The Alienware M11x is one laptop that many consumers are itching to get their hands on because of its most interesting riffs on the thin-and-light we've seen in a very long time. It's very compact but don't let that fool you, it's packing a ULV Core 2 Duo paired with a switchable NVIDIA GT335M GPU, making it one of the most powerful small laptops on the market as of right now. Power never comes cheap though and the M11x is no different. The M11x starts at $799 and the upgraded 1.3Ghz SU7300 Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM clocks in at $949. Although it is a bit pricey it is definitely worth it for the serious gamer on the go.
The M11x certainly is an art masterpiece as well with its Camaro like frost end and it is actually more boxier overall than you would expect, with flat sides and hard edges around the rest of the case. It is almost business like except for the LED lighting options. The combination of the softer-touch matte finish and the glossy black paint makes it seem a bit cheaper than it really is.
Around the sides, one may discover an array of ports which include: VGA, a powered USB port for charging devices, Ethernet, HDMI, DisplayPort, a card reader, and a four-pin FireWire jack line all on the left side. The right side sports a mic jack, dual headphone ports, two more USB ports, and a large area of glossy black plastic. The back contains only a power port, but on the bottom you'll find a fairly large fan, a battery meter, and a little Alienware logo. The machine itself is actually pretty heavy for a smaller machine weighing in at 4.5 pounds.
Keyboard, touchpad and screen
The keyboard is a relatively flat backlit unit with a tweaked layout designed for gaming. It comes with crazy AlienFX LED lighting effects. (You can set the keyboard backlight, Alienware logo, power button, speakers, and even status indicators to be nearly any color you want, and even have them fade between two colors, or just blink incessantly. It's totally unnecessary but a cool feature for anyone to have fun with. It's old news for anyone who bought the larger Alienware machines but for a laptop that starts at $799 to sport such a feature is pretty interesting. The trackpad is nice as well, no multitouch here, but the tracking is nice and accurate. The only wish that remained after messing around with the keyboard was the hope for bigger buttons.
Most cheaper laptops end up with a crappy display, but for a rare low-end machine in the Alienware lineup, the M11x doesn't compromise on the LCD. The 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 LED-backlit display is bright, sharp, and has terrific horizontal viewing angles. Te vertical viewing angle is a little narrow, but it's not hard to find the sweet spot.
Check out some of the comparison stats for similar sized laptops:
| PCMarkVantage | 3DMark06 | Battery Life | |
| Alienware M11x (1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, GMA) | 2689 | 654 | 4.5 |
| Alienware M11x (1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GT 335M) | 3141 | 5593 | N/A |
| Sony VAIO Z (2.53GHz Core i5, NVIDIA GT 330M) | 9949 | 6193 | 4:25 |
| ASUS UL50Vf with NVIDIA Optimus (1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, integrated GMA) | 3724 | 827 | 6:10 |
| ASUS UL50Vf with NVIDIA Optimus (1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA G210M) | 4049 | 3438 | 3:57 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge (1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, GMA) | 2955 | 905 | 5:12 |
| Acer Aspire 5738PG (2.55GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI Radeon 4570) | 4049 | 3098 | N/A |
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