Review: Alienware M11x

Switchable GPUs give Alienware's M11x the right combination of portability and power. Photo / Supplied

Before the folks from planet Zarg unleashed the Alienware M11x on us unsuspecting earthlings, notebooks were usually all about engineering compromises.

Ultra-petite and easily storable notebooks delivered the goods on battery life, but lacked the specs for HD multimedia and gaming. Whilst more powerfully specced notebooks packed a bigger punch, it was usually at the expense of both portability and battery life.

Alienware's M11x however changes this. With its 11.6" screen, it's a veritable pint-sized no-compromise powerhouse that uses an overclocked CPU and switchable graphics to give gaming grunt but remains very portable thanks two kilo heft. Oh, and it looks like something out of a very funky 70's sci-fi movie too.

Where most notebook designers are slavishly following the Apple school of notebook design, Alienware has eschewed the "me too" approach. Like its bigger stablemates, It has front left and right grilles contoured into it -reminding me of an old school bat mobile - but the backlit Alienware logo above its glowing backlit keyboard looks like something out of Tron. In short the M11x is distinctive and striking piece of gear.

Alienware has also bundled an app called AlienFX which lets you set colour schemes for the keyboard, Alienware logo and front grilles. While it looks cool, it'd also feel gimmicky if it wasn't for the ability to choose two different colour schemes depending on whether the M11x is plugged in or on battery power. Either way it definitely helps to give the M11x an out-of-this-world look and feel.

The 11.6" screen sports a resolution of 1366 x 768 and is plenty bright and crisp. Colours are well saturated, and contrast levels were reasonably deep thanks to glossy screen coating.

On the connectivity front the M11x's no compromise theme continues. The M11x manages to cram a VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort, along with three USB 2.0 ports, a pair of headphone sockets, a microphone, FireWire, Ethernet and a memory card reader.

Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 and a 1.3-megapixel webcam which can use a bundled face-recognition app that'll learn your mug and automatically log you in. Rounding things out, Alienware has also bundled Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edition.

Hardware aside, the M11x also proved to be a real performer. The review unit I was sent packed a Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.30GHz, running at 1.73Ghz. Pairing it 4GB of RAM. (you can alternatively specify up to 8GB) and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M (with 1GB of DDR3 memory) it also had a 500GB 7,200rpm HDD.

One of the nifty design tricks that lets the M11x wring every extra amp of power out of its 8-cell battery is its switchable graphics. For most day-to-day use it can deliver the goods using an Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics chipset which has the advantage of drawing a fraction of the power consumed by its bigger Nvidia counterpart. If you fancy watching some HD video, gaming or anything else graphically demanding, simply hit the Fn key and F6 to fire up the Nvidia GPU.

With what must be an extremely cramped interior, I was expecting the M11x to pack a high lap scorch spec, but was pleasantly surprised to find that Alienware have carefully chosen an above-average cooling fan to keep heat at a comfortable level. This said, the M11x can be a little noisier than similar-sized notebooks but the noise isn't so bad that you'd notice it when gaming or watching video.

The Alienware blurb claims up to 8.5 hours of battery life from its eight-cell battery. Switching on the lower powered Intel integrated graphics hardware, I was able to squeeze out just under seven hours of basic browsing, email and Twitter time. With the more gruntier Nvidia GPU, I managed just under four hours of video playback on the 720p-capable display.

High definition video also looked great, and thanks to some surprisingly decent speakers was as listenable as it was watchable. Gaming away from the wall socket on a full charge delivered 2hrs 50 minutes of Serious Sam goodness (with everything set to maximum detail) before the M11x ground to a halt and demanded AC power.

Verdict

It's hard not to be impressed with the M11x. Its switchable graphics transform it from a mild-mannered highly portable interplanetary productivity tool with funky backlighting to a seriously capable gaming rig that'll let you play almost all the latest gaming titles (or do some serious 3D design work) on the commute to work. Even if you're a non-gamer (yes, they do exist) looking for a powerful yet portable notebook, the M11x's awesome size to spec ratio definitely makes it worthy of consideration.

Alienware M11x
RRP from $1,949

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
RAM: 8GB DDR3 - 800MHz/1333MHz
Hard Drive: 500GB (7,200rpm)
Screen: 11.6" 1366x768
Wireless: Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11 a/b/g/n
GPU: Nvidia GeForce® GT 335M, Intel GMA 4500MHD
Battery: 8 Cell
Connectivity: Firewire, Ethernet (100 Mbps), 3x USB 2.0, HDMI™ Video, 3-in-1 Media Card Reader, Audio Out/in
Size: 32.7mm(h) x 285.7mm(w) x 233.3mm(d)
Weight: 2.0kg