Mobile gaming may still have its sceptics, but that's not stopping Alienware from trying to convince us it's possible with two new models announed today.
Gaming notebooks – you either believe they exist, or you don’t. If you don’t, it’s likely nothing will ever convince you that they’re anything more than regular old notebooks with added racing stripes. On the other hand, if you’re a believer, then Alienware’s brand spanking new M18x and M14x notebooks are sure to get you excited.
The new additions to the Alienware family were announced today and feature some pretty impressive-sounding features, including optional wireless HD audio and video for streaming to larger screens, HDMI 1.4 connection to 3D-capable TVs and SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports.
It’s under the hood where Alienware have loaded these puppies up though. The M18x – humbly labelled the ‘most powerful 18-inch Gaming Laptop in the universe’ – features an 18.4-inch 1080p display, Dual GPU options (in either AMD or NVIDIA flavours) with GDDR5 memory as standard, a factory overclocked Core i7 Extreme Quad Core processor, and capacity for up to 32GB of 1333MHz ram.
The M14x features a 720p display with an option to upgrade to 900p, overclockable Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs with Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 , GeForce GT 555M graphics with up to 3GB of ram, and up to 8GB of 1600MHz memory. It’s also actually portable, with a 14-inch screen, a weight of under 3kg, optional WIMAX connectivity and NVIDIA Optimus technology, to enhance battery life. It still probably won’t get you through a whole days play without a charge, but we appreciate that they’ve spared the battery a thought.
And because these things always happen in threes, the new additions to the family have been joined by a beefed up version of the classic M11x. It’s still the baby of the family, with a cute little 11.6 inches of 720p display, but it’s also been updated with a Sandy Bridge chipset, GeForce GT 540M graphics, up to 16GB of 1333MHz ram and optional WIMAX technology.
Pricing across the new range varies depending on the exact specs you go with, but kicks off around the $1500 mark for the M11x, with base model M14x and M18x machines coming in at $2199 and $3299 respectively. Of course, if you didn’t need the notebook form factor, you could get a hell of a beast for that much money, but that would be too much like giving in to the non-believers, wouldn’t it?
Issue: 137 | June, 2012