I’m still not willing to call the Alienware M11x a netbook, and I’d call you crazy if you were to do so. The bottom line is that no netbook should cost $800 (are you listening, Sony?) and that Core2 CPUs pretty much exclude you from the category.

Now, that doesn’t mean the M11x isn’t sweet. Quite the contrary. It’s a seriously bad-ass little gaming rig, and you’d be hard pressed to find a more portable frag box to take to that mostly-friendly LAN at your buddy’s house. IGN even picked it as one of CES’ best-in-show products.

Over on the Direct2Dell community site, they’ve posted a blog about the M11x’s origins as the “Phantom.” According to the post’s author, Alienware had been planning the tiny beast since around 2005, a bit over a year before the Dell acquisition went down.

It’s an interesting read, and there’s a video embed of the M11x running L4D2 without breaking a sweat. The more I look at that thing, the more I start thinking about where I can scrounge $800 to buy one. It’s not due out for a little while, so I guess we all have time to start saving pennies, amirite?