The Best Gaming Laptop

The Best Gaming Laptop

Alienware m15x

Say hello to the new Area-51 m15x from Alienware. Tagged for mixing their legendary performance with impressive mobility, it is a 15.4 gaming laptop that when configured properly can knock close to $5,000. When we first got wind of this machine, we were worried that Dell's conservative take to design would dilute the futuristic flash and style that Alienware has been known to supply. In true LaptopLogic form read on to find out if looks and performance match our intuition.

 

Design:

Silver and only silver, thats the fist thing youll notice with the m15x. The case wasn't something that impressed us much and given Alienware's reputation for edgy design (almost Giger-esque), we found the silver lid with obligatory blue-eyed alien head to be, well...boring. Having reviewed Alienware machines in the past, we were always fond of their blue exterior option. This new lid is a silver panel, with a seam starting from the bottom to two-thirds up the lid, where it's broken by the ambiguous alien head. Granted, the texture and quality of the material used was spot on babys behind smooth, but also too plain for what were used to.

One notable negative to the build-quality of the m15x was the creaks and groans. Let's just say James Bond wouldn't use this laptop if he was hiding in the rafters. Just moving the lid, even before the lids angle is adjusted, emits a creaky staircase noise (think 40s horror flick sound). What makes the matter worse, is it doesn't make much difference where you grip the lid. However, we have a theory behind the creakswe're attributing this to the LED lighting built into the rim of the lid. Being somewhat boring on the exterior, Alienware opted to deliver an attractive blue border to their monitor, although the extra parts means more chances for frictionand more friction means more noise.

Keyboard:
The 86-key keyboard has a pleasant blue LED area of light that surrounds each key and features excellent feel while keeping perfect key travel and ample space for large hands. However, flex was an issue (although isolated). We noticed a fair amount of keyboard flex, but only to the dead center of the keyboard, which only significantly affected half-dozen keys or so.

Display:
The display was astounding with a native resolution at 1920x1200, and being a 15.4" WUXGA display was plenty enough pixels per inch. Although we did notice the monitor seemed to produce a softer image than most displays at this resolution. However, this may be a better thing because it made it easier to stare at the screen for longer periods of time.

Conclusion:
There's plenty of love for this version of Alienware, its size factor and perfect blend of power and mobility will appeal to many. Pairing the lightning-fast Core2Duo Xtreme processor with a speedy 512 MB 8800m GTX video card and 4 GB of RAM - it makes for a very quick, very satisfying laptop experience, which is often reserved for larger notebooks, or even mid-range desktops.
However, the base point starts at $1,799, and like Mt Everest can climb to unreachable heights for many consumers, nearing our model price at $4,808.00. Granted our m15x came with all the extras, like a seconday hard drive, Blu-ray disc burner, and an extra battery. We love the addition of an HDMI port, and we think its a great idea to connect your laptop to your home theater, an option that's a little tougher to find in the competition, and were guessing you have plenty of fun toys to connect that HDMI port if you can buy this laptop. Simply stated, If you're in the market for a high-class gaming laptop, have the money to spend, and love the new Alienware design, this is an excellent purchase.

Buy from Amazon.com

Price Used	Price New	Technical Details	Laptop
	$1,659.99	·        1.6GHz Intel Core i7-720QM Processor with 6MB cache and Turbo Mode up to 2.8GHz ·        4GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz ·        500GB, 7200 RPM SATA hard drive; 8x CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive) ·        15.6" High Definition WLED display with 1600 x 900 resolution ·        Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit) operating system	Alienware m15x-216CSB
	$2,199.99	Product Features Dell Alienware M15x Gaming Laptop Computer Alienware M15x, Cosmic Black 3GB DDR3 at 1066MHz Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz ·        RAM: 3 GB ·        Hard Drive 250 GB	Dell Alienware M15x Gaming Laptop Computer
$1,280.00	$1,829.00	·        Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache), 3 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 250 GB SATA HD ·        512MB1 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M , High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio , Intel WiFi Link 5300 ·        Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit,15.6-inch WideHD+ 1600x900 (900p) WLED ·        Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)	Dell Gaming Notebook 15.6-Inch