A few weeks back I wrote about the World of Warcraft Dell XPS laptop which is incredibly impressive but since it’s a portable desktop, the AC adapter is basically its’ lifeline. The XPS is a monster and while it would be fun to take it into the office, the reality is you’d only do it once because it’s so heavy.
The new Alienware Area-51 M15x laptop is actually much more practical and, in some ways, more powerful. It sets a new bar for notebooks which have a dual use, kind of like a superhero. Mild-mannered during the work day, and fighting video game crime at night. The overall look is more Porsche’ with a metallic silver finish and clean lines then the traditional Hummer look of the XPS and other big gaming boxes; but it still is incredibly distinctive.
Here are my impressions of what clearly is an amazing system.
Raw Power
I received the high power Alienware Area-51 M15x system sporting n Intel Core2 Duo Extreme Edition Processor and 4GB of Dual Channel DDR2 memory. For graphics this thing is through the roof with an NVIDIA 8800M GTX video card and an Intel integrated graphics system (we’ll get to why in a moment). It has HDMI out and comes with a DVI-D connector. It has a smart bay which will take a second hard drive, a second battery, or a Dual layer 2x Blu-Ray combo drive (which mine came with). You can get it with a solid state drive (we don’t recommend these yet) for ultimate performance, but mine did not come that way. This is the first laptop I’ve played with that has Turbo Memory, which is supposed to offset the need for a flash drive. For networking it has Intel Pro b/g/n and integrated Bluetooth 2.0 and a Gigabit Wired Ethernet. For sound it has 7.1 8 channel audio and some of the best speakers I have ever heard on a laptop computer. For ports and slots it has 3 USB, Express Card, FireWire, and a 7-in-1 media reader. For display it has a 15.4 WUXGA (1200p HDTV) screen and I can read the print.
I can categorically say this is the most powerful laptop I have ever had, and were it a desktop, it would still be one of the most powerful only being beat by a very few desktop rigs I have seen. System weight with the bay occupied and including the power supply is 9lbs, which is only a pound heavier than the last Acer Ferrari laptop I got in.
Low Power “Stealth Mode”
At full power this laptop pulls a whopping 70 or more watts, but this is where the magic comes in as that would give it a battery life measured in minutes (as opposed to hours). You can more than cut this power usage in half by switching to Intel integrated graphics and enabling a feature called “stealth” which steps the powerful Intel Extreme Edition processor down into something less than boiling hot, or around 30 watts. I could watch videos in this mode; however the Blu-Ray drive wouldn’t play. But email and general document creation was just as snappy as any other notebook I had and while the fans weren’t silent, I doubt you’d hear them in an airplane or in most cubicle farms.
While you can switch processor modes without rebooting to switch from the 8800 GTX graphics system to integrated graphics you have to restart the system. You’ll probably see this experience improve when AMD/ATI and NVIDIA start shipping hybrid graphics systems on laptops later this year, but for now, this is the only system I’m aware of that has this feature.
Cool Technology
Above the performance features and the low power “Stealth” capability, this system has a number of other features that make it stand out. One of the most notable is something Alienware calls AlienFX Customizable lighting. This was actually a lot of fun to play with because you can independently change the color of the keyboard, keypad, internal Alien Head, External Alien Head, touch controls, and around the screen lighting. Until they come up with a way to change the color of the paint on a laptop on the fly this is the closest thing to an active color modification system and I enjoy the heck out of it.
They have included a quick touch control pad for key system functions. These are synaptic switches that toggle when you touch them (they don’t move) and change color intensity depending on whether they are on or off. The key switched control volume, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Stealth Mode, and the Alienware control panel.
Along with the stunning speakers I mentioned above, it has a very nice built in webcam and one of the rare array microphones which cuts down on ambient noise if you are using it for VoIP calls or for in-game chat (I still prefer a headset but this was a nice feature).
Finally, if you pick up a standard Windows Vista Media Center IR remote, it will work with this system out of the box and is kind of handy if you want to cable the thing (bring an HDMI cable) to the flat panel in your hotel room to watch Blu-Ray or DVD movies.
Issues
Other than the price (which we’ll get to in a moment), there are two issues currently with this product. First is battery life in low power mode is under 2 hours (I expected more) and even with the extra bay battery being used you are still under 3 hours. I think the target for something that you want to use as a daily system is 5 hours (even the new MacBook Air which is super thin has an average battery life of under 4 hours) and they need a configuration that will get you there like an optional 12 cell primary battery (you could carry three bay batteries and they are hot swappable, but that is inelegant).
Currently the system won’t suspend if Bluetooth is on. Now I don’t use Bluetooth in a notebook computer (only for cell phones) so this is a nit compared to the battery issue but it still needs to be corrected. Other than these two things, I’m incredibly impressed with this system.
Price for Top Performance: Sign of Things to Come
As I have this thing configured it will set you back around $4,400 (price will soon start at $1,500 and goes up to over $5K which is an impressive configuration range) which is far from cheap but is in line with the Dell XPS World of Warcraft price, and that product isn’t as powerful or as useful in day-to-day life.
I think it showcases a beginning of a change in gaming laptops and a realization that folks often can’t afford to choose between a system that is great for gaming and one they can use for work or school. They need a single system that can do both and this Alienware Area-51 m15x comes the closest I’ve seen to a system that could stand with the best on the gaming side and still be used in day-to-day business. This dual mode capability (the first to my knowledge) makes this the “Superman” of laptops and given he is an alien as well, it’s kind of cool.
