Dell announces ultra-portable Alienware gaming laptop

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Posted on 3 Feb 2010 at 11:10, by Alan Lu

Dell has announced the Alienware M11x, a gaming laptop that weighs just 2kg.

Most laptops with graphics chips powerful enough to play the latest games are usually bulky and heavy beasts, but Dell's Alienware M11x weighs just 2kg. The M11x is equipped with a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT335M graphics chip, which we haven't seen before, but is unlikely to match the performance of even a midrange desktop graphics chip.

The other specifications depend on the configuration options you choose, but the £750 model has a 11.6in screen with a resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, a 1.3GHz Pentium Dual Core SU4100 ultra low voltage processor, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard disk. Configurable options include more memory, a larger hard disk or a solid state disk and a faster Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor.

Dell claims that the M11x's battery can last up to eight and a half hours, which is a plausible claim for a laptop equipped with an Intel CULV processor. Battery life will almost certainly decrease dramatically when playing 3D games that tax the graphics chip though. As expected for an Alienware laptop, the distinctive design is one you'll either love or hate.

We like the idea of an ultra-portable laptop that’s also powerful enough to play games, but we're sceptical about whether Dell's Alienware M11x can give us the best of both worlds. We'll bring you our full verdict as soon as one arrives in our Labs.