M11xR1 - a review after 2 months usage.

Happy New Year, everybody.

I thought I should write yet another M11x review, which might be of some interest to someone out there:

Alienware M11x R1 (U4100 @ 1.30GHz). Bought in October 2010, no idea when it was built though.


The Good:

No hinge issues after 2,5 months' usage. Luckily, my M11x does not have any gaps in the casing, no creaking parts, and totally no lid misalignment. On the other hand, the laptop generally just sits on the desk, its lid is open all the time - so I don't know when or if the hinges are going to break - guess it is a question of sheer luck.

The build - if we forgot about the ever-present hinges threat - the build of the laptop is very nice. It is solid, sturdy and rather stylish (I didn't want to buy the M11x since its design seemed a little bit childish and extreme - but it grew on me very fast). I like the metal bottom part as well - though I would exchange it for metal hinges any day.

The cooling system is impressive to say the least! 57' GPU under full load was the highest I've ever seen! Keep in mind that the temperature inside the room is around 35' most of the time, so my old Asus G2S had no less than 80'-90' GPU temp under load, and my Sony Vaio TX netbook runs 60'ish while surfing the web.

The keyboard is a success - both the look and the feel makes it a pleasure to use. The backlight is very handy, and the keys respond just like they should - it is just great for typing or whatever. It is a fingerprint magnet though, so one has to wipe it with alcohol solution after every single use - but it is no more than a minor nuisance in my book.

The HDMI port - it was very nice to include it - since I think that most people would prefer to use an external monitor - the more connectivity means they would have - the better.

The power... I was not sure if I should include it into good points, since I am not too much into this. 3dmark gives me something around 5350 and the laptop is more or less capable of running everything I tried to run, except Gears of War. Time will show - but one thing is for sure - it is quite powerful and capable for its size. I won't call it a netbook though, it is too large, too bulky and too heavy for that - but still small.

The price - I got it for a special price, but even if I paid the regular price - it would still be a bargain. The only competition M11x has in terms of power/size ratio seems to be Acer Timeline (which is reported to be somewhat flimsy and to get hot as a frying pan whenever you even think of running anything on it) and Sony Z (which is far more expensive). Thus the product/price ratio M11x offers is hard to beat.​

The Bad:

The display - it is downright dreadful. The view angle, the contrast, the colors and the black levels - everything is abysmally bad. I would oppose the Dell defenders, stating that this display is quite decent for its size - this is simply not the case. My Sony Vaio TX display is the same size and resolution LCD panel, so I can compare anytime. Out of the box, the M11x display is an uttermost failure of epic proportions. Luckily, there is a possibility to sort it out - by applying the M11x custom color profile made by slickie88. This simple step improves the situation dramatically - magically transforming the unusable display into a reasonably good one. I would recommend any new owner to do the procedure described here straight after unboxing the unit - it is going to save you the time banging your head on the wall with frustration... you know... like "Merciful heavens, what did I buy?!"

The touchpad - as opposed to the great keyboard the model has - the touchpad is terribad. The pad itself barely registers any finger movement correctly - making it a real pain to use, and the buttons are flimsy and require a really strong push to do anything at all. I think anyone would mostly use an external mouse anyway, but still.

The lid shaking - while the laptop is very sturdy, its display keep slightly trembling while you type - no biggie, but still a little unpleasant.

The mysterious noise - most of the time I hear quiet, faint, high-pitched noise coming from somewhere inside the laptop. I have no idea as to what it might be, and I got used to it quite fast - but I would much prefer no mysterious squeaking and chirping at all.​

The Weird:

I have this enigma of a problem, which results in drastic stuttering, sound cracking and popping, which occurs sometimes - for no apparent reason at all. It is somewhat fixed by using HDMI output and/or disabling the wireless module (FN+F3). It sometimes happens - and sometimes it does not - so I am reluctant to put it into "The Bad" part of the review - since I am totally clueless as to what the problem might be and how to treat it.

Whenever I use the HDMI port to connect the external monitor - my wireless internet download speed decreases tenfold (literally). Whenever I pull the HDMI cable out / turn off the HDMI monitor - it comes back to normal at once. I have no idea about what on Earth this might be - so I just laughed out loud and made a note for myself to avoid using the two functions simultaneously.​

As verdict, I feel obliged to say that I am generally happy with the purchase, especially considering the special price I paid. The M11x seems to be a great option for those in need of a portable, temporary or backup laptop to pair with something more powerful and reliable. I doubt it is the best idea to buy the M11x to fill the spot of your main computer though.

I would be glad if the information I provided proves to be useful to anybody. Also - if anyone of you happens to have the same issue as either of the two described in "The Weird" section - and/or have any suggestion of what it might be or how to treat it - I would greatly appreciate if you let me know.

The best of luck in 2011!

 

Very detailed and nice review there !
I also heard faint high pitched noise from the processor near the fan and I just requested for motherboard replacement as it really annoyed me whenever I used it in quiet places (e.g. university library).
I think they are called "capacitor whine".

Sorry that I cannot give you any help on your "Weird issues" as I never experienced them or heard of them before.

 

Haha - cheers, mohaa7 - it is indeed the most exact description of what seems to go on inside my laptop!

 

For me the cons for the R1 are:

1. CPU is weak . I knew that it was when I bought it but I thought it would be sort of close to my 3 year old C2D T7300 but the ULV is so much slower. Still, I guess it is a trade-off that I made so I really shouldn't complain but I really should have bought an i3 or i5.

2. That popping noise! It's not so bad now but I still get it occasionally. It's a popping noise from the sound when I have the CPU running at 100% for example when I have multiple programs running as well as video. It's just annoying!

 

Try disabling vertical sync​

 

if only we could OC more than 1.6 or 1.7 Ghz de Cpu...im sure we could increase the fps in games more than OC de GPU

 

True, it is weak - yet i was fully aware of that when I decided to get the R1 - so I did not mention it as a negative part. Furthermore, i don't feel that the CPU, weak as it is, influences the things I use the M11x for so much that I would notice that.

Very interesting! Since it's not so bad now - did you do anything specific to reduce the sound popping?

 

Thanks for the advice, Bobtheflea - I tried that, yet it didn't seem to influence the problem at all, so I believe that my sound cracking is caused by something else...

 

cackling is normally from codec packs in my experience.

I had a few FLAC collections, and two of them would always result in cackeling. I blamed it on bad rips, but a retry didn't help. I had installed Gabest (MPC-HC), which was fine, but I also went crazy and installed Haali (replacing Gabest, lol), Shark, and who knows what for OOG audio....


Eventually, removing EVERYTHING and simply reinstalling MPC-HC ridded of the issue for me

 

My description of the issue might have been a bit misleading - when the cracking sound happens - it plagues everything - music, games and even windows sounds - not only video playback - so I doubt it is because of the codecs. Thanks for the tip though - I will try uninstalling those, though I don't think I have anything but CCCP package installe.

 

The CCCP package from last October works flawlessly on my system. If that's all you've installed then doubt it's a problem. Might be you're looking at a faulty audio daughter card.

Is headphone jack output also crackly?

 

I think you pointed me in the right direction... I just tested the headphone output - and no, the sound has no distortions or glitches (sucks though - but I guess that's another story). Moreover, one of the two headphone jacks I have (the one closer to the edge of the unit) doesn't seem to work at all - it does not register the connection of the headphones - neither it plays any sound.

What do these symptoms tell you then?

 

My guess is that you did a fresh install on your system and went with the default Microsoft audio driver in lieu of the Realtek driver (Dell's or newer from Realtek). With a Realtek driver installed you get proper jack detection of both headphone jacks, whereas with the MS driver you only get that second jack to work.

Or... something else.

 

True, it is exactly what I did - may have missed a driver or two along the way.

I think I will wait a bit for now, hoping the problem to miraculously disappear - and then I will clean/reinstall everything using the recovery partition provided by Dell Datasafe Local - another rebirth won't hurt the M11x anyway - the more, the better.

 

Just install the latest Realtek driver and that will fix the second headphone jack issue. Not sure about the crackling in the speakers. That sounds more like the audio daughter card is hosed or has a plug that's not properly connected.