Any laptop that crams in an Nvidia GeForce or AMD Radeon chip can call itself gaming-ready. But what makes a true gaming laptop is the ability to smoothly play games at the highest screen resolution (1080p) and best quality settings. The Alienware M17X (Sandy Bridge) ($2,254 direct) is the epitome of a dedicated gaming laptop, offering a wide selection of Sandy Bridge quad-core processors, the fastest Nvidia and AMD graphics chips, and some of the most advanced features known to laptops. In addition, its menacing looks complement the menacing parts makes for a package that's bound to strike fear in your LAN opponents and boost your gaming cred. For this, it earns the Editors' Choice in our gaming category.
Design
The overall design hasn't changed since the last iteration I saw of the Alienware M17x, which was two years ago. In that time, there has yet to be another laptop that possesses a more menacing looking design. For instance, the M17X's front bezel seems to have a face with a middle portion that protrudes out, crevice between the lid and base, and two corner-placed LEDs that seems as it if they're peering at you. It's a beautifully made laptop, too, using a rubber-like texture over its stealth-black magnesium frame. The design isn't as subtle as the clean metallic builds of the Dell XPS 15 (Sandy Bridge) ($1,785 direct, 4 stars) and Acer Aspire AS8950G-9839. At 9.8 pounds, the M17X (Sandy Bridge) is one of the heaviest laptops, outweighing the Asus G73SW-BST6 ($1,299.99 list, 3.5 stars) and Acer AS8950G-9839 (which both weigh 8.3 pounds).
The 17.3-inch widescreen is equipped with the ideal 1,920-by-1,080 resolution and brightness intensity (at 400 nits). Its edge-to-edge glass screen was marred somewhat by its black-clad frame (black backgrounds intensify glare). Under any light source, the screen essentially turned into a mirror. Half the time I was trying not to take notice of my reflection. Changing the black Alienware background on the screen and minimizing surrounding light sources should help reduce the glare. The Dell XPS 15 (Sandy Bridge) has a matte screen option that minimizes glare, though the colors on its screen aren't as vivid.
Features
Every vent, button, and key has LED lighting. Even the power button, multimedia keys, and signature Alien head logo are illuminated. Each of these pieces can be coordinated with up to 20 different colors. The keyboard and adjacent numeric keypad are separated into 4 quadrants, each of which can be assigned a different light color. All of this is done through Alienware's Command Center?a software interface that lets you control the lighting effects, among other system settings. The full size keyboard is traditional-looking, as opposed to the Chiclet one found in the Dell XPS 15, Acer AS8950G-9839, and Asus G73SW-BST6. Alienware has gotten rid of the texture on the touchpad, although it navigates fine without it. The mouse buttons are softer than ever?there's no resistance when you click on them.
The M17X (Sandy Bridge) has a feature set worthy of the highest praise. Its list of video options is the most notable, which include mini-DisplayPort, HDMI-Out, VGA-Out, and a port rarely found in laptops: HDMI-in. With HDMI-in, the 17-inch screen can be used with your gaming console, DVD player, camcorder, or another laptop that has HDMI-out. There are five USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0 (with speeds 10 times that of USB 2.0), two USB 2.0, and one ESata/USB combo. A slot-loading Blu-ray drive is included in this configuration. The speakers are crisp and fully immerse you into any 3D game, but it lacks a subwoofer, for base. An SPDIF port on the left side of the laptop will allow you to hook up a better speaker system. The Acer AS8950G-9839, in comparison, has a five-speaker system (subwoofer included) built in. There's no shortage of hard drive space in the M17X (Sandy Bridge), as it comes with two 750GB,7200rpm drives, for a total of 1.5TB. Striped in RAID 0, these dual hard drives are also tuned for performance.
Performance
The M17X (Sandy Bridge) runs on the AMD Radeon 6970M with 2GB of VRAM?one of the best mobile graphics chips available (there's also an option for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M). The true measure of a hardcore gaming rig is how it performs in games with the resolution and all the quality settings set to maximum. That said, not a single frame was lost while playing Call of Duty (Black Ops) and Crysis after turning up anti-aliasing (8X), anisotropic filtering, and shadow detail. At the highest possible settings, the M17X also received top marks in Crysis (58.7 frames per second) and Lost Planet 2 (57.4 fps). It scored 20,097 on 3DMark 06 tests, easily beating the Acer AS8950G-9839 (10,773), XPS 15 (9,787), and G73SW (15,525).
Powerful components aren't kind to the battery. Despite using one of the biggest batteries available (90WH), the M17X lasted 2 hours 24 minutes on MobileMark 2007. Experienced gamers will tell you that few games are played off of the AC adapter, and it'll stay anchored to a desk more often than not. But if great battery life is absolutely essential on a gaming rig, the dell XPS 15 delivered almost 7 hours of battery life, while the Acer AS8950G-9839 scored over 5 hours.
A true gaming laptop is capable of handling the latest games at the highest resolution while using the best quality settings. While the Alienware M17X (Sandy Bridge) can run you a pretty penny, few laptops can rival its gaming prowess. Even if its rivals could squeeze in similar parts, they'll still have to contend with the M17X's out-of-this-world looks and phenomenal feature set. That's why we're calling it the best gaming laptop in the world.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Alienware M17X (Sandy Bridge) with several other laptops side by side.
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