Alienware m15x Review Discussion

The M15x is Alienware's latest gaming notebook, featuring an Intel Core i7 processor, 15.6-inch screen, and Nvidia GTX 260M graphics. Is this monster worth its asking price? Read our review to find out.

Read the full content of this Article: Alienware m15x Review

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• Alienware m17x Review
• Alienware M11x Review

 

Excellent review, Chaz.

I like how your benchmarks threw in the Studio 1555 as a reminder of how pathetic my system is for gaming.

 

Did they.... Not change the model name at all when updating the specs and more importantly, the casing?

 

That is one ridiculous laptop, in so many ways...
9lbs? That is heavier than many 17 inch laptops!
That bezel makes these "ASUS bezel" tiny in comparison!
And of course, price and performance...That being said, with that price, I'd like an extra HDD and more ram, though.

 

What i'm wondering is what's meant by the "stealth" in quotes? Does this mean the windows low power profile? If so, why mention the word 'stealth', even with quotes to denote sarcasm or whatnot, since it has nothing to do with the alienware stealth mode function.

If by the off-chance that this actually means stealth mode works on the reviewers copy as it used to work on the older m15x, ie without it being plugged in, then when can we get ahold of that?

Chaz, if you were the reviewer then could you confirm whether or not the review system's stealth mode (ie, the media button above the delete key on the top right corner of the keyboard) actually works while on battery?

thx!

 

Great review as always Charles. The looks of the m15x and m17x Remind me of the TIV 2 on Storm Chasers with neon add-ons. But very cool and unique. I love the lighting system on these things, my ADD Talking. I am very surprised the m15x lacks HDMI.

 

Thanks for this detailed review Chaz.

I was thinking of upgrading to this newer m15x before. But the absence of interchangable graphics cards in this newer model really disappointed me. It was a great feature the older model had, giving the notebook a lot flexibility.

And whoah those pictures really make it look huge

 

Great review Charles.

I could get two Asus G51j notebooks for that much money...

 

And three times the heat!

 

I wonder if the Sager NP8662 delivers better value than the m15x. It may not be as pretty, but any gamer shouldn't care much about that as long as a machine suits his purposes.

 

Great review Chaz!

I especially like the comparisons. The ASUS with the same GPU gives 2K points less...how crippled is that GPU on the ASUS?

PCMark05 puts the M15x on top of the M17x...interesting, no refresh from Dellienware either for their flagship.

I still think that this thing is not worth it. TOO big and heavy and pricey for the config, and plastic?!?!?! bof...on a 3K laptop plastic...wow...a shame IMHO.

Thanks for the review!

 

Shame about the touchpad, the rest of the machine looks quite impressive (what a screen!)

 

This is just such a nice system. Exactly the hardware I want, and the price is actually solid too (some of those previous Dell models cost waaaaay too much for at best equally then-current hardware).

I wish I was in the market for a new notebook right now! Almost no question this is what I'd get (so tempted anyway!)

I assume Displayport can be adapted to DVI.

Oh, and it's offered with a lower resolution screen too, which saves a bit of money, and for me would be far more usable. Just a great design-glad to hear it handles heat well too!

(I'm just drooling over how much faster it could Fold than my current model :-D )

 

plastic... really? I will never pay more the 2000$ for any kind of plastic. period. for the cost I could get a macbook pro 17, + 130 for win 7, for 1000$ less.

my quest for my thinkpad replacement continues...

 

Thank's for doing the review. Did it really do better than an m17x in PCMark05? Must've been the core i7.

 

I think you're missing something huge here. The Macbook Pro isn't remotely in the same category as this m15x. Both the CPU and GPU in this are literally at over 2x better than the best available in the Macbook Pro (in the GPU's case, make that 4x).

And it isn't $1000 more-it actually starts at LESS for MORE than a more expensive Macbook Pro gives you.

Yes, the case is plastic (over a magnesium alloy frame). If for some reason that's a problem for you, then no, you'll be limited to the Macbook Pro and a small number of other (much lower end) notebooks.

But if you care more about how well designed and powerful the hardware is, this isn't remotely in the same class (other than the price).

 

I enabled it on battery but didn't verify if it actually lowered power consumption. I wasn't aware of any problems with the feature. One way or another, reducing the power consumption of this notebook is like trying to get better gas mileage out of a V8 Mercedes . . . you can drive it slow and easy, but it's still going to suck down a lot of gas at the end of the day regardless.

Thanks. The lighting is definitely a cool feature.
It does lack HDMI but you can get a DisplayPort > HDMI adapter for less than $20 on Newegg. Regardless, I think it should have had HDMI in the first place.

Agreed - the interchangeable graphics are missed on this notebook. I don't think any of the mobile i7 chipsets have integrated graphics, so there lies the problem.

Not sure about the NP8662, but I have an NP8690 on its way to me.

Yes it did, and I believe it was the i7's doing.
Just look at the 9.7s wPrime score!

 

Remember though Serg, the G51j was tested with the i7 720 not the 920 CPU, which is easily throwing the M15x into the upper echelon's of the score range.

 

Nice work man, really hope the M15X users thread helped as well.

 

Cool! That's good to know-I assume there's DisplayPort > DVI too (or at worst you could use two adapters...

 

AS FOR THE CONS

--TOUCHPAD...OUCH they should fix that

Dimensions...I can go w/ an 8lb system...but 9lbs for 15" system W/o FullAdobe RGB led 1900X1080 RESOLUTION....Thats crazy

--Display port as others have mentioned its only about 12-14$USD for an adapter on Dell's website as an add on to your system

--As for the price...you could always use a coupon on NYE....or pick one up w/ a discount.

 

I was refering to the pure 3D performance, both carry the GTX260M, and the M15x outperformed it by 2K points.

On PCMark05 it is obvious the 920XM is doing it, if it even outperform the flagship M17x.

Perhaps you can ask the right questions and make people help. Insist on what you want to know, someone always replies, and if not PM the owners.

 

True, but also remember that the GTX260M in the G51j is downclocked which definitely would effect it's performance.

 

Agreed. Such a shame from ASUS...anyways, I find the Alienware branding too expensive, yes it is a high performance laptop, and it aims at a high-end market, as a premium laptop, and as such, demands a premium. But hardware-wise I do not agree with the price of this.

And I am going to insist, PLASTIC?!?! Why? What were they thinking?

 

If Asus made their chassis as big and heavy as the m15x and only had only one hard drive it would cool way better.
G51j: 14.6" x 10.3" x 1.3-1.6", 218 cubic inches, 7lbs 8.2oz
m15x: 14.88” x 12.15” x 1.92”, 347 cubic inches, 9 lbs. +

 

Awesome review with nice pics! and first time I finally got to see the 9 cell

 

Im kinda upset that dell isnt using a numpad on the 16:9 15.6 sized notebooks.

 

Yeah I thought that was odd too, it seems like they could have fit it in there

 

See its not that bad looking and surely has some great hardware, but even if it was in my price range I wouldn't take it for that reason.

 

Perhaps the support would be lost if cramping a full keyboard with keypad?

 

Yes but when you turn on power saving mode AND throw it into stealth mode, that might give it another whole hour(or two) of battery power .. it did for the last m15x

Back to the mercedes example, what if that person is stuck in a desert and needs to make along distance trek on little fuel until they reach a gas station? I'm sure they wouldnt mind turning off 7 of those cylinders and throwing out the excess weight in order to make their car efficient enough to reach salvation! (ie a power plug! lol)

anyway i hope alienware comes out with a fix for us users so that we can use stealth mode on the go! currenetly it gives us that error if we try to use it unplugged, and doesnt go into stealth mode.

 

So, a NP8690 review on the way .. Any ETA on that?

 

I've got to complain-I can't find a spare AC adapter for it on Dell's site. Likewise I can't find a spare adapter for some of Asus' high end notebooks either

What's this about Asus downclocking the 260? Is the true on their other models as well? (I'm not necessarily opposed if it runs stable and can be pushed hard-I Fold almost 24/7 on my admittedly much lower end Asus n80's CPU and GPU).

 

Hm, that laptop looks nice.

The debut pictures didnt look nice at all. Those 3D mark scores really impress me. This must be the full fledged GPU not downclocked. I can't wait to see the review of the Sager.

 

It will arrive tomorrow, so the review in 2 weeks or so. Right now I have the NP8760, my review is almost finished for that.

 

On a side note , does Displayport also do sound? If so, can anyone confirm if its as good as HDMI sound?

I dont mind displayport but the fact you have to pay for another cable to get it on your tv is ridiculous.

 

Great. Will look for your NP8760 review for now.

 

This isn't related to the Sager though, right? It's a Dell design?

Dang...I've been toying with making my current laptop a "netbook" for the kitchen, and buying either this or some other replacement (like another Asus or something).

Is it possible to buy a spare PSU/ac adapter for this model though? Dell doesn't list it on their configuration screens, and doesn't list it anywhere on their site, that I can find.

 

this is an awesome notebook! too bad its so heavy :/ and yet it still makes me drool.....

 

It does look much better in terms of build quality than the previous. I hope that trend continues.

 

Pardonnez-moi if I missed it, but what were the specs of the other machines used in the Wprime, 3DMark, and PCMark tests? The comparisons don't mean much unless we know what hardware combos are being compared.

 

That thing is huge lol, but then again you can play almost anything.

 

I saw this laptop at Microcenter, man i was disappointed. For that price, I would expected better material and quality. It was cheap plastic all around and clucky. Dell really made a mess out of Alienware.

 

Yeah, the old m15x from when Alienware wasn't Dell was so much better

 

Yeah...I mean this new one is supposed to be awesome, and looks great on paper, and the old one was...iffy, and Dell had a better built, better speced choice at the time for roughly the same price.

 

No, this isn't built by Clevo. AFAIK, it is designed by Dell and manufactured by Flextronics/Arima.

As for the spare AC adapter, if the online configurator does not allow you to select one, you could call in your order and ask for one.

Duane

 

Thanks! Sorry I'd forgotten I'd posted this. I'm not sure if I somehow missed it the first time, or it just wasn't listed yet, but I found it for $120:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&mfgpid=203778&chassisid=8867

I'm assuming this is either for the new m15x, or else it works for either. (Weird that they kept the same name when they're apparently very different systems.)

 

Are you guys gonna get the Envy models in to review?

 

I would love that.

I asked Jerry but never got reply...lol
As I am waiting for mine to review it hopefully...

 

Does anyone still buy $3000 gaming laptops?

The Clevo W860CU trumps this thing in so many different ways.

And at 9lbs... the new 15"-17" i7 260M machines from Asus & Gateway are just a tad over $1000.

Heck, some microATX desktops come in at less than 9lbs.