14 DAY TRIAL // When speaking of gaming notebooks, the minds of end-users likely drift towards those stylish and super-powered mobile PCs that make some concessions to battery life, weight and size in order to pack as high a level of performance as possible. However, as with all rules and trends, there are exceptions to this, one of them being Dell's quite well-known Alienware M11x. Labeled as a gaming notebook, gaming ultraportable and solid gaming machine, among other things, this mobile computer has the advantage of being not just strong, but also more easy to carry and cost-accessible than its brethren. For all its perks and bonuses, however, there is a certain element that the device could but doesn't have, an element that may finally be implemented.
When it was reviewed, back in early February, testers had only good things to say about it, including that it was “without doubt one of the best laptops” they had tested. Basically, the unit did exactly what it was intended to: it came with an ultraportable design (11.6 inches) and was still able to fluidly play titles like Left 4 Dead 3, Dirt 2 and Modern Warfare 2 at a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels.
Not only that, but even the battery-life goal was met, with a charge being able to last for up to six hours, or four hours of HD video content. For end-users interested in a reminder, the tested system ran a Core 2 Duo SU7300, had a 4GB DDR3-1066 memory, a 500GB 7,200RPM SATA hard drive, a 128GB SSD and the GeForce GT 335M graphics chip.
For all these benefits, however, there is one thing that the laptop cannot do but would that boost battery life even further and enhance convenience. While it can switch between integrated and discrete graphics, the Alienware M11x doesn't do so automatically because it was launched prior to NVIDIA's release of the Optimus technology. To bring this final performance and convenience enhancement to its $700 machine, Dell will reportedly introduce a new version of the Alienware M11x, with new Intel CPUs and Optimus, in summer.
At this point, there is no mention of any plan to offer a screen with a higher resolution.