Geeks love small. The love of the netbook was itself a testament to how furious geek zeal can become when presented with a small product, no matter what the limitations that size ends up endowing on the device. Two years ago the blurbs about netbooks on tech blogs could lead you to the conclusion that netbooks were going to make laptops obsolete. Now the iPad has taken place of netbooks as the next big thing in tiny tech. And, of course, you must consider the name of the blog on which you are reading the current post.
But small isn’t always better. Netbooks themselves are case-in-point. Their size gives them outstanding battery life, and they are incredibly easy to move about during day to day life. However, their size also gives them limitations. The keyboard and trackpad are cramped, the screen isn’t big enough, and the hardware inside isn’t fast enough.
Which brings me to the Alienware M11x, a gaming laptop that was undoubtedly created when someone in a Dell board room caught on to the netbook craze and decided to thrown Alienware a bone.
The tech press at large has predictably fallen in love with the laptop. Engadget said “It’s hard not to love the M11x after spending some time with it,” while Notebook Review blew their wad shamelessly, cooing “The Alienware M11x remains as awe-inspiring today as it was when Dell announced it back in January.” The crux of the hype surrounding the Alienware M11x is best distilled in the Notebook Review piece, which concludes “Is the M11x the ultimate gaming notebook? No. Is it the first gaming notebook that is small enough and light enough so you can genuinely take everywhere? Yes!”
Er, but let’s back up a second. Is the Alienware M11x really super-portable? Well, in terms of battery life, yes, as long as you don’t actually game with it. The new models should be good for six or seven hours of light usage. However, gaming will (as always) suck battery life faster than a Twilight movie sucks cash from tween wallets, which means that – away from a power socket -the M11x is no more impressive than your typical laptop.
The M11x isn’t thin or light, either. At 4.5 pounds the M11x is not too heavy to carry in a backpack, but is a bit too heavy to cram into any bag small enough to make the M11x’s small size matter. It is thick, at 1.3 inches, and unlike most laptops it is that same approximate thickness throughout most of the chassis.
I’m not trying to say that the M11x is too heavy to take to a coffee shop, but I am saying you lose the grab-and-go, stuff-it-anywhere form factor of a netbook. It may have a 11.6 inch display, but that doesn’t change the fact that it weighs as much, and is as thick as, a thirteen or fourteen inch laptop.
And then there is the gaming. I cannot for the life of me figure out why reviewers act as if an 11.6 inch laptop display is somehow a good thing for gaming. Nevermind the fact that the M11x’s display is fairly lackluster, it is simply too small. I would no sooner choose to play a game on an M11x than I would choose to watch a movie on an iPad. Sure, you can do it, but the small size of the display is always going to be a problem. This goes for the keyboard, as well. Because of its size, the M11x has a small keyboard with tiny keys and no numpad. If you’ve ever looked at a desktop gaming keyboard you probably understand why this is bad. Having more keys is always better, because you can re-map game functions to various places across the keyboard. Having less keys means you’ll have to be pretty damned creative when setting up your WoW macros – nevermind the fact that the keys are small enough to feel a bit fiddly to begin with.
Hell, I might forgive the M11x the small screen size if it was blazing, fast, but it isn’t. While it is faster than your typical laptop with an Nvidia 310M or, heaven forbid, Intel HD graphics, the M11x gets spanked by bigger gaming laptops with better processors and better mobile GPUs.
So what, really, is the point? The answer – it’s small. And that’s it. I love small computers, and I love the trend towards thinner and lighter machines. But this is ridiculous. I want companies to make computers smaller and lighter in ways that benefit the consumer. What Alienware done doesn’t benefit consumer at all. It is a simple hype cash-in conjured up by some middle management wizard.
Harsh? Yea, I admit, it is. But I also think it is true. Don’t agree? Leave a comment.
P.S. Notebook Review forum goers, I salute you. One person posted this in the M11x owner thread, and as a result I received my highest single-day traffic numbers ever!
You must log in to post a comment.