Alienware M11x: World’s Smallest Gaming Laptop
by Jarred Walton on March 30, 2010 8:16 AM ESTStill Great Battery Life
With all the gaming performance on tap, and despite the lack of Optimus Technology, the M11x still manages to deliver great battery life results. Alienware puts an 8-cell 63Wh "Prismatic" battery in the M11x, which is quite large for an 11.6" chassis. Even better is that Alienware manages to keep the chassis looking clean, as opposed to designs like the Dell 11z where the large 6-cell battery juts out the bottom. We calibrated the LCD for ~100nits as always and found that a brightness setting of 60% (three steps down from maximum brightness) gave us the desired result.
The best-case results will give you typical CULV run times: over 4.5 hours of x264 playback, 7+ hours of Internet surfing, or just shy of 9 hours of idle battery life. If you don't like fussing with the BIOS, we suggest you run the M11x at the overclocked setting all the time; you still get over four hours of x264 video playback, 6.5 hours of web surfing, and 7 hours of idle battery life. Try that with any other "gaming" laptop and you'll likely end up disappointed. Relative battery life puts the M11x just slightly behind other 11.6" CULV laptops (Acer 1810T and Dell 11z) and on par with the Gateway EC54. Again, we really like switchable graphics and Optimus, as it allows users to get the best of both worlds… except Optimus appears to be the way of the future since you get better driver support (at least that's what NVIDIA is saying right now—we'll confirm when we see the next public Verde driver).
Of course, if you want to play games without plugging in—which means using the GT335M, naturally—you're going to get significantly less battery life. We conducted a gaming battery life test as well, with the CPU overclocked. The M11x managed just over two hours (126 minutes) before shutting down, though it did provide the same great gaming performance in the interim. If you need to play games for 90 minutes or less on your daily commute, and you don't mind the strange looks on the faces of your fellow passengers, the M11x will provide a nice outlet. However, it works better for gaming if you have ready access to an AC outlet, in which case the battery is just a safeguard against losing your progress with the power goes out.
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Fastidious - Thursday, April 1, 2010 - link
Thanks for taking a quick check of Badaboom, I really appreciate it. I will end up using that now for sure. Good luck with the newborn too BTW! :-)I would also prefer Optimus and a slightly beefier CPU but I eventually had to bite the bullet and buy something. I already had held out quite long, I was going to get either a netbook or the Asus UL30/80 but once I saw the GPU and price of the M11x I ordered one without hesitation. I hope the drivers hold up as that is honestly an angle I didn't consider when I bought, but if I can get 3 years or more use I'll consider it a good deal. Cheers...
Rocket321 - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I'd like to add that gaming is not the only thing that benifits from video driver updates. I have a mid-range HP laptop from a few years ago with NV 6150 integrated graphics. HP has never added and updated driver from nvidia since release. The driver available has significant issues with TV-out. Yes, I worked around it with uncertified drivers & a hacked INF file, but I would never expect Mom & Dad to figure that out. SHAME on the multi-billion dollar PC companies who cannot issue driver updates.RMSistight - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
The one thing that was VERY VERY lacking and that was the dealbreaker was essentially USB 3.0. I was ready to put down $850 for this machine (through Dell EPP and varies coupons), but in the end without USB 3.0, it remains unattractive to me. Optimus technology would have been great as well. However, I will not spend money on old USB technology. The laptop also doesn't have an expresscard slot so I can't use it a USB 3.0 card.Once they fix these issues, then and ONLY then will I consider this laptop. My next laptop must contain USB 3.0. If it doesn't, I won't consider it period.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
USB 3.0 is an early feature right now; I have a feeling when it's part of chipsets rather than an extra chip on the mobo, it will be better than the early USB3 implementations. We'll see, but right now it's not a deal breaker for me at all.liemfukliang - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I want to ask where is the print version of the article in the new Anandtech? Thank you.furyagain - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
330 's shader is 48 and 335 is 72but the clock between them are different
575 mhz gt330
450 gt 335
which will make the different only around 20%
beginner99 - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
IMHO too expensive. Ok you can play some ganes at that res and low settings. But I hardly believe anyone actually does it. Or where to you game? On the train/bus going to work? Can't really see how you can play games wihtout a mouse expect maybe round-based strategy games.BTW is there anywhere a usefull list that compares all the nvidia card (and maybe with the radeon version)? it's a completey mess what nv is doing with there naming sheme especially if you also consider the buisness versions which are not comparable by name to standard version.
Pratyushg - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Precisely my point. If on the move better have a PSP. In my opinion a better config would have been with core i3 & an optical drive, even if asked for screen size upto 13".For graphics benchmark, I refer this:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards...
and for more abstract version:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Graphic...
Hope it helps.
Cheers
Fastidious - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
A PSP isn't going to do anything close to what a real computer can do so I think that is a moot point. M11x might not run insane settings but the graphics it can run at good frame rate look good. Who cares if you can't have anti-aliasing, maxed shadows, or maxed rag dolls physics, etc I can live without those settings. A lot of settings I can barely even tell if they are on yet they do a lot to drain performance. Hell why even carry a 'large' PSP just play games on your cell phone which you'll have anyways, LOL. If I can have access to my own desktop a notebook which can game is almost pointless to me. However I go on trips where I am days/weeks/months away from my desktop so having something that can be very portable and game is a big plus.JonnyDough - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Who picked it? :)