Alienware is known for its out-of-this-world styles along with the M15x is no exception. Following the flagship Alienware M17x, this really is the second notebook to make use of their new "Stealth" look. The M15x includes a one-of-a-kind appear and really feel.The M15x is unusually huge to get a 15.6-inch notebook, measuring almost two inches thick and weighing more than nine pounds! The front in the M15x is striking; it can be slightly pointed outward towards the user and is flanked by two menacing speaker grilles. The front of the M15x isn't vertical but angled downward lenovo y50 adapter as well. The lid includes a unique appear; it truly is very tall and angled at the top to match the chassis front when closed. I like how there is a dedicated area for grabbing the lid at the top.The M15x is a very well-built notebook. It includes a strong internal frame and takes significant force to flex. The lid is impressively strong; it resists twisting noticeably better than other 15.6' notebooks thanks to is one-piece wraparound backing. The lid is firmly secured to the chassis by a strong hinge. Generally speaking this notebook is extremely solid.Construct materials consist lg g pad 7.0 charger of magnesium alloy and thick plastic. The palmrest and keyboard surrounds are textured plastic and have a matte surface, which is welcome since it does not show dust and fingerprints easily. The only truly glossy surfaces on this notebook are the speaker housings, the media button strip above the keyboard, along with the display surface itself. The base from the chassis and the back on the lid are magnesium alloy, which feels strong. The only weak point in the develop quality part is the bottom; the plastic covering the vents is rather thin and cheap feeling.While the create quality in the M15s is impressive, it does not feel quite as solid as its bigger brother, the M17x. The M17x uses anodized aluminum asus memo pad 7 charger for the chassis and lid back which is heavier than the M15x's magnesium alloy but feels more solid. The M15x has class-leading build quality, but aluminum would make it betterOne feature that deserves special mention may be the AlienFX customizable lighting system. There are several different lighting zones; users can choose many different colors for various zones on the notebook, including the four parts of the keyboard, touchpad, media buttons, power button, Alienware logo below the lid, and alien head on the back. The colors can be changed from the Command Center application:The lighting can be turned off at any time by pressing [Fn] and [F11]. AlienFX is truly unique and adds aesthetic value.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The chunky keys on the M15x don't have any flex to them, so it's as if you're typing on a legitimate desktop keyboard. Unlike the larger M17x, there's no number pad, so you'll have to make use of other keys to store all of your macros in games such as World of Warcraft. As mentioned, you can tweak all of your colored lights on the notebook, and Alienware even lets you adjust the keyboard by region. So, for example, you can have the far left of your keyboard glow blue, the middle-left glow red, the middle-right glow orange, as well as the far dyson charger dc59 right glow green. It reminded us of a rainbow snow cone. Regardless of whether you stick with any particular pattern, it's fun to experiment with all the possible combinations. Above the keyboard are soft-touch buttons for ejecting Blu-ray discs, full media controls for skip and play/pause, volume controls, a wireless launch button, and quick-launch buttons for the system's AlienFusion control panel (one particular for controlling lights and another for its power-tweaking Stealth mode). The touchpad on the M15x is massive and flush with dell e7440 4 cell battery the wrist rest, except for any small glowing border; its honeycomb texture allows for swift finger glides across the surface. The two touchpad buttons provided good feedback, but if you're playing a first-person shooter you'll want to use a gaming mouse for quicker button presses.
Performance
When it came to our traditional benchmarks, the Alienware M15x performed about as we expected. Which is to say, it kicked ass. On PCMark Vantage, which measures overall system performance, the M15x scored 6,543, surpassing every other production notebook we've tested. It beat out the M17x (which uses a 2.53-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo QX9300 CPU and 8GB of RAM) by nearly 1,300 points, as well as the Toshiba Qosmio X505 by about 1100 points (which has an Intel Core i7 720QM, 6GB RAM, and a 64GB SSD). Needless to say, it left the desktop replacement average (3,885) in the dust.Booting into Windows 7 Ultimate, the M15x took a not-unreasonable 58 seconds. On our lenovo yoga 3 power cord Test (copying 4.97GB of multimedia files), the M15x's 7,200-rpm, 250GB drive notched 27.5 MBps; that's around 5.0 MBps faster than the category average, but just under 10.0 MBps slower than the M17x.Alienware didn't put the most powerful graphics card it could have in the M15x, which showed in its 3DMark06 score of 11,662. While the Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M GPU and 1GB of video memory is certainly strong (it practically doubled the category average), it doesn't compare to the dual GTX 280M GPUs in the M17x, which notched 13,463. However, the M15x handily beats out the GTS 250M graphics in the Qosmio X505. In 3DMark Vantage, the M17x pulled even further away, scoring 11,904 to the M15x's 5,719. Even the ASUS W90 scored a better 8,399 in this test.Of course, the M15x is designed to play games, and play them well. In Far Cry 2, we averaged 113 frames per second with the resolution set alienware m15x 9 cell battery to 1024 x 768, and graphics set to optimal. This virtually doubles the category average, and beat out everything else--the M17x and ASUS G51J came closest, both notching 99 fps. Likewise, when we cranked the resolution up to native (1920 x 1080 in the case on the M15x) and set the graphics to Very High, the notebook was still able to register a very playable 41 fps. While it couldn't touch the M17x (69 fps), the latter system utilized dual GTX 280M graphics cards. When it came to other games, the M15x was excellent, too. In Call of Duty: World at War, we averaged 42 fps with the resolution set to 1920 x 1080; running through Pacific island jungles, action was smooth and crisp. We also had equal success running Left 4 Dead, where we had an average frame rate of 56 fps in full HD. In Batman: Arkham Aslylum, the frame rate dropped to 37 fps, but was still very playable. Batman's cape flowed smoothly through the air as we spin-kicked perps inside the insane asylum.
Battery Life and Wi-Fi
We didn't expect much endurance out in the 9.0-pound M15x, but given its relative portability compared to the M17x, we were hoping to get a longer runtime out of its six-cell battery. Using the LAPTOP Battery Test, the M15x mustered 1 hour and 24 minutes of unplugged computing. Still, this notebook managed to last slightly longer than the ASUS W90, and just 10 minutes less than the M17x. toshiba pa3917u 1aca We doubt that you'll stay unplugged for long, but if that's your prerogative, you can purchase a nine-cell battery for $100. The Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11/a/g/n card delivered throughput of 17.8 Mbps at 15 feet, and 14.2 Mbps at 50 feet. That's a bit below this category's Wi-Fi averages of 20.0 Mbps at 15 feet and 16.4 Mbps at 50 feet. Normally, this difference wouldn't be much of an issue, but a higher throughput is essential when playing games at LAN parties.
Conclusion
The M15x is a well-rounded 15.6' gaming notebook with extreme performance. Its physical appearance and AlienFX customizable lighting system are truly unique. The full HD 1080p screen is terrific. The keyboard feels acer iconia w510 charger good and the build quality is generally top notch. We have some reservations ¨C the poor touchpad surface, heavy and big form factor to get a 15.6-inch notebook, and lack of HDMI ¨C but for those willing to swallow the price tag ($3,274 as configured), the M15x is sure to deliver a rewarding experience.