Alienware M11x 'netbook' gets detailed, headed to Japan this month
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 1st 2010 2:27PM
posted February 1st 2010 2:27PM
We got a chance to check out Alienware's ultraportable M11x laptop at CES last month, but the company unfortunately wasn't ready to reveal too many specs beyond the NVIDIA GT335M switchable graphics at the heart of the rig. A couple of newly leaked slides have now cleared up most of the remaining mystery, however, the biggest of which is that the system will apparently be available with either a Pentium SU4100 or Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor -- making the "netbook" term even more of a stretch than it was before. Curiously, the slides also show a target price of $899 (up from the $799 we heard at CES), and a ready-to-ship date of February 5th, which would seem to indicate that the "Spring" launch tossed around earlier may have been a bit cautious -- that latter detail is further backed up by a post on Dell Japan's website, which indicates that the laptop will be released in the country this month.
[Thanks, NitroFrost ]
[Thanks, NitroFrost ]
@Solidstate89
Ehh gfx aren't good enough... does the Asus have a disc drive? That would be nice...
*Still going with M11x anyways
Umm whose paying $899 for a netbook? I don't care how powerful it is, at that price I can get a decent laptop. This alongside the iPutz "tablet" will be a total failure.
@thetoad : Its not a netbook honey.
@thetoad Trying your bestest didn't last very long did it?
@thetoad Judging from the specs, this IS a decent laptop. It's basically just a smaller laptop. The face that it has a C2D, a 720p screen, and a pretty kickass graphics chip makes this thing sound like it's a pretty beastly netbook.
@One Love
Okay 'ultraportable', I'm not paying $899 for what in all regards is a netbook and play games on it. It's going to overheat like sh8 due to the small form factor.
@thetoad so you wouldnt get a laptop thats 11 inches with a core 2 duo and an nvidia gpu ?
Please show me another laptop this portable with these specs for $899 ?
@Edobe
I was equal opportunity on the hate, didn't show any discrimination on that post.
@thetoad
yea this isnt a netbook thats why they have ' ' around the netbook part but this does look nice
@majortom1981: ASUS UL30Vt-A1 comes close.
@Edobe : In all fairness, he did say, "Don't hold me to it though" :P
@Alienware/Dell
Damn!
@thetoad Seeing it played 50FPS Crysis, 30FPS Call of Duty on High Settings, with Nvidia GT335. And now 800 USD only... Is pretty amazing for a netbook at that price. More of the M11x for gamers..: http://bit.ly/alienware-m11x-details
And yes, it's definitely, definitely not a netbook :)
So basically it takes a netbook and removes the core selling point/functionality from it.
Brilliant.
@Floppy the only thing it removes is the attractive price point of most netbooks. other than that it ups all the functionality.
This or the iFad, i will take this for sure, i like the smeall form factor and power.
@Michael Dell - Michael it's cool to see you stop by, i doubt that you would find Mr. Jobs doing the same other than to drop off a Cease and Desist letter.
If you would be so kind as to answer a few questions.
1. Will this laptop be going out to review sites soon?
2. What would be the 1 or 2 features that separates this laptop from your competition?
On a different topic, any details on the 5" tablet, that is enticing i must say.
Thanks, it's nice to see that you care about how your products are received.
I think they should just make it 13 inch screen or higher...
Alienware is a gaming laptop.
This was never marketed as a netbook. One hardware site joked and called it that and all the hardware sites ran with it. In all alienwares press about it they themselves do not call it one.
Even in the source they dont call it a netbook they call it a notebook.
So blame engadget for that and not alienware.
Stop calling it a netbook alienware doesnt call it one so you shouldnt either.
@majortom1981
Sony doesnt call the Vaio P a netbook either but it walks like a duck and quacks like one so therefore ...
@thetoad ... is it Gilbert Gottfried?
it may be the same size as a standard netbook but that is where the similarity stops. if i had $900 to spend on a laptop this would be very high on my list of considerations. i don't understand why you hate this so much. if you don't like it don't buy it.
@thetoad Right, but the Vaio P uses an Atom processor and has all the stats of a netbook. This looks like it'll have a core 2 duo, and pretty much all the trimmings of a full laptop but at a smaller size.
@thetoad
Vaio P is a UMPC/MID.
@majortom1981
isn't there a new category called CULV which will kill the netbook?
@shithead you might want to Google CULV if you think its a new type of computer
What's with the comment replies going back to auto collapsed, I really hate the new engadget. It looks like ass, and barely functions worth shit.
@AdamSpruijt i agree, it takes me 5 mins just to click into the site and half the time is get running code errors, i liked this site better than the "other" site which shall remain nameless, but the other site is nicer because it runs with no freezing.
@timmy2000
Flash supposedly is going to die, and HTML5 will rule the day :rollseyes: Problem is half these sites cant even code with html 4 properly, this site alone has over 1300 errors on it:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.engadget.com&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0
This might help:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/01/motorola-devour-for-verizon-gets-boxed-shares-pixis-processor/comments/25157267/
this isn't a netbook, its an Ultraportable, or even its an expensive Thin-and-light
@216
Either way I can't wait to purchase this thing.
MW2 on a plane.
@216
i'm not sure that thin-and-light is appropriate either..
@ElectronicRage or ON A BOAT!
is that still funny? i can't tell...
Aside from the weight being close to 4.5 lbs for an 11 inch notebook, I love everything about this m11x and would definitely get one when it comes out. I would take the C2D over the SU4100 at the expense of battery life.
this looks like an awsome notebook but i dont get how it runs mw2 on high settings when the minimun requirements are that the machine must have a 3.0 ghz prossesor atleast? :S that confused me but ima consider buying it
@kylezajew This is a dual core processor not single core the specs will be single core i think. Should be able to run MW2 fine.
Why oh WHY must you be so ugly.
This is a true definition of a digital butterface..
Can it run 1080p video smooth?
@techlord Yep, the GPU can offload 1080p decoding. Also the CPU is pretty fast-tastic as well :-)
Full specs and port listing can be found here: http://bit.ly/bEKGk4
I hope this sucker is released SOON!
@techlord
If my Acer nettop with an Nvidia ION chipset and a Atom can do it, can't see why this won't. I don't think the CPU can handle it but if you can find some gpu accelerators you won't have a problem.
@techlord It has a 720p screen... That aside, the Core 2 Duo and NVidia 335M should be able to handle 1080p without a problem.
@zbobby
The specs don't mention the sim card slot, I remember a video on IGN where they said the thing had a sim card slot so you can be connected anywhere.
@Mobious huh, a SIM card slot would be sweet! i emailed the site and I think they updated the full specs now http://bit.ly/bEKGk4 good find on that sim biznuss.
The reason I asking cause ASUS UL80Vt-A1 can't run 1080p video smooth eventhough it has 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo, NVidia G210M , 4gb of ram and windows 7. 720p are smooth but not 1080p.
@techlord
Like I said you need to find an encoder that is able to use the gpu to accelerate the video. iirc it isn't standard that a GPU is used to accelerate videos. If you did then it wouldn't have any trouble running 1080p videos.
@techlord It likely depends on what video player you're using. A lot of the free ones don't offload as much work to the GPU as they could, so the CPU get's bogged down. Then there's just differences between different players. For example, on my machine at home(2.4GHz Core 2 quad, Radeon HD 2600XT), windows media player or anything on Ubuntu completely chokes on 1080p, but the latest VLC or Media Center Classic on Windows 7 plays it like butter. There are other paid players that are supposed to be even better since they offload more to the GPU.
@techlord
I try almost all type of player, like gom, vlc, classic media player..
only alienware could take a 11.6 form factor and make it weigh more than most 13.3 inch laptops (4.4 lbs). Gaming performance will be good (compared to other laptops in this range), but it's ugly as hell, and too heavy to consider over a regular size laptop.
The only thing that worries me is the CPU. It might bottleneck the gpu quite alot...I want this but now I am second guessing my choice after I saw that Left 4 Dead 2 demo on it. I'll wait for a review or some benchmarks before I decide.
@Mobious
My thoughts exactly. 1.3ghz dual core won't cut it for the more intensive games, such as Crysis or NFS Shift. It should still be enough to handle L4D and some older titles, though.
What I would like to see is a 13.1" version with P-series Core 2 Duo or Core i3 with the same switchable graphics.