Alienware M11x Review

Alienware m11x

Review Summary:

The first in its class, the Alienware M11x is an ultraportable gaming notebook with real power and an impressively low starting price.

Pros

• Ultraportable gaming notebook
• Fantastic design and durability
• AlienFX LED lighting

Cons

• Limited processor options
• No matte screen option
• Integrated battery

Alienware M11x Full Review

 

The new Alienware M11x is the latest gaming laptop from Dell's Alienware team and might be the best thing to happen to PC gaming this year. This impressive little box is the first ultraportable gaming notebook with an 11-inch screen and a weight of less than five pounds. If that's not enough to get you interested, you might like to know that it costs $799 ... almost the same price as less-powerful 11-inch notebooks with the newest Intel low-voltage processors.

The Alienware Has Landed
I rarely find myself awestruck by the announcement of a new notebook, but the Alienware M11x left me amazed and virtually speechless from day one. Never before has any laptop manufacturer delivered an ultraportable notebook that can play most modern PC games. We're not talking aboutMinesweeper or Solitaire here, we're talking about cutting-edge games like Mass Effect 2 andCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The Alienware M11x allows you to enjoy these recent 3D games at perfectly playable frame rates ... with a laptop that's small enough to fit on a tiny airline tray table and still leave enough room for a beverage and a bag of peanuts.

The arrival of the M11x is something akin to the buildup of a "perfect storm" in the world of laptops. Alienware engineers admit that they've secretly been working on developing an affordable ultraportable gaming notebook for more than four years, but it's taken all that time for the technology to catch up with the imaginations of the team at Alienware. Laptop screens needed to be small enough yet offer a high resolution at a low price point. Multi-core processors needed to be cheaper, smaller, consume less wattage, and be powerful enough to handle most games. Discrete graphics cards needed to become small enough to fit inside an ultraportable notebook chassis and still deliver the performance needed for creating modern 3D models at playable frame rates while running on battery power.

Although I've personally criticized Alienware in the past for creating over-priced, over-designed, overly-heavy and overall over-the-top gaming notebooks, the team at Alienware deserves a great deal of credit for creating an attractive ultraportable gaming notebook that no other company saw coming. When Dell announced the release of the new Alienware M11x at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January there wasn't a single competitor who was prepared for that announcement. Representatives from every other notebook manufacturer said things to me like:

"Dell did WHAT?"

or

"They made a gaming notebook how small?"

or

"An 11-inch gaming notebook that can play new games at 30FPS for less than $1,000? That can't be right ... right?"

The Alienware M11x is truly the first in its class, but don't expect this to be the only kid on the block for very long. If you take a look at the Alienware section of our discussion forums you'll see that a large number of people are talking about the M11x. We not only saw record traffic on the discussion forums after the release of the M11x, but we even had to take special steps to regulate that traffic in order to prevent the large numbers of new visitors and regular forum members from bringing the site down. If all that traffic is any indication of consumer interest, you better believe other companies will be announcing ultraportable gaming notebooks very soon.

Say Hello To My Little Friend
Sure, gaming laptops are cool for high school kids or adults who like to pass the time with a bloody first person shooter, but why is there so much interest in this little laptop? A big part of the excitement relates to what I said earlier: Until now, the Alienware brand has been synonymous with expensive, heavy gaming PCs. At the same time, however, Alienware managed to develop awareness of their brand as "luxury" custom notebooks for gamers (or their parents) who can afford these computers. The new M11x combines the features and personalization of Alienware with the low price you expect from Dell.

A starting price of $799 might seem expensive compared to a typical 15-inch notebook that starts at $500 or a netbook that sells for less than $300, but compared to the typical starting price for a gaming notebook ($1,200 or more) the M11x is a bargain. Add to that all of the small personal touches that Alienware adds -- such as laser-etched customized name plates here in the US, or the AlienFX software that allows you to change the color of the LED backlit keyboard -- and you've got a "personalized luxury item" that costs roughly the same price as a regular 11-inch ultraportable notebook.

Enough with the introduction ... let's jump into the review.

Our review unit of the Alienware M11x features the following specifications:

• 1.3GHz Intel SU4100 (800MHz FSB, 2MB Cache) or 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 (800MHz FSB, 3MB Cache) both overclockable to 1066MHz FSB (approximately 1.73GHz)
• 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 (2 x 2GB)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
• 11.6" WXGA WideHD LED Backlit display (1366x768)
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• Nvidia GeForce GT 335M Discrete Graphics (1GB GDDR3) with switchable Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics
• 802.11b/g/n, 10/100 LAN
• 3-in-1 card reader
• 8-Cell Li-ion 64WH battery, 65W Power Supply
• Dimensions: (W x L x H) 11.25" x 9.19" x 1.29"
• Weight: 4.4lbs
• Starting price: $799.99
• Price as configured: $849.99

Build and Design
Anyone familiar with the other gaming notebooks in the Alienware family should instantly recognize the design of the new M11x. In many ways the designers at Alienware tried to make this 11-inch notebook look like a tiny twin of the 15-inch M15x or the 17-inch M17x. At long last the Alienware family has a "complete lineup" from ultraportable all the way up to massive desktop replacement. A large part of that design heritage is the unique style of Alienware machines. Many laptops look virtually identical when the lids are closed, but you can spot an Alienware laptop from across the room thanks to the stylized lid with futuristic lines and a silver alien head logo. Another key giveaway that this is an Alienware is the industrial, boxy chassis. For better or worse the magnesium alloy body of the Alienware M11x looks and feels thicker than most 11-inch notebooks ... at least at first.

What I mean by that is the M11x doesn't have a tapered edge like most notebooks. Laptops like the Dell Inspiron 11z or the Lenovo Ideapad U150 get thinner as you move to the outside edges and thicker toward the center of the notebook. The chassis of the M11x doesn't do that because Alienware engineers needed all that space for the discrete graphics card, extra cooling, and the integrated battery. The integrated battery is also something to keep in mind when talking about the thickness of this notebook. The M11x might seem thick with its height of 1.29 inches, but if you buy the Dell Inspiron 11z or Lenovo IdeaPad U150 with 6-cell extended life batteries then they are actually thicker than this Alienware machine.

Build quality is second to none thanks to the previously mentioned magnesium alloy construction combined with matte and glossy black plastics on the interior surfaces of the notebook. The exterior of the notebook feels rock solid with just a little bit of flex on the back of the screen lid when you apply pressure. The keyboard and palmrest don't suffer from any noticeable flex even under heavy typing pressure. The M11x can easily handle the daily use and abuse it will likely suffer at the hands of avid gamers as they toss this notebook into backpacks. I hope serious gamers won't toss this laptop on the floor after getting killed in a game, but if you lose your temper the M11x is probably tough enough to handle it. Bottom line, this is the most durable 11-inch notebook we've reviewed in our lab. The M11x easily rivals the build quality of some business notebooks that label themselves as being "business-rugged."

Another essential element of the Alienware design is the use of customizable LED lighting in key areas around the notebook. The first thing that most people notice is the gorgeous backlit keyboard and two front panels, but my personal favorite is the backlit alien head located above the keyboard. Using the AlienFX software included on the M11x you can set this logo to light up in a number of different ways to alert you of your battery status. I set mine to light up blue on AC power and red when it's running on battery power. This is a fantastic way to alert the user if the power cord is accidentally unplugged during a game. Two additional areas that light up on the M11x are the alien head on the back of the screen and the intake vent on the bottom of the notebook. These two areas, however, aren't configurable with the AlienFX software -- the vent uses the same lighting as the keyboard and the alien head on the screen lid is illuminated by the LCD when the laptop is running.

Speaking of the bottom of the notebook, the M11x is likewise stunning even from underneath. The bottom panel is largely flat and smooth with speaker grill holes for the downward-firing stereo speakers, a customizable name plate, and the cooling fan intake. If you're interested in upgrading the internal components on your M11x you'll be happy to learn that all user-serviceable parts are located under a single access panel on the bottom of the notebook. Accessing the CPU, graphics or the cooling fan is much more complicated, but most consumers honestly don't need to get to those inner workings.

The single massive cover panel for the battery, hard drive, wireless cards and memory slots uses standard Phillips screws for easy disassembly. It's also worth mentioning that Dell/Alienware were kind enough to use retention clips on all the screws ... so when you unscrew the bottom panel the tiny screws won't fall out and get lost on the floor. No warranty void if removed stickers were found anywhere, although there was some yellow tape over the edge of the hard drive and battery. In any case, Alienware considers the internal battery, hard drive, RAM and wireless cards to all be user-serviceable parts. Also, the one-year, on-site service warranty should handle any issues that pop up during the first year and you can always buy extended service warranties if you desire. Long story short, if you want to replace the battery or upgrade the usual suspects then it's pretty easy to do so.

Screen and Speakers
The 11.6" LED-backlit screen on the M11x appears to be identical to the display panel used on the Dell Inspiron 11z. With a resolution of 1366x768 you have as much screen space as full-size notebooks, meaning that menus and other items that need more vertical space are no longer a problem. The panel looks great, with good color reproduction and very even lighting thanks to the LED-backlighting. Contrast is average, and varies depending on the vertical viewing angle. The viewing sweet spot is very narrow, so if you move your head just a little bit you won't see an entirely black screen during dark scenes in a game. Instead, you either see some shift at the top or some at the bottom. Brighter colors don't have this problem and look fantastic in everything from viewing images to just browsing the web.

The only significant complaint we have about the screen on the M11x is the lack of a matte screen option. Yes, glossy screens look cool when you see them in a store or when you first take your laptop out of the box, but glossy screens also cause obvious reflections on the screen and make it much more difficult to see what's on the screen when you're under strong indoor lighting or direct sunlight. Dell really needs to offer a matte screen option on this notebook since it's designed to be taken everywhere ... and you can't always control your lighting environment when traveling.

Speaker quality is far above average for an 11-inch notebook and the maximum volume output is both loud enough to fill a large meeting room and clear enough to be heard without obvious distortion. Although the stereo speakers on the M11x are downward-firing drivers located on the bottom front edge of the notebook, Alienware engineers also designed two small sound channels into the chassis to direct sound forward through the two decorative LED panels on the front on the notebook. So despite the fact that most of the sound is directed down there is also some sound being thrown forward at the user. Although the M11x has two excellent headphone jacks you might be perfectly happy with the built-in speakers on this laptop.

Keyboard and Touchpad
For many years Alienware notebooks have used a distinctive keyboard design with adjustable LED backlighting so you can view the keyboard in the dark. The M11x continues this tradition with one of the best, if not THE best, keyboard we've used on an 11-inch notebook. In general, the keyboard uses individual keys with a traditional shape that is slightly curved in the middle of each key. Key spacing is quite good and each key has the perfect amount of feedback with minimal side travel. The big difference between this keyboard and the keyboards on other 11-inch notebooks is that the keys have excellent LED backlighting with a transparent key frame and key labels using a futuristic font that looks like something out of Star Trek. More importantly, the support frame beneath the keyboard is rock solid. We couldn't get the keyboard on this M11x to flex even under severe typing pressure. Likewise, the matte plastic palmrests will handle hours of game play without bending or squeaking plastics. Typing noise is minimal, with no loud "click clack" noises while typing. The only minor issue we have with the keyboard is that the matte paint on the keys doesn't like natural skin oils. You'll have to wipe down the keyboard from time to time or some of the keys will start to look oily ... particularly the W, A, S, and D keys if you're a heavy gamer.

The Synaptics touchpad is both pleasing and depressing at the same time on the M11x. If I was using this touchpad on any other Dell notebook I would be absolutely thrilled. The honeycomb textured surface makes for an ideal touchpad texture (allowing for smooth, controlled finger movement) and the drivers seem perfectly calibrated straight out of the box for minimal lag and precision tracking. The touchpad buttons have soft, springy movement with quiet clicks, though the full touchpad button press might be a little too deep for my taste. Indeed, this is a great touchpad ... but it's a touchpad.

Any gaming enthusiast will tell you that you MUST use an external mouse when gaming. Sure, the M11x is an ultraportable laptop and people generally use touchpads for typical activities, but the main reason people are buying this machine rather than a Dell Inspiron 11z or an HP Mini 311 is that you can play games on the M11x. Dell really should have included a quality wireless mouse or even a small wired gaming mouse as "standard" equipment with the M11x.

Ports and Features
Port selection is fairly good when compared to ultraportable notebooks. In fact, there isn't much we can complain about in this section. The Alienware M11x includes three USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, a 3-in-1 media card slot, Ethernet, all of the standard audio jacks, and THREE video out options including VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort. Yes, you don't get a built-in optical drive with the M11x ... and we're glad. Not only would a DVD or Blu-ray drive have taken up space and made the notebook heavier and more power hungry, but most consumers are downloading content rather than using disks. You can even choose to let Alienware pre-install STEAM on your M11x when you place your order on the Dell website. For those of you who aren't familiar with Steam, it's essentially like iTunes for PC gaming -- using the Steam software you can browse the online Steam Store and purchase almost any PC game which you then download and install on your PC.

There's only one thing I can complain about when it comes to the lack of an optical drive: Dell included a DVD restore disk with the M11x. WHAT?!? Come on, Dell. Your engineers and product support people know better than this. The restore disk should have come on a USB flash drive that was included with the notebook or a SDHC card. There is absolutely NO REASON to include a DVD restore disk if the laptop doesn't have an optical drive. Include it on a USB drive or include an external optical drive with the purchase price of the M11x. Either way, simply tossing a DVD in the box is completely unacceptable.

We would have liked to see either a combo USB/eSATA port or USB 3.0 on the Alienware M11x so that owners can connect high-speed external storage to this notebook, but I suspect we'll see one (or both) of those ports on the next revision of this notebook. In the meantime, USB 2.0 and FireWire is enough for most people.

With that said, let's take a quick tour around the M11x:

Front: AlienFX lights and speaker grills

Rear: Display hinge, AC power jack, and heat vent

Left: Kensington lock slot, VGA out, USB, Ethernet, HDMI, DisplayPort, Media card reader, and FireWire

Right: Dual headphone jacks, one microphone jack, and two USB

Performance and Benchmarks
One of the essential hardware elements that makes the Alienware M11x possible is the use of Intel dual-core consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) processors. These CPUs consume only a fraction of the power that other Intel processors use and also produce less heat. Since Alienware needed to squeeze a power-hungry discrete graphics card inside the tiny M11x they needed to limit the amount of heat inside the notebook as well as the amount of power consumption for maximum battery life. Of course, another key factor was price. Dell was able to keep the price of the Alienware M11x under $1,000 by offering only two options of these low-voltage processors.

Interestingly enough both theIntel SU4100 and SU7300 CULV processors are virtually identical. Both processors run at 1.3GHz by default and the frontside bus on both processors can be overclocked from 800MHz to 1066MHz thus creating an overclocked speed of roughly 1.73GHz to 1.6GHz with Intel SpeedStep. Alienware includes a simple overclocking option in the BIOS, so all you have to do is press F2 during startup and enable the overclocking feature. As long as you don't use alternative methods of overclocking this feature is part of the design of the M11x and is covered under warranty. As you'll see in the benchmarks below, overclocking the CPU is essential if you want the M11x to perform as advertised on the Dell website.

In terms of day-to-day activities the overclocked SU4100 processor in our review unit works flawlessly. The overclocked processor provides a noticeable speed boost over the default clock speed, and is more than enough to handle Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop CS4, and your library of photos, videos and music. Alienware admits there isn't much (if any) difference in day-to-day or in-game performance between the SU4100 and the SU7300. The SU7300 offers an extra 1MB of cache and virtualization, but this won't make any practical difference to most consumers.

Rather than spend the extra cash on the SU7300 I would recommend buying more RAM and a faster hard drive. The default 160GBhard drive with 5400rpm speed delivers average performance, but a simple upgrade to a 7200rpm hard drive or SSD will provide much faster application launching in Windows and faster level load times in various games.

The M11x also includes the Nvidia GeForce GT 335M discrete graphics card with 1GB of dedicated GDDR3 memory as well as switchable graphics thanks to the Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics. For the sake of simplicity we benchmarked the M11x using only the Nvidia discrete graphics. However, you can safely assume that the performance of the M11x is nearly identical to the Dell Inspiron 11z or Toshiba Satellite T135 when using the Intel integrated graphics.

We'll get to our in-game tests later in the review, but in the meantime here are a few synthetic benchmarks to see how the M11x compares to other ultraportable notebooks and how it compares to the larger Alienware M15x.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
There are basically two noise levels that you experience with the Alienware M11x: whisper quiet or a loud fan that sounds like someone is using a hairdryer in the next room. The default fan speed is always on at a low setting that is so quiet that you might think the fan is off. However, when overclocking the CPU or gaming the fan will frequently kick into high mode pushing hot air away from the CPU and GPU inside the notebook. On one hand this is good because you know that dangerous heat isn't roasting your laptop, but it means that the M11x might be annoying to coworkers or classmates in a quiet office or classroom environment. The externaltemperatures on the M11x are mostly "lap friendly" but there are a few hot spots thanks to the overclocked processor and the discrete graphics card. All temperatures shown below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit and were recorded when the CPU was overclocked and the discrete graphics was working playing Mass Effect 2 for two hours.

Battery Life
Thanks to the switchable graphics inside the M11x there are essentially two battery life ranges you can expect with this notebook: extended battery life mode using the Intel integrated graphics or high-performance mode using the Nvidia GeForce GT 335M discrete graphics. Dell claims that the M11x can deliver more than 8 hours of battery life when using the Intel integrated graphics. In our lab tests with the screen set to 70 percent brightness, Windows 7 set to a "balanced" power profile, and Wi-Fi on and loading a new website at a regular interval we obtained 6 hours and 59 minutes of battery life with the SU4100 processor overclocked and the graphics set to the Intel integrated mode. It's safe to assume that you can get closer to 8 hours if you turn down the screen brightness, disable overclocking, and disable Wi-Fi when it's not in use.

We also tested the M11x while gaming with CPU overclocking enabled, Nvidia discrete graphics on, brightness set to 70 percent and Wi-Fi on while running Mass Effect 2 using the Steam application. The M11x was able to play Mass Effect 2flawlessly for 2 hours and 48 minutes before the notebook shut down with a power draw of 22 to 27 watts while gaming. The amount of in-game time could have been extended by lowering the screen brightness.

The integrated 8-Cell Lithium-Ion battery inside the M11x is rated at 64WH and is powered by a standard 65W power supply. Although we're talking about an integrated battery this is one of the most powerful batteries we've seen in an 11-inch notebook. Also, despite the fact that we prefer to see removable batteries this internal battery is quite easy to remove and replace using the instructions included in the user manual.

Another element of the battery that we really like to see is the one-touch battery indicator located on the bottom of the notebook. Five white LEDs let you know how much battery life is left and whether you need to bring your AC adapter with you when you go to class or that next office meeting. The battery meter works even when the laptop is powered off, so it's a fantastic way to check your battery status when you're in a hurry.

Gaming Performance
Synthetic Benchmarks like PCMark and 3DMark help provide a rough idea of how one laptop performs compared to another, but when it comes to serious gaming the only way to know how a notebook performs is to test it with the specific game you want to play. Another key thing to consider is how the notebook performs when it's plugged in and how it performs on battery power. Most gaming notebooks "throttle back" the graphics card (GPU) and sometimes even the CPU when you unplug the power cord. This is great for battery life but horrible for gaming performance. Alienware engineers designed the M11x so that it continues to provide maximum CPU and GPU performance even when it's unplugged. To that end, the in-game performance benchmarks listed below are an accurate indication of what you'll experience with the M11x regardless of whether you're playing with the laptop plugged in or unplugged.

The Nvidia GeForce GT 335M card is an upper mid-range card that lacks the horsepower of the discrete cards used in the Alienware M15x or M17x, but still delivers MUCH more power than any other ultraportable notebook. The 1GB of dedicated GDDR3 memory helps keep frame rates running at consistent levels in most games and we were pleasantly surprised that we didn't have to turn down detail settings all the time to get playable frame rates with modern games.

Although we didn't have the time to test every single game on the market in our lab, we spent hours slaving away with a variety of games late into the evening and the early morning. We conducted all tests using the Nvidia discrete graphics. If you're interested in getting the most battery life and want to game with the Intel integrated graphics instead .... well ... there's always Space Quest. We selected a range of games that we believe reflect the most common styles of games being played today.

Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 was one of the first games used to demo the in-game performance on the M11x when Dell announced this laptop at CES earlier this year. This up-to-date first-person shooter game is a joy to play on the M11x. Frame rates always remain playable and it's safe to assume Alienware engineers spent considerable time testing this game on the M11x to ensure a near flawless gaming experience. With a few tweaks to the detail settings and the CPU overclocked the frame rate never dropped below 25 frames per second ... essentially motion picture quality.

Left 4 Dead 2 is another modern first-person shooter, but we were concerned about how well this would play on the M11x when all those zombies rush on the screen at once. Again, the M11x didn't fail to impress us. With moderate settings we managed to keep the frame rates at playable levels with only a modest amount of lag during attacks by zombie hordes.

I've been playing Mass Effect 2 since the day it was released, and this combination of a role-playing game and a shooter is easily one of my favorites. Since I've spent hundreds of hours playing this game on my desktop at home I was very curious if the M11x could handle this space adv enture. Once again, the M11x was nearly perfect. The only setting that was disabled on Mass Effect 2was dynamic shadows and the frame rate only went below 20 frames per second one time. The frame rate usually remained above 30 frames per second during game play.

After three impressive gaming experiences I was starting to think the M11x was the greatest thing since sliced bread ... so I decided to put this little gaming laptop in its place with a CPU-intense game: Shattered Horizon. For those of you who aren't familiar with Shattered Horizon, this is an online first-person shooter game set in outer space where everyone is weightless and you're bouncing around asteroids shooting one another from every direction possible. This game requires a significant amount of math from the CPU to calculate acceleration, drift, angle of trajectory, etc. ... not only for your character but for every character you're playing against.

This is where the limitation of the CULV processor inside the M11x really became obvious. Frame rates regularly dropped into the single digit range and it was essentially impossible to track the movement of other players on the screen and shoot them while avoiding being shot. Interestingly enough, the frame rates were mostly unchanged regardless of the detail settings. The Nvidia GeForce GT 335M graphics card is strong enough to render the detail on the space suits and the asteroids but the Intel low-voltage CPU just isn't fast enough to handle all the calculations required to maintain a playable frame rate.

Since Shattered Horizon made the Alienware M11x look horrible I decided to play nice with a slightly older strategy game such as Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Although there's a fair amount of math going on behind the scenes inCivilization IV the overall pace of the action is much slower. There's still plenty of detail to render on the surface of the globe, but once again the Nvidia graphics card took it in stride. Frame rates remained playable at all times with this game.

A more graphically intense strategy game is Warhammer Dawn of War II. This sci-fi strategy game is more fast-paced than Civilization IV and the rendering is a little more detailed than what you see in other strategy games. In-game frame rates are pretty solid with this game, but there are occasional frame rate dips below 20fps when there are lots of enemies and explosions on the screen. Despite the occasional frame rate drop, I consider Dawn of War II to be perfectly playable on the M11x.

As a final test we decided to kill a few more zombies in another game, this time trying our luck with Resident Evil 5. Not only did the M11x handle Resident Evil 5, but the frame rates were so high at the default settings that we had to double the length of our frame rate chart to fit the numbers! In short, it's safe to say that the Alienware M11x likes shooter games that rely on the graphics card more than the CPU.

At the end of the day the Alienware M11x exceeds our expectations for gaming power. Sure, the M11x doesn't have a CPU option that can handle extremely processor-intense games, but this is indeed the most powerful 11-inch notebook on the planet. If you want to play first-person shooters or RPGs while you're on the road then the M11x provides an impressive balance of performance and portability

ConclusionThe Alienware M11x remains as awe-inspiring today as it was when Dell announced it back in January. The solid design, compact size, capable gaming performance, and impressively affordable price make the M11x a fantastic choice for PC gamers who already own a high-performance desktop and want a gaming solution when traveling.

Yes, we would have liked to see at least one mid-range Intel CPU available as a configuration option on this notebook. Likewise, the lack of a matte screen option or removable battery may bother some people. Is the M11x the ultimate gaming notebook? No. Is it the first gaming notebook that is small enough and light enough so you can genuinely take everywhere? Yes!

People who buy the Alienware M11x need to understand the limitations of the weak processor: Some CPU-intense games simply can't be played effectively with this notebook. That said, the M11x is currently the ONLY ultraportable notebook that can play "most" modern games. If you need a compact laptop that you can take anywhere and you can live with the fact that "some" games aren't playable then the M11x is indeed the perfect laptop.

More to the point, the Alienware M11x is your only choice if you're looking for an ultraportable gaming notebook.

Pros:

• Ultraportable gaming notebook
• Fantastic design and durability
• AlienFX LED lighting

Cons:

• Limited processor options
• No matte screen option
• Integrated battery

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 

* Ratings averaged to produce final score