What a difference a year makes

As technology constantly becomes better/cheaper/faster, the size of that technology shrinks accordingly.  Sound familiar?  These are the same exact words I used in the intro to my review on the HP Mini 1000 netbook I purchased last year.  In that article, this concept was very much a focal point along with the specific benefits of that particular machine.  These included its small footprint and lightweight design, 92% scale keyboard, and gorgeous display just to name a few.  What wasn't covered as much were more of the downsides of not only that specific machine, but the netbook platform in general.

Now don't get me wrong, I would still place just as large of a stamp of approval on the Mini 1000 today as I did a year ago.  There is nothing wrong with it per se, it's just that for better or worse... I outgrew it.  The once marvelous 10.1" high definition display now seems tiny when considering 12.1 and even 11.6 inch displays on more contemporary products.  The 92% scale keyboard is now standard, with some models approaching a size identical to those found on higher end laptops and even desktop PCs.  As I used the machine more and more (and particularly after installing Windows 7) I found that the 16GB hard drive was becoming crammed.  I literally couldn't install programs that I wished to simply because of lack of drive space.  While the option of an SD card expansion up to 32GB was nice, the speed of that solution was significantly slower than the included solid state drive.  What sealed the Mini 1000's fate was its complete inability to play games later than circa 2003.  Even on titles that would run, the image quality settings and frame rate often times left a lot to be desired.

The search for a new "netbook"

So with that in mind, I began shopping around for a new netbook.  I liked the idea of ultra portability, but I just had to have more in the areas where I felt my current netbook was lacking.  Initially my sights were set on the Asus 1201n, which sports a dual-core Atom processor, nVidia ION graphics, 250GB hard drive, and 2GB of 800Mhz DDR2 RAM with expansion up to 8GB.  With credit card in hand, and following Quebus excellent review of the system, I was ready to buy.  Literally the moment before completing the order, I thought it best to take a trip over to Youtube to really see what the 1201n could do in regards to gaming.  To be quite blunt, I was rather disappointed.

Much like the Mini 1000, I'm not here to rescind and say that the 1201n is a bad machine.  In fact, it's a very very good one and very well put together.  The problem then?  It simply wasn't enough.  It still contained an Atom processor and all the benefits/detriments that this choice entails.  Its dedicated NVIDIA graphics could only play contemporary games at the lowest settings smoothly, and its 5400RPM hard drive seemed slowish.  If I was going to abandon the Mini 1000 that I loved so much and used so often, it had to be for something significantly better.  Something many magnitudes more powerful, perhaps something that wasn't even a netbook by strict definition.

Netbook?  Ultra-portable? 

Enter the Alienware M11x.  Those familiar with the Alienware brand know that their machines are specifically designed for games.  The engineers specialize in cramming all the latest and greatest hardware into their systems while adding more "aggresive" features like built-in overclocking and elaborate lighting assemblies.  The build quality, along with the price premium for these machines, is usually quite high but in most cases you get what you pay for.  At release, these systems will typically run anything you throw at them and even without additional upgrades, will often continue that trend for the next year or two at least.

Though it completely encompasses all the attributes that have come to define the Alienware brand, the M11x is somewhat of a different animal though.  At its core, the system represents the companys first entry into the ultra-portable computing market while still being very gamer-centric.  Notice I didn't use the term "netbook" here, as applying this moniker to the M11x would be almost criminal for a variety of reasons.  The price is much less than typical Alienware fare (starting at $799 USD and topping out at around 2 grand), but at least 30% higher than even the most expensive netbooks available.  Though the display is in fact very netbook-like at 11.6" (1366x768 native resolution), the weight (about 4.5lbs) and the height (about an inch and a half thick closed) is clearly much larger than typical netbook offerings from ASUS, HP, and even Dell.

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