Purchasing an M11X R3

Since I need a portable laptop for school, I was wondering if the M11X R3 would be suited for me. I wanted to hear from current owners of the M11X R3 and their experience with the machine. I have some questions listed below.

- How long is the battery life when just browsing the web or taking notes on word doc

- Does the reflective screen become a pain with continuous use of the machine?

- Is the machine/fans really as noisy as people say it is?

- Will I be able to play games like Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 and Diablo 3?

Feel free to add a little personal review of the machine.

Thank you in advance

 

Fans are only on / noisy when gaming.

Reflective screen is only annoying in rooms heavily lit or with lots of windows. It is basically unusable outside. I got an anti-glare film that helps a reasonable amount.

Web surfing is about 5+ hours.

You can play most newer games very smoothly. Obviously UNRELEASED games, no one knows...

 

- How long is the battery life when just browsing the web or taking notes on word doc
-I get between 6.5-7.25 hours on battery when in summer classes taking notes and browsing the web.

- Does the reflective screen become a pain with continuous use of the machine?
-It does get annoying only if you like leaving the brightness low. Up the brightness seems to counter the issue.

- Is the machine/fans really as noisy as people say it is?
-Fans only kick in while gaming. It has not kicked in an hard in other situations. They are mildly loud though.

- Will I be able to play games like Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 and Diablo 3?
-Most likely all three will play well at least on low. Not sure on battlefield and diablo for higher settings. They will most likely need a more powerful cpu. If Mass Effect 3 has similar requirements as number 2 then it will max just fine.

 

Awesome as a portable gaming machine, but not my first choice as a primary machine, for the following reasons:

(1) Screen is small. 11.6" is a bit small for my tastes. And I am someone who switches between 3 different laptops. My personal preference is a 13.3" laptop.

(2) Heavy for a "portable" machine. It is 4.5lbs. For a note-taking / web-surfing / paper-writing machine, you can easily find 13.3" laptops that weigh 3.5lbs of less.

(3) Awesome at portable gaming, but the key word is "portable". The GPU is great for a 4.5lb notebook. But if you are a serious PC gamer, you'll want a primary gaming machine that has a little bit of a beefier GPU in it for hardcore gaming, like what you would find in a desktop.

 

I don't play many other games other than Guild Wars 2 (Which the developers have already stated that the R1 will even be able to run the game) And Battlefield 3 (At least on low) and Diablo 3 (Lowish to medium) I don't see myself playing any other games on my PC in the next 2 years.

 

you will be just fine with the R3. the machine is closer to 12.1inches then 11. 4.5 pounds is not a lot... if people think that its heavy or "not convenient" or highly portable then they might need to hit the gym a bit.
battery life is perfect also
the GPU in the R3 is very high end for a pc of this size, and at 1366x768 it will run anything you throw at it. and then more..

 

If you've played Starcraft II, you'll get a feel for how Diablo 3 is going to perform on the M11x. I think both of these games are going to be very CPU intensive. Will it run? Absolutely. Be prepared to tweak settings, maybe turn down shadows, etc though. This is a laptop, remember, not a desktop.

And for Battlefield 3... I honestly don't know. Most of these shooters scale pretty well, and Battlefield 2 plays decently on the M11x R2. I'm sure it will run, but just like with Diablo 3... you're going to need to do some tweaking to get it perfect.

 

My expectations are not to play every future game on high settings. My intentions are to obtain playable framerates to play future games on. The main reason as to why a M11X R3 is because of the portability for high school and college as well as a side dish of gaming.