We have itching on the hands on the Alienware AM11x-826CSB since we first saw it at CES, get – it is one of the most interesting riffs on the thin-and-light we’ve seen in a long time. Sure, it is compact, but inside it is a ULV Core 2 Duo with a switchable NVIDIA GPU GT335M paired, thus losing one of the most powerful small laptops on the market. But the power never comes cheap: the M11x starts at $ 799, and our test model with a 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300 improved and 4 GB of RAM equipped watches at $ 949. This is expensive, but possibly worth it if you are a serious player on the go. You know, we had a test and find out – let’s see if the AM11x-826CSB can back up those looks with performance.

The M11x has certainly its share of swoopy curves – if you squint just right, the front looks almost exactly like a Camaro – but it’s actually a whole than one would expect boxier, with flat sides and a hard edge to the rest of the case. We would almost say that the effect is somewhat business-like, but no one will ever mistake a laptop with so many options, LED lighting for a business machine. We want Alienware had used only found the soft-touch matte finish on the keyboard deck around the engine, instead of glossy black paint, the combination of processing and the flat surfaces does expect a hair cheaper than you would think.

Around the sides you will find a healthy selection of ports: VGA, USB port for charging other devices, Ethernet, HDMI, DisplayPort, a card reader and a four-pin FireWire jack line the left side, while the right sports a microphone input, two heaphone ports, two USB ports and a vast expanse of shiny black plastic. Only electricity adorns the back, but on the floor you will find a pretty big fan, a battery indicator and a little Alienware plaque to find your purchase. The AM11x-826CSB is also pretty hard for a smaller machine at 4.5 pounds – that’s as much as, say, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and you can certainly feel its weight, if you keep it.

Keyboard, mouse and screen

No rubber keyboard here – instead, there’s a relatively flat backlight unit with a tweaked layout designed for gaming. We would be totally remiss if we did not spend more time with talks on the crazy AlienFX LED lighting effects – you can use the keyboard backlight, Alienware logo, power button, speakers, and even status will be indicators to almost any color you want, they need between two colors fade, or just flash continuously. It is completely unnecessary, and a lot of fun – we spent 30 minutes our tester tricks in an Elvis-inspired pink and blue motif before becoming more aggressive in red and orange scheme. Sure, it is old news for anyone who bought a larger Alienware machine, but it’s pretty wild, such a function into a laptop to see the start at $ 799.

We could, without the special menu button to have lived, and a smaller right shift key when the arrow had a greater mean layout, but overall the keyboard is quite nice, and you can safely remove WASD when it’s time to play. The trackpad is pretty similar: no mulititouch here, but we have always structured touch pad and the tracking was fine and precise. We just wish the buttons were a bit bigger – we were dead in plastic on the lip of the machine quite often.

We have been cheated on display pounding in cheap laptops for a while now, but the M11x is the rare low-end machine in a company’s lineup, which do not endanger not on the LCD. The 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 with LED-backlit display is bright, sharp and has great horizontal viewing angle. The vertical viewing angle is a little narrow, but it is easy to find the “sweet spot” – kudos to the use of a good record here to try instead of the price with an inferior display lower Alienware. We just wanted, it would not be so, so shiny.

Performance, graphics and battery life

Then come the 1.3 GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300 and switchable NVIDIA GPU GT335M have the horsepower to get the AM11x-826CSB a credible gaming machine? The numbers speak for themselves off the GT335M, the M11x carried out as pretty much all other ULV laptop with integrated GMA graphics, notching a PCMarkVantage3 score of 2698 and a 3DMark06 score of only 654th But turning the GT335M had a pretty dramatic impact, encouraging guests to PCMarkVantage3 3141, and the 3DMark06 score 5593rd This is considerably lower than the “over 6,100″ Alienware said, but the real world, Batman: Arkham Asylum was running at an easy 25-28fps running at native resolution with a high of 42fps and Portal at 130-200fps went – not bad. Our man Joe Kelly also noted that Crysis running at native resolution with 2x anti-aliasing cranked out 8fps in very high, around 15 fps in High and 20-30fps in medium, and it was not playable with 4xAA Very High. BioShock maxed out settings at a peak value generated by 120 fps, although this dropped to 55fps in scenes with water or lots of action. So not too shabby overall, but your face is likely to remain un-melted.

In addition to ULV-like performance, we also got to ULV as battery life when using the integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics: our video rundown test for 4.5 hours, which was about average. But on this NVIDIA GPU-flip and things change quickly – the fan turned on almost instantly every time we changed the graphics and the increased heat output of the system significantly. We were not able, battery life up to the completion of the test with the GPU, but the meter ran much faster – we would not expect to get much more than two and a half or three hours of usage with NVIDIA chip active. And remember – the battery is integrated into the system, so players can not only airline with a second battery pack and go.

Here’s the thing about switching the graphics on this machine, however: now that NVIDIA seamless Optimus hybrid graphics system is based on the ASUS UL50VF shipping, with the AM11x-826CSB you say certain applications and black, for viewing leave, while it feels positively hacky switch GPUs. It is not the worst thing in the world, but it’s hard to know that there is such a better automatic solution – especially since you want to switch back and forth quite a bit to max out battery life. We would not let us from the beginning, but we have to ask why NVIDIA and Dell together and not put on the Optimus M11x from the start, because this is is a perfect fit. We naturally expect to see it on a later version.

Conclusion

It’s hard not to love the M11x After some time with him. It takes the traditional laptop and netbook formula and tilts the balance in an unconventional way, leading to new compromises. It is such a great netbook, but it costs as much as many mainstream notebooks – and weighs as much as some of them. It has a slow CPU, but a fast GPU, the battery eats greedily enough that we would probably just be turned off until it was time to play – otherwise known as “the most time” for us. It specifically looks like a cross between a muscle car and spaceship. Whether this particular election appeal to you probably depends on how much you spend GPU-based gaming on the go, and how much you are willing, on a machine with a smaller screen. We’re pretty sure those run by you, made to a real buy these, second will not be disappointed, but we will persevere NVIDIA Optimus, and maybe a slightly faster processor – a dream all the time of keyboards with backlight Engadget in blue.