Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I am a Computer Science major in college and wanted a laptop with power for strenuous tasks like video/photo editing, graphics work, and playing games like Civilization V, Team Fortress 2, etc. At the same time, I wanted a computer light and small enough to toss in my backpack and take around to class all day without having to bring the charger. Power and Portability - madness? Think again.
After about 40 hours of research and reading countless reviews of over fifty different laptops (hey, for spending $1300+, I want to be well informed), I chose this one and am not disappointed in any way! The laptop blazes through my games at high frame rates while having the battery to last through hours of lectures. The seemingly indestructible solid build and fantastic keyboard just add icing to the cake. Search anywhere for something 14 inches with 6 hours of battery life and this amount of raw power - you won't find it. If you need performance in a small package, this little monster is just what you're looking for. ~~~~~
Size - Perfection of 14 Inches
~~~~~
This laptop has a 14 inch screen, which in my opinion is the perfect size. When you have a 14 inch laptop on your lap at the high resolution of 900P, you have plenty of space to do work, have two windows open at once for multitasking, and not feel cramped or limited. 14 inches is still large enough to watch movies and play games as well. At the same time, a 14 inch screen lest the laptop be small and fit into a backpack easily. Alienware has a reputation for making large computers, however it's not true in this case. The laptop is actually not as wide as most 14 inch laptops (width as in left to right side of laptop) by 0.5 inches, however it is a bit longer (front to back) by 1 inch and thicker (top to bottom) by 0.5 inches than most laptops. In my opinion the most important dimension is width (left to right) of a laptop, and this laptop is thin in that regard. One con, however, is that the laptop is about a 1.5 pounds heavier than other 14 inch laptops. The added heft actually makes this system really durable - as a college student, I've dropped it over a half-dozen times, stepped on it getting out of bed, and piled heavy books ontop of it in my backpack without causing any damage. This laptop is built like a rock and will withstand some rough use.
Here are the exact dimensions and comparison to some other products:
1.49 X 13.27 X 10.27 @ 6.35lbs -- M14X
1.13 X 13.45 X 9.64 @ 4.65 lbs -- Acer 4820TG
1.16 X 14.01 X 9.33 @ 5.57 lbs -- HP Envy 14
1.07 X 13.60 X 9.39 @ 5.20 lbs -- Sony EA series (as thick as 1.4 at the back)
1.20 X 13.90 X 9.70 @ 5.35 lbs -- Dell XPS 14
1.10 X 13.43 X 9.26 @ 5.20 lbs -- Sony C series (14 inches)
1.50 X 10.90 X 8.40 @ 5.20lbs -- One of my Textbooks
0.70 X 9.80 X 11.00 @ 1.50lbs -- 3 Subject Notebook by 5 Star (8.5 x 11 pages)
0.01 X 8.50 X 11.00 @ 0.01lbs? -- Piece of Paper (lol)
0.34 X 9.50 X 7.31 @ 1.34lbs -- iPad 2 (WiFi) held in landscape mode
0.95 X 12.78 X 8.94 @ 4.50lbs -- MacBook Pro 13
0.95 X 14.35 X 9.82 @ 5.60lbs -- MacBook Pro 15
1.29 X 11.25 X 9.19 @ 4.40lbs -- M11X R3
1.75 X 16.14 X 11.96 @ 9.39lbs -- M17X R3 (as thick as 1.77 at the back)
~~~~~~
Battery Life
~~~~~~
Battery Life really varies greatly - but you can guestimate it based on 4 settings: brightness, WiFi on/off, alien FX on/off (the glowing lights all over the computer), and battery mode (power saver, balanced, or high performance). The nice thing about this laptop is that it has Nvidia Optimus technology which allows the battery hungry powerful graphics card to only kick in when you're doing something that requires it (THIS SAVES A TON OF BATTERY!!).
I ran a few tests and here are my results:
Web Surfing from 100% to 5% battery with wifi on, powersaver mode, brightness 2 / 7, alien FX off: 5 hours and 45 mins
Web Surfing from 100% to 5% battery with wifi on, balanced mode, brightness 5/7, alien FX on: 3 hours 20 mins
By default, the computer's power options sets it up so that the full power of the graphics card will only activate when you plug the computer into an outlet (even in high performance mode). So to get max performance, either plug in the power cord or tweak the settings. The problem with tweaking the settings to allow full power of the Graphics card on battery mode is that sometimes the graphics card requires more power than what can be provided by the battery on its own and forces a computer shutdown. People on forums solved this problem by going into the BIOS and capping the CPU at 75% on battery high performance mode which fixes the power overdraw shut-off problem. In short, just bring your power cable if you need to full graphics and processing power.
~~~~
Power - the internals
~~~~
This specific model on Amazon features an 8GB DDR3 1333, sandy bridge i5 2.3Ghz, and GT 555M (you can order other specs via the Alienware site). The laptop is also offered with a quad core i7 (which I have). To be blunt, for a laptop this size, it's a freakin' powerhouse. From Folding to Rendering to Gaming, this laptop keeps surprising me. It blows by games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 on near-max settings, and runs newer games like Civilization 5 and Dragon Age at high settings without any lag and high frame rates. If your main focus on this laptop is gaming, the i5 will be just fine as the limiting factor in this laptops gaming performance is the graphics card. If you are planning on rendering or doing graphics work, I would recommend upgrading to an i7 by buying directly though Alienware.
My advice: Don't get caught up in numbers and benchmark scores - this tech will be outdated in a year anyway. See if the computer can handle what you need it to do, which I'm sure it will.
*Note this is on max performance mode with the power adapter plugged in. Oh, by the way, the 150 watt power adapter required to power this beast is a beast itself. It's not thicker than normal power bricks, but is about twice as wide and the length of a pen. ~~~~~~
Keyboard and Touchpad
~~~~~~
Both are amazing! Alienware did an incredible job. They keys aren't chicklet (like Apple or Sony with "island" keys). Instead they are placed nicely together and require just the right amount of energy to be pushed and spring right back into place. I really don't know what else to say - it feels great and lets you type fast. Even though it's only a 14 inch laptop, the keyboard doesn't feel squished or small.
The touchpad has a smooth texture that still has some grip and feels comfortable for the finger. The left click and right click are the real winners here though. Rather than having the clicker on top of the laptop, you push them down into the laptop just like a keyboard key would be pressed down. This leaves you with a very satisfying click that just feels right.
I have trouble using other laptop keyboards and especially touchpads after being spoiled by the M14X's. ~~~
Screen, Sound, Ports and Connections
~~~~
I'll start with the screen. 900P is amazing on this little guy - you get plenty of room to work with. The quality of the screen isn't as good as my external monitor, but it's still pretty good. I wouldn't get too caught up in the people trying to get perfect color replication, chose the setting and enjoy the screen. If your job depended on perfect color replication, you wouldn't be using a laptop monitor, you'd be using an expesnive, high end IPS screen. The screen looks great for movies and games and I am enjoying it. As with most laptop screens, the screen is reflective (though not as bad as many other laptops I've used). To reduce the reflections, you could avoid direct light shining onto the screen like lamps (or the sun) behind you and increase the screen brightness. Alienware actually sells a film you can put on the screen to reduce the reflectiveness, but I haven't bought it myself. In all honesty, a bit of reflectiveness in a laptop screen is good for privacy. It's awkward when the person across the isle on a flight can see everything you're doing perfectly.
Screen resolution? Great, anything higher would make text too small and hard to read.
Reflective? Yes, about the average in a laptop.
Screen Quality (contrast, color replication, etc): Above that of an average laptop, but not incredible.
Sound. This is where the laptop blew me away. THE LAPTOP HAS A DOWN-FIRING SUBWOOFER!! There is a 2.1 sound system built in and it can get very loud. I was extremely surprised how loud this laptop could get. Music sounds fantastic as does game and movie audio. The soundcard is awesome as well for plugging in headphones. I have a high end $150 pair of headphones (Audio Technica M50) and the laptop easily drives and provides great quality sound for even such highgrade 'phones.
Ports, Connections, and other stuff: I don't want to read off the spec-sheet, so I'll just talk about the cool features. USB 3.0 really is speedy and even tripled the transfer time of my USB 2.0 flashdrives and external hard drives. HDMI, Mini-display port and VGA ensure you can hook to just about any monitor or projector. The 2.0 powershare port lets me charge my phone even when my laptop is off which is pretty cool. I like the low profile slot loading DVD drive, but I still wish it was Bluray. Finally, the laptop's power cable is plugged in the back of the laptop as opposed to the side like most laptops. At first, I found this annoying and weird, but now I realized that it makes things much cleaner and easier to deal with plugged in...Read more›
Click Here to see more reviews about: Alienware M14x AM14X-6557STB 14-Inch Laptop (Stealth Black with Soft Touch Finish)
Take control of your gaming with the Alienware M14X multimedia laptop (model AM14X-6557STB), which features a thermally optimized case design with aggressive lines and an in-your-face attitude. It features a stunning, high-definition 14-inch display and a powerful, second-generation Intel Core i5 processor. Additionally, it offers ultra-fast DDR3 system memory and dual graphics capabilities, allowing you to save on battery life with the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 or ramp up your gaming with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M with 1.5 GB of discrete memory. Taken together, this combination of high-performance technologies allow you to rip through the latest 3D games at lightning-fast frame-rates.
It's powered by a second-generation Intel Core i5 dual-core processor ("Sandy Bridge"), which provides breakthrough digital media management, content creation, and 3D gaming capabilities. With updated Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, the latest Core i5 increases speed automatically for whatever you're doing.
It features two speedy USB 3.0 ports--the latest development in USB data transfer technology. Perfect for transferring and retrieving large files between your PC and an external hard drive or digital camera, USB 3.0 offers the speediest, most efficient way get what you need from external devices. (It also comes with a combo eSATA/USB 2.0 port, plus the two USB 3.0 ports are backward compatible.)
The Alienware Command Center brings you intuitive access to applications and controls, so you can easily adjust details like lighting effects and power. Other features include a 750 GB hard drive (7200 RPM), 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, double-layer DVD drive, Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity, 2.0-megapixel HD webcam, and 2.1 channel surround sound audio powered by Klipsch.
And with the HDMI video output, you can savor victory in new dimensions with 3D 1080p content delivered to 3D-enabled displays. This M14X also includes a Mini-DisplayPort output.
This Alienware notebook comes pre-installed with the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system (64-bit version).
With aggressive lines and in-your-face attitude, the M14x has a presence unlike any other gaming laptop.
0 comments:
Post a Comment