Dell Alienware M11x Gaming Laptop Review

Even if we were impressed with the Alienware M11x, Dell could not stop
in so good way. The manufacturer, assembler has worked on a new version
of its small 11.6-inch laptop for gamers.
We must admit that when the first M11x is out, Dell had a processor
generation behind and could not include anything other than Intel Core 2
Duo SU7300 in his machine. The PC has been designed and created well
before the departure of Intel Core i5 and Core i7 next generation mobile
platforms, the latter had been settled in the little monster. This gap
has now been corrected. But the M11x is still so attractive, especially
when one considers that the new processors have made him take a few
dollars?

Externally, the Alienware M11x has not changed a bit. We found the
11.6-inch screen of a quality (brightness of 172 cd/m2 and contrast rate
1438:1) but the angles of vision always a bit limited. The keyboard,
with its keys and backlit short stroke, is still enjoyable. The touchpad
is also multipoint spartan than before but still effective. The
external display connections very HD oriented (HDMI and DisplayPort),
and have three USB ports, Gigabit network jack and Wi-Fi b/g/n module,
which also loads a Bluetooth module.

Neon lights and other entries are also part of the fully customizable
software interface from Alienware Command Center. It is familiar ground.
Dell has not touched the ergonomics and that's good, sometimes the
manufacturer is capable of the worst (but not the best) in the matter.

Change platform!

When implementing a low power processor in a machine for gamers we
seemed preposterous at first sight during our assessment of the first
version, we also had been conquered by the abilities of the couple
SU7300 Core 2 Duo and Nvidia GeForce GT 335m in game especially in the
native resolution of the screen (1366 x 768 pixels). However, all titles
were not fully playable. This remains the case with this new version,
but to a lesser extent.

In addition, during the first test, we found damage that Dell does not
stick to the current processor time by not offering versions with an
Intel Core i3 or i5 at low consumption, with more interesting
architecture and offering a relative gain in computing power and
capacity compared to Core 2 Duo. With the M11x R2 (revision 2), shooting
is rectified.

Dell makes the Optimus

With this new platform, the M11x sees the doors of Nvidia Optimus
technology open before him. The Nvidia drivers automatically juggle
between the graphics chip processor and the GeForce GT 335m depending on
the application that runs on the small PC. It is recommended to update
as soon as you receive the machine by taking first in a clean and
complete uninstall of all components of the drivers. The management of
Optimus and the performance of the machine would see greatly improved.

Optimus also acts on autonomy, we did two surveys: one for video
playback (the graphics chip processor is at work) and the second game
(the GeForce takes control). We get respectively 4 o'clock and 17
minutes (a good ten