Alienware has built some reputation pulling off every single stunt that has something to do with the words best, fastest or notebook. This time they’ve shocked the world with a truly awesome, even monstrous piece of computing powerhouse, the Alienware M15x. With all the extra options the price can rise to a whopping $4,200. There are a few reasons as to why it’s so expensive though. For example I challenge anyone to find a game notebook, or any kind of portable computer with 15” screen that has an Intel Core i7-920XM processor or faster.

There are two options available for screen resolution, but the high resolution 1920×1080 sized one costs only $100 more than the 1600×900 version so I don’t see a reason why anyone would take a smaller resolution. The video card is also up to taste, 512mb GT 240M or 1GB GT 260M are the options, I’d definitely pick the 260M, for gaming the video card is a serious bottleneck when paired up with an i7 920 processor. The outer case is made of magnesium which saves some weight over aluminum used in M17x. With 9.5 pounds I wouldn’t call it ultraportable but it is possible to take to the lanparty without having to rent a van.

4 gigabytes of system memory is plenty enough for any gaming. There are two video output connectors on this laptop, one displayport which Dell seems to prefer over HDMI, and the old Vga. There are three USB ports and that may limit the usability of this gaming notebook considering that an external keyboard and a mouse takes two already. Other connectivities, networking, card reader are in line with capabilities of this laptop.

Alienware put some effort into turning this game notebook into a more portable version of M17x, but it’s still not what I would see being taken outside of the house too often. The extended 9-cell battery gives about 2 hours of light office use or 1.5 hours of video playback, there are worse in the non gaming sector, but for $3000 they could have arranged at least 3 hours.

Heat is nicely dealt with, the M15x doesn’t get hot even after long gaming sessions, fans never get too loud either. That might be helped by the 9-cell battery that lifts the back end of the computer a little off the desk so there is some additional airflow allowed.

M15x starts at $1500 but users who want to be able to play the latest titles on the HD screen will have to put more than $3000 in the counters, still there is no other laptop with the specifications of it, and there won’t be for a while I suspect.

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