Feeling ambivalent about M11x; Looking at M14x

Ok, so I received an M11x R3 last week - see signature for specs. For what it is, I am feeling... OK about it, but I have to admit that I'm not entirely thrilled. What my issue is that it honestly feels like it's too much of an "in-between" sort of machine. It's really a little bit too big to be ultra-portable, to start with, but it *is* functionally portable. But then, the screen is far too glossy (with an annoying extra layer of plastic/glass that creates a double-reflection) which makes it very difficult to use outside. And again, even though it's got the 11.6" screen, the chassis is probably big enough to support a ~13" screen - which just seems silly. The bezel is so unnecessarily huge, in my opinion. And then even with all of that, it's really just... I dunno, not quite as practical as it could be. It's extremely powerful for its size, but it doesn't blow you away.

But all that being said, I really and truly adore the Alienware design and aesthetic - I *love* the way it looks and feels, the weight and the finish of the chassis, and so forth. So what I'm sort of thinking about, is whether I just want to return it for store credit and maybe get an M14x in return. Now, I know that the M14x isn't exactly perfect either, but I'm really just feeling like the M11x is, well, too damn small for me to really properly enjoy. I just don't *need* something to be quite this small. My Asus is really way too big, and the M11x is perfect for my portable notebook, but it still feels too small.

So I have some questions about the M14x regarding portability, and size. Looking at the specs, it honestly doesn't really seem that much bigger than the M11x, when you get right down to it. It's only a couple inches wider, a couple pounds heavier, and a tiny bit bigger in terms of depth. It certainly looks to me like the screen size is used more efficiently within the chassis. So to people who own the M14x, how is it in terms of portability?

I'm also curious about the battery life, specifically with an SSD? Is the battery life better with the i5 processor, rather than the i7? Because I'd go for the dual core if it uses less power, and really I'm just looking for something that could get me around 3.5-4 hours on battery (after switching to SSD probably).

I get that the M14x isn't ultraportable, or a replacement for the M11x, really. I'm just trying to do some soul-searching about what I really need, here, and I've got just about a tiny bit less than two weeks to make up my mind as to whether I want to swap out my M11x for something else, or not. Luckily I know a decent sales rep at Dell who is willing to waive the restocking fee if I want to return the M11x for store credit (is that a common thing to have happen?) so I'd only lose out on taxes, I believe, if I return it. So I dunno, any help or advice any of you friendly folk could possibly give me, and I'd be much obliged.

 

Here is a side to side comparison: YouTube - ‪[HD] Alienware Nebula Red M14X vs. M11X Stealth Black - Side to Side Comparison‬‏
Next, the M14x chassis is a bit big for a 14" but like all alienware they are always bigger than other classic laptop, so the m14x is like a 15" in term of size (the m15x was like a 17"...). For the weight it's 2.90kg so it's fine for me, I think the m14x is the best for portability and perfs, the screen is not too small and it's not big. Look this thread to see a comparison between m14x and m15x.
For the i5 I don't think it'll help for battery life, just get the base i7.
For the SSD it'll probably help a bit, like about +30min but not sure about that.
And the battery life of the m14x is really good with the good setting you can get 4 / 5 hours of battery life with websufing and stuff but not gaming.

 

It's about as portable as a "normal" 15" laptop (as opposed to a 15" gaming laptop).

 

Yeah, my Asus G53 is REALLY not portable, it's basically the size of a 17-inch gaming laptop with a 15.6-inch screen, heh. But that's fine, I still love it.

Honestly, I'm really seriously thinking about trading up to the M14x. I really, really wish I could love the M11x but the screen is just too darn small, and the whole construction and conception of an 11.6-inch gaming laptop just... I dunno. It works a lot better in theory than it does in reality. Honestly, it's a shame.

I'm undecided about whether I want to go for the i7-2630QM or stick with the i5-2410M. I have the 2630QM on my Asus, and honestly, it's way more processing power than I probably need. Which makes me think that I should be fine with the i5 for my secondary laptop. But at the same time, I'm thinking it might hurt the resale value.

Oh, and I have another question. Is there any indication that there might be any noticeable or significant upgrades to the M14x in the next month or two? I'm wondering if I should wait a little bit. I know the 560m is coming out soon, is there a possibility that they might offer that as an upgrade from the GT555m once it becomes available?

Regardless, thanks for the feedback so far, and the comparison video! Seeing them side-by-side basically convinced me. The M14x isn't even that much bigger! That's what my problem really is, the M11x just does *not* use its space efficiently Also, the guy in that video should wipe the dust off his notebooks more diligently, but then I'm super-anal retentive about that, heh.

 

I'd go with the 2630QM and I wouldn't count on any upgrades in the near future, especially the 560M. I don't think they could fit that much more power in it without heat problems.

 

A video card change will probably be for the R2, it's useless to wait.

 

Hey, out of curiosity I would really like to know what screens the M11x come with. An absolute must-have upgrade for me is the 1600x900 resolution... does that hold true? Does it come with a noticeably improved screen?

 

One thing that you should think of at this moment is that your M11x have better gaming performance on battery than the M14x. Depenind on the game you play the perfomance can still be good enough.

(On the other hand battery gametime was not really that long on the M11x.)

Regarding portability the M14x is in my view the same as the M11x. I use an ordinary backpack and the laptop is in a sleeve and both a laptops took up just as much room in it. And when bringin the adapter/mouse it's the same space needed in the end. The difference is imo just to small to matter.

I love the genereal feel on the M14x more than what I did with the M11x (I loved that one aswell).

 

Yeah, honestly it isn't gaming performance that bothers me about the M11x - I can handle that. It's screen size, straight-up. And even more to the point, screen size relative to the size of the chassis. I wouldn't be so bothered if the M11x were smaller overall. But as it is, it just feels silly - because the M14x has a screen that is way more pleasing to look at, and the actual size of the chassis and weight is extremely close to the M11x. My mind is pretty much made up at this point, just a matter of sweet-talking the Dell reps a little bit. I don't know if I'll even need to do that, though, because there's a legitimate problem with my M11x R3 where I've gotten like 4 blue-screens out of nowhere in this first initial week. Supposedly they're wake-up errors, but it's, well, not promising. I think that's grounds enough for a return anyway, wouldn't you?

 

Congrats on your decision. The M14x's bezel is still rather large, especially on the top and bottom, but regardless I think you're going to have a blast with your new PC. I'm looking to buy an M14x myself, since the new HP Envy 14 seems slated to disappoint and the LG P330 isn't going to be available before September. I'd love to hear your thoughts when you get your Alienware!

 

I don't see the point of owning the m14x when you already have the G53SW since the m14x isn't your regular 14incher, it is closer to a 15 incher and it weighs 6.5lbs.

What will make sense if you need portability on the go and power is keeping the G53SW+M11x, or if you want real gaming + real portability Keep G53SW+AMD Fusion netbook, or if you really want to get the M14x you should sell the G53 since the M14x is big enough and powerful enough (cpu wise) to be a desktop replacement.

Having G53SW then M14x with both having full mobile cpu and both weighing more than 6.5lbs sounds kind of foolish and redundant to me. However disregard everything I said if you have the cash to burn and just want to buy on impulse.

 

I think people really underestimate the portability of this thing, I was shocked when I picked up this thing, if you can't carry this thing around you should hit the gym more often

 

If I were in the situation, I'd pick the M14x. The power bump is huge, and the M14x isn't that big for a 14" laptop - my girlfriend's Samsung is a 14" and the m14x is almost identical in side, both are fairly small. The GPU and CPU power bumps (particularly the CPU), though, are so big that it's going to be night and day.

 

I get 4 1/2 hours battery life surfing the web and doing other light tasks, and that's with screen brightness maxed. I don't know how good the M14x would do if you were actually trying to max battery life, but I imagine 5-6 hours wouldn't be hard at all. That being said, I'm not family with the M11x' battery life, but I would guess an ULV CPU would do better than a regular mobile CPU.