NGB: Alienware M18x Review

Even before you unleash the Alienware M18x from its packaging, you get an extremely good idea of its size. It’s a beast, there’s no other way to put it. That doesn’t mean it’s hideous though, far from it in fact. The Alienware brand is synonymous with easy on the eye high-end gaming laptops, and the M18x only further strengthens that particular notion.

[limewax]

No offence but 10/10 for a laptop that costs that much is way overkill. For that money anyone could setup a stupidly high end rig. I get that its a killer laptop. But being Alienware it shall never deserve a 10 purely for its pricing.

Not to mention its bulky as hell compared to most laptops which should hurt it in the points department

[ChrisW]

You can build a better desktop for the same price.

[brandonb21]

why did you get the 460m 6990m with crossfire enabled gives you a 40% increase over the 460m

[Tewi-Inaba]

i7 on a gaming laptop
that alone is 0/10 for me

[arjman]

What would you prefer? A core 2 duo?

[Pufferfash]

He probably prefers an i5 to cut price for similar gaming performance.

[ChrisW]

He'd probably perfer something like AMD

[Tewi-Inaba]

You're all idiots, i7 isn't worth anything on GAMING desktop alone for gaming let alone GAMING LAPTOPS
I can see i7 being reasonable for other task that would require CPU usage, for pure gaming however (GAMING laptop) i5 2500k is THE best no ands/ifs/buts

if you're too stupid to understand this I'll make it simple

Alienware is making you pay for crap you don't need
/suprise!

[arjman]

Alienware isn't making us pay for anything, any person with half a brain cell can see that they're a blatant rip off so don't act like you're some superior intellectual just because you're stating the obvious...

Someone might want an i7 purely for benching purposes, did you consider that? Maybe in a CPU dependant game? *Cough* Most MMO's and console ports *Cough*

If you're too stupid to understand this I'll make it simple, people have the right to buy whatever they want because it's their money. They don't want to sit there being lectured/insulted by you...

[KingZFlipper]

I think that Alienware computers are all great except for one thing: the price.

[mcgrottys]

well the m11x is actually a great deal. But other than that you can probably find laptops similar to this one for a lower price.

[LoveMyKids]

Alienware is the best.

[fluffydelusions]

They certainly exceed at pricing

[lugia 4000]

10/10? No way. Highly priced and fucking heavy. A 8.5/10 would be considered.

[divideby0]

"Battlefield 3 is probably the only upcoming title that might provide a bit of a challenge, but given how well Bad Company 2 ran on the M18x, one can only hope the Frostbite 2.0 engine is as well optimised as its predecessor."

who the heck is gonna spend that much money and there are doubts that a game like BF3 performance is questionable.

cant give it such a high score

[NGB]

Thanks for the comments folks, both critical and positive. The M18x was reviewed purely from a gaming point of view, with a bit of attention also given to how it looks. We also took into account the fact that it is a luxury product (see the verdict), but again reviewed it mainly on it's ability to run games.

If you have the money and are looking for such a high-end gaming laptop, then the we can't recommend the M18x highly enough, hence the 10/10 (which doesn't mean it's perfect). Sure, it's big and there is slight concern about it running a release like Battlefield 3 at its highest graphical settings, but given how well DICE optimise their engines, we wouldn't be surprised at all if the M18x ran it really well with a few tweaks.

We understand Alienware aren't popular when it comes to their pricing, but (in our opinion) the quality of their products is excellent. Again, thanks for your comments, both good and bad, we appreciate them all.

[Pufferfash]

Thank you for responding to user comments. It's nice to see writers acknowledge their communities and justify their opinions.

[Hassassin]

The thing is you can probably buy a laptop with all of the features the alienware has and pay less just because it's another brand.
But other than that I agree with the alienware being awesome.

[madara0sama]

I went configuring laptops online on different sites and the M18x always end up charging at least 600-1000 more on a laptop that mostly has the same parts. At that price the other competitor store can you build a laptop that's almost if not twice as powerful. The graphic cards and the processor is way over priced when you configure an Alienware laptop. If your thinking of buying a laptop don't buy from Alienware unless you have the luxury and don't mind the prices. If you want pretty lights and a name plate but can't afford it other companies are now offering that too at a pretty cheap price and some are come standard.

Alienware is pretty neat in quality. Quality over quantity but when the quality over charges so much the quantity itself is gonna be better than quality. You rather have 1 double cheeseburger(Alienware) or 5 cheeseburger(Most of its competitor)?

[Hassassin]

I'd eat 5 doubles... just saying

[madara0sama]

Then I'd eat 25 regulars.

[plmkoh]

Alienware has really good build quality and have already solved problems such as squeaky keyboards when you press on to it; a problem that other brands are still scratching their heads with.

In this particular laptop you also have a HDMI in port, so you can plug your PS3/Xbox and play straight on the laptop screen, a very handy feature, other brands do not have this feature.

It is not a matter of alienware being overpriced, sure if you look at the parts and only the parts it is overpriced. But consider features such as casing quality, cooling design, fancy lights, HDMI in, screen quality and you'll see it is not overpriced but rather you get what you pay for.

[brandonb21]

i got my m18x replaced from a 460m to 6990m crossfire and i can play crysis 1 maxed crysis 2 with dx 11 and texture pack also gta 4 maxed if your getting a m18x get the 6990m crossfire