Alienware M18x

Alienware M18x. The Alienware M18x looks intimidating and has the performance chops that gamers crave, but it doesn't come cheap. Blazing performance. Solid build quality. Sleek design. Cool lighting effects.

The Alienware brand and PC gaming are synonymous, and with good reason. For the past 15 years the folks at Alienware have been churning out high-end gaming systems, and thankfully they continue to so. Its flagship laptop rig, the M18x, is packed with over-the-top components and presented in a sharp-looking chassis complete with tricked-out lighting effects and a killer 18.4-inch display. You'll pay more at the pump for this high-octane notebook and you don't get a lot of battery life, but for gamers seeking LAN party dominance it's an easy decision: The M18x eclipses last year's Alienware M17x as our Editors' Choice among cost-no-object gaming laptops.

Design and Features

When we reviewed the M17x last June, we were wowed by the laptop's overall design and rubber-like matte finish. This time around the Alienware design team decided to shroud the M18x in an anodized aluminum housing with a Space Black finish that is actually more of a metallic dark gray than black. The familiar illuminated alien head adorns the lid, while the front of the base sports two ominous-looking backlit grilles. The front end has a Corvette-like shape that makes the notebook look fast standing still.

With a pair of heavy-duty lid hinges and the aluminum shell, the M18x has a sturdy look and feel that is best described as being built like a tank. Speaking of which, this monster weighs in at a hefty 12.9 pounds and is 2.13 inches thick. The power brick alone weighs close to 3 pounds and measures 1.5 x 3.7 x 7.6 inches (HWD), so unless you plan to make it part of your workout regimen, this laptop probably won't be seeing much travel.

The 18.4-inch display is a thing of beauty, featuring edge-to-edge glass over black bezels, a 1,920 by 1,080 resolution, and outstanding color quality and black levels. The glossy anti-glare coating can be reflective under certain lighting conditions, but it punches up colors and provides nice wide viewing angles. A 3-megapixel webcam is embedded in the screen's upper bezel and an illuminated Alienware logo is centered on the bottom bezel.

Everything about the M18x is big, including the full-sized keyboard. The latter has a dedicated number pad off to the right and five programmable AlienTactx keys on the left. The keyboard keys are quiet and responsive, as is the touchpad and dual mouse button assembly embedded in the rubbery keyboard deck. A set of flush-mounted media player keys sits above the keyboard. There's also an eject button for the slot loading Blu-ray drive, a Wi-Fi on/off switch, and to the far right, an Alienware Command Center key.

As with the M17x, the M18x offers myriad lighting effects, all controlled by the Command Center's AlienFX utility. Here you can set up a lighting scheme for the keyboard with four different zones and assign different colors for each backlit component, including the front grilles, the alien head lid ornament, the touch pad, the power button, and the media controls. There are 20 colors in the LED palette so you can change the lighting scheme to suit your mood. The Command Center is also home to the AlienTouch (touchpad settings) and AlienFusion (power management) utilities and is where you can program the AlienTactx keys.

The M18x is loaded with features. Storage comes by way of two fast (7,200 rpm) 500GB drives configured for RAID 0 for a total of 1TB of storage capacity. Wireless-N and Bluetooth are also part of the package as are an internal 5.1 sound solution and a Klipsch speaker system that you can crank up without worrying about distortion. In addition to the Blu-ray drive, the right side of the chassis holds two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI input (a rarity that was also included on the M17x), an eSATA/USB combo port, an MMC/SD/MS-Pro card slot, and an ExpressCard reader. Over on the left side you'll find a pair of headphone jacks, S/PDIF and microphone line-in jacks, two USB 3.0 ports, VGA, HDMI, and mini DisplayPort inputs, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. As always, Alienware leaves the bloatware off and preinstalls Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), the Alien utilities, including the AlienRespawn restoration tool, and Steam.

TextArticle

Posted in: Laptop