 small dots next to it (middle left of the above image). Pressing the button will light up the dots so you can tell weather it's near 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100% charge.
Heat
The above image also shows my one big gripe with this machine. The two groupings of holes at the front of the underneath are where the hard drive and RAM are kept. Because the holes get covered when using it on your lap it gets pretty warm during light use here. It's ok if you leave it on a desk but I think it would have been nicer to put some porting in the front and sides to get some airflow going right through the machine here. Do some slightly more heavy tasks (still not gaming though) and the machine heats up a bit more, it then starts the GPU cooler (top right) and it happily kicks out cold air while the rest of the machine gets hotter. Saying all that it does take about an hour to start getting toasty during browsing so this would not put me off recommending it, well not for £450 but I hope they addressed this in the newer models.
Backup
Ok back to the good stuff but first for a problem... Thin laptops with no DVD drives are becoming pretty popular these days, I certainly don't miss an optical drive but it does present a problem if you need to re-install your Operating System. Most manufacturers put a DVD for this very purpose in the box without a word of how annoying it would be to re-install it. I am probably one of the few people who actually have an external DVD drive but I still find it annoying. This could easily be remedied by having your factory reset installer on a USB stick, this is totally possible and easy too but it doesn't happen because Microsoft is very scared of Piracy related to distributing software like this. Personally I think they are stupid for not embracing USB installs, after all Apple have just done it with their new Lion OS so come on M$.
Anyway the good thing is that Alienware machines come with a bit of software (Alien Respawn) that lets you put your factory reset re-installs on to a USB stick. All you need is a stick of at least 8Gb, I just bought 2 Sandisc Cruzer Blade USB sticks on Play.com for £14 inc. postage! Reliable, small, fast enough and I even have a redundancy if anything goes wrong with one. Brilliant! Thanks Dell, I hope you do that for all of your machines.
I am mostly going to use this as a machine for internet browsing, the size for travelling is a huge plus for me because I want to be able to edit photos anywhere. Photoshop performs incredibly well with the Nvidia GPU on! HD movies run brilliantly too (seen here at max brightness in the sun). Heck I can even play Crysis in a field it I want to, I love it!! :).
I'm afraid that since I bought this it has now disappeared from the Dell website. However I do see one on Amazon for £500 that already has 4Gb of RAM and a bigger HDD so if you really want one all is not lost.
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