Posts tagged dell
Dell’s mad scientists reveal Alienware M11x’s evolutionary process
Jan 30th
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?
Alienware’s $1,000 11.6″ gaming machine is no netbook – unless you’re an idiot
Jan 7th
Hey, I’m as big a netbook gaming fan as you’re likely to find. But let’s be honest: no system that costs nearly $1,000 should be referred to as a netbook.
Apart from the price, the machine runs a Core2Duo CPU, and I don’t think any sane person would refer to that as a netbook CPU. Ok, Gizmodo does, but they aren’t known for being all that even-keeled.
It also weighs in at 4 pounds, and while that’s not exactly heavy it’s quite a bit more than the average Asus Seashell or MSI Wind weighs.
Yes, the M11x is interesting. But I’m just not sure I understand who the target market is for this unit. I mean, any self respecting gamer wanting this much gaming power in a laptop would be much better off buying a nice 15 or 16 inch Asus. It wouldn’t weight a heck of a lot more or be any less portable, and the bigger screen would be a definite bonus.
Then there’s the battery. In full-on gaming, the Dell rep said to expect about two hours of use. Two hours? That’s about as anti-netbook as you can get.
To me, the hardware in an Asus 1201N or HP Mini 311 is pretty much the cutoff for “gaming netbooks.” Things will change, of course, as Intel’s newer chips become more efficient and the Atom eventually gets replaced with something new.
In that sense, the M11x might be an indication of things to come. Right now, though, it seems like a product designed to fit a very odd niche.