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The case surfaces (notebook cover, sides and bottom) are supposedly made of anodized Aluminum. However, the hand-rest regions have a comfortable rubber coating. All-in-all, the surfaces leave a high-quality impression. The workmanship is overall very good, although it does have some minor flaws. Still those are only noticeable if one takes a magnifying glass to the laptop.

The case will not get dirty easily thanks to its resistant surface. Only the glossy display falls victim to fingerprints and dust particles. The sturdiness of the case leaves no room for critique, even pushing down on the case strongly will not make it bend. Only the very tightly wound hinges could have been designed better. While opening, the base unit swings along with the display and shaking the base unit causes the display to wobble.

Alienware deserves praise for its extensive lighting elements. Keyboard, touchpad and many other elements can be lighted in any possible color. So even working in the dark will not be a problem. Frequent transportation of the case will be impossible due to its size (43.6 x 32.2 x 5.4 centimeters) and its weight (5.64 kgs).

Keyboard

Good input devices are a must for gaming notebooks. An external keyboard will not be necessary for the M18x, as the white bordered keys, with a nice size of 18×18 mm, offer a comfortable typing feel. Pressure point and stroke distance are also good, and the typing noise is acceptable.

The layout is nice. Alienware included 5 macro keys on the left of the keyboard. The user will need some time to get used to these keys as due to their placement, the main part of the keyboard has also shifted slightly. This will cause quite a few errors while typing at first, but the user will soon get used to the displacement. The sturdiness of the keyboard is sadly not good. There are many spots where the keyboard can be pushed inwards.

Touchpad

The minimally sunken touchpad can be deactivated and is of good quality. We really liked the big size (99 x 56 mm) and the smooth finish. The touchpad is very easy to use and comfortable.

Precision is great and vertical and horizontal scroll bars function without a problem. The multi-touch input is not activated by default and must be activated using the system controls. The two mouse keys should also be improved. The clicking method seemed rather undefined.

Display

Alienware uses a 18.4 inch WLED display for the laptop with a format of 16:9 and a glossy surface. The resolution of 1920 x 1080 is not surprising and the entertainment branch speaks of Full-HD. Thanks to the big display diagonal (46.7 cms) films and games can really come to life. The picture quality of the installed SEC5448 panel is great. An average brightness level of 221.9 cd/m² will be more than enough for indoors use. Thanks to the low black value of 0.36 cd/m², dark areas do not have ugly grey stripes. The contrast also beats the competition with a value of 736:1 which is offered by very few devices.

Performance

Processor: Intel Core i7-2920XM

“The best possible performance” – this seems to have been the motivation Alienware had when creating this notebook. The wide range of high-end hardware components available for the M18x is proof of this. Alienware completely disregards dual-core CPUs and picks quad-cores from Intels Sandy Bridge generation for future value. The Core i7-2630QM and Core i7-2720QM quad-core CPUs provide good enough performance for most applications. More expensive models bring fewer advantages. Alienware equipped our test model with the fastest quad-core CPU they had.

The Intel Core i7-2920XM is from the Extreme series and is produced, like all other Sandy Bridge processors, in the 32 nm format. The extremely high performance delivered by this CPU is thanks to its big 8 MB L3 cache (normally CPUs have between 3 to 6 MB). Some programs even profit from the “Hyperthreading” feature, which simulates virtual cores in addition to the four real cores. This means that the processor can simultaneously process up to 8 threads.

The best feature in our opinion is the high clock frequency. The CPU runs at a respectable 2.50 GHz right off the bat. As long as the core load and the temperature of the laptop stay within limits, the CPU clock frequency can be boosted up to 3.50 GHz – an increase of 1000 MHz! That is not all: thanks to the extensive overclocking features placed in the BIOS, the Core i7-2920XM can be sped up even further. There are three practical profiles, which increase the speed of the processor, as in our test model, to up to 4.20 GHz. The power usage is also equally high with a TDP value of 55 W. The weaker quad-cores have a TDP value of 45 W.

Graphics card: AMD Radeon HD 6970M X2

The M18x had to offer an expensive duo of the latest graphic cards in SLI or Crossfire (Nvidia and AMD respectively) to match the performance of the strongest desktop GPUs.

The Radeon HD 6970M CF is currently the fastest dual-GPU combo after the GeForce GTX 485M SLI. AMD’s 6970Ms are DirectX 11 ready and they have the codename “Blackcomb XT”. They are produced with the latest 40 nm process. The graphic cards have over 960 Unified Shaders and while the core runs at 680 MHz, the memory of 2048 MB GDDR5-VRAM is clocked at 900 MHz. The memory interface is well-dimensioned: 256 bit. This will almost never be used to the full extent.

Dual-GPU configurations offer many advantages, the biggest being the higher performance (up to +100%). However, these high performance configurations also come with a few disadvantages. For example, the so-called “micro stutters” caused by dual-GPU systems (caused by the difference between the two pictures created by the graphic cards), can be quite annoying in some cases. Subjectively, these are not noticeable in the M18x, as the Radeon HD 6970M CF manages to process fast enough most of the time (micro stutters only become clearly visible when the frame rate drops under 30 fps).

Another problem of SLI or CF systems is their high dependence on drivers. This is usually clearly noticeable with the latest games as they still lack the proper drivers. The result: the second graphic card does not increase performance or even slows down the performance. In addition, the power usage and temperature emissions rise, which also leads to louder noise emissions.

SLI or Crossfire systems are usually for buyers with an obsession for the best possible performance, and to achieve this, they are usually ready to put out more money and download the latest drivers on a regular basis.

Dell Alienware M18x Price $1999, it like around Php 87,000 or higher here in the philippines.