Alienware m15x-472CSB 15-Inch Gaming Laptop (Cosmic Black)

I placed the order for this computer Thursday night, and with one day shipping received it Saturday morning. Both Amazon and UPS have figured this logistics thing out.

Out of the box everything looks great. All of the specs lined up except one... it says it has an 8-cell battery; however, seeing that they don't make an 8 cell battery for this laptop, i have to think that maybe they meant to say a 9-cell battery? Well either way, that's not what this laptop hasit has a 6 cell battery. This gives you a lofty 1 hour of battery life just idling in windows. Now if you buy this kind of laptop, the chances of you just sitting in windows are fairly slim. The gaming battery life, I'm not sure, but I'm not holding my breath for more than 20 minutes.

That may not be much of a gripe, considering that this is more like a portable desktop, but it is irritating when you buy something that's misadvertised.

As for the performance, I was playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 last night and it looked stellar!

Bottom line, Dell quoted me a computer with the exact same specs, but they wanted $1900, so I see this as a bargain.

I bought this laptop with the intention of primarily playing Starcraft 2 on it and taking the strain off my old desktop. The features on this Alienware product are very intriguing, such as the facial recognition login. It is pretty unnecessary but a cool feature nonetheless. The lights on the entire computer can be changed to different colors which is pretty cool especially since the advertised red color is super bright on the eyes.

After about 5 days of using it very lightly, I did get a blue screen of death saying it had crashed, but it rebooted no problem so I am hoping that was just a one time deal as it did it while the Starcraft 2 program was open and that has happened to me on 2 other computers as well while running the game.

A few things that are inconvenient about the product is the fact that it only has 2 USB ports. I knew this before purchasing it, figuring I would just use the laptop keyboard for gaming, but it didn't feel comfortable, so I use my external keyboard, which uses the 2nd USB port leaving my headphone/microphone set unable to be used.

For what I am using it for, the computer is working great with only a few minor setbacks, but for the price, I am not complaining. On the actual Alienware site, the same system would run roughly 300-400 more so I strongly recommend ordering it on Amazon.

With minor problems and a good price, this computer will run your gaming relatively well for people on a moderate sized budget.

UPDATE: 4/18/2011

The computer is still going strong, I haven't gotten a blue screen of death besides that one time. It runs Starcraft 2 on the new Extreme settings perfectly.

The price of the product has gone up $400 on Amazon so I would not say it is as good of a deal, but so far this laptop has proven very useful.

Buy Alienware m15x-472CSB 15-Inch Gaming Laptop (Cosmic Black) Now

My last laptop was a 17" Sony and I wanted something a little bit smaller. My choices were between an ASUS Republic of Gamer laptop and the Alienware. I decided on the alienware due to the amount of troubling posts about hardware failure with ASUS products. The only real problem I saw with Alienware products were people complaing of cost. I do not know about you, but I was raised under the old saying that you get what you pay for. And I have been very pleased with my new Alienware laptop. I will let you know that you will need to contact Alienware to transfer your 1 year warranty from Amazon to yourself and if you so desire you can purchase longer coverage from Alienware as well. Now, I will also say that this laptop is a little heavy for a 15". A lot of people do not like the touchpad, I am indifferent about it considering I never use it anyway, I prefer wireless mice. Also your battery will geek out very fast unless you alter your power settings. Mine lasts about 2 hours, however I am normally wired in anyway so that really does not bother me. This laptop was purchased to go offshore with me and allow me to play games as well as be my main computer at home where it stays put. It has performed very well. All my games run at high to ultra settings without any issues at all. Heck even playing World of Warcraft, I can run into any high populated zones with all settings maxed out and still get 60 to 70fps. One last bit of information for you as well, this exact build on Alienwares website usually runs several hundred dollars more than on Amazons website. Also the M15X is very upgradable, so the choice is up to you.

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I admit that when I bought this laptop, I was expecting to be blown away. I expected the best machine out there. While I am impressed with the m15x's performance, it's got some issues. I purchased mine over a year ago from Dell's alienware site. I debated for a while before pulling the trigger. Let me go over my pros and cons after having it for a year:

Pros:

1. It's just plain cool. It's a great looking computer. The lights on the keyboard and everywhere else are just fun to play with.

2. It's very solid. Some might call this heavy, but I don't mind. It feels sturdy and that's what I wanted.

3. It runs well and does what I need it to do. I haven't had any problems running games and programs when I need to.

4. The keyboard is great. I really like the design of each key, which is awesome since I write a lot.

5. Good speakers. I've always liked the sound when watching a movie with my wife or kids.

Cons

1. My first complaint is the AC plug. After lots of use, it easily slips out of its jack from the computer with very little pressure. It can be very very annoying.

2. The touchpad is terrible. I considered sending it back b/c I hated the touchpad so much. The buttons are too hard to push and the pad itself is just meh. I do use a mouse a lot, so this isn't a huge issue.

3. Heat. This computer can generate a lot of heat, and I've been painfully burned a couple of times (not second or third degree mind you) but enough that I've remembered it. It can get pretty darn hot, and I think I'm running an i3 processor.

4. The wireless card isn't great. I don't seem to pick up signals as well as other people's laptops or even ipads. Very disappointing.

5. Home and delete keys are too close together, and I often hit them on accident. A little space would have been nice.

6. The rubber stoppers that protect the screen from completely closing down on the keyboard/base lasted about 1 or 2 months. Never found them.

Fortunately, I've never had to use costumer service. I've never had any major issues. So I'd really give it 3.5 stars if I could. But I can't justify the price again for something that's not absolutely mind blowing, like I expected this to be. It's been a fine machine but I would buy something different next time.

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First i got this laptop off alienware.com not on amazon because i like it custom build with my name on the back. the performance is super fast. but people say u can get the same spec or better spec for cheaper price on other brand. but i tell u dell didn't give this a high price just because they want it to. this laptop should be at this high price because the screen is a full glass screen and with 5.1 speaker which are super loud. There is no laptop in the world that can do the LED on the keyboard and front grill as the alienware can. u can change it to any color. i got this from dell because u can have a custom name plate on the back for free. which on amazon u just get a plate that say m15x. the keyboard feel very well. the body of this is like aluminum and the cooling fan cool this thing very well(never put this on ur lap, it will be hot). the weight of this thing is a problem. it add a lot of weight to my backpack for trips. its weight like 8-10 lb. the charger for this laptop is big also and it goes hot as well. the battery is kinda bad because at powersaver mode 100% charge with screen turn all the way low and no LED on. the battery last 1 hour and 10 min doing nothing. u can not play game on this laptop when in battery mode because when its in battery the performence will be cut in half and even if u do play game it will take ur battery down to 0% in 10-20min. but when its plug in this is the Beast it will kill ur game!!!. in my word this is better than a MAC PRO because the price on this is cheaper and more performance than the mac pro. And alot of people has mac pro but u dont see an alienware often. when i take my alienware to libary u see people with mac pro and u have a alienware it feel like u have a lamborghini in a bunch of Porsche. and this computer does look like lamborghini. if money is not a problem with u and weight is also not a problem then this is the one to go. if u are going to use this for school i dont think u should go for this because the battery life is just bad and the weight will kill u when u have alot of text book in ur bag.. over all a very very very nice laptop i love mine