The Young Alienware

When the Alienware M11x burst into the scene, it captured the attention of critics who thought that gamers couldn’t game on a portable system. It proved to be a hit, but sadly it was discontinued. Alienware said that customers wanted to focus on bigger systems.

However, the portable gaming crowd isn’t lost because Alienware recently updated their medium – sized laptop, the M14x to accommodate better hardware, but still be portable enough.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Design

The Alienware M14x is just like every other Alienware made, only smaller. The features are still the same. You get the same crazy colors on the grills, logos and keyboard, which you can change with a special program.

Despite being a medium – sized laptop, it manages to be bulky. It weighs 6.4 pounds, and is 1.5 inches thick. That being said, it actually manages to be the as thick and as heavy as 17 – inch laptops, so consider that if you’re buying this laptop.

Display

The M14x comes with a 14.0 inch display with a screen resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels. If you’re feeling cheap, you can lower the resolution to 1366 x 768 pixels.

Overall, the glossy display can be a bit of a hassle to use outdoors thanks to some crazy reflections. To make up for it though, the M14x has great viewing angles.

Hardware

This laptop isn’t afraid to put on some muscle. Featuring the latest hardware available, the M14x easily beats laptops of the same category.

It features an Intel Ivy Bridge 3720QM processor, one of the higher end i7 processors. The clock speed is at 2.6 GHz, but you can turn on Turbo Boost 2.0 for an amazing 3.6 GHz.

For graphics, you’re provided with the GeForce GT 650M, the top mid – level graphics card of NVIDIA.  Though it may not be the GTX series, it’s certainly no slouch.

Thanks to the lower resolution, games play smoothly. You can play Diablo III with 45 fps and the demanding Deus Ex Human Revolution at 30 fps. For racing fans, you’ll be happy to know that Dirt 3 can be played at ultra with 26 fps. By doing a couple of tweaks to the settings, you can get even faster frame rates.

When it comes to storage, you’re provided with a 64 GB solid state drive by Samsung. You’ll find it adequate, but due to the small space, you’ll have to put all of your games and files onto the 500 GB hard drive. The solid state drive is there to help decrease boot times, which it effectively does.

Memory is at 8 GB, which is a standard among enthusiast gamers. It’s also adequate for daily tasks.

Conclusion

You have 1 USB 2.0 port and two 3.0 ports. There’s also VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort for your multi – display needs.

All in all, this laptop features sturdy construction, great design and if you sell computer for cash for this Alienware, you will not regret it.It has  amazing performance for its price (2000 dollars) . At that price though, you might be turned away, because there are other alternatives. But since it’s Alienware, you get consistent performance and great support.