Dell Alienware M17x Laptop

Best Gaming Laptop
“The Dell Alienware M17x laptop is a gamer’s dream and sets the universal standard for 17-inch laptops that enthusiasts worldwide will love,” said Michael Tatelman, vice president of sales and marketing for Dell’s consumer business. “Alienware’s premium performance is critically important to the larger Dell consumer product portfolio, and our new ‘All Powerful’ branding campaign conveys the brand’s technological strength as much as Adamo conveys precision craftsmanship and design.”


Dell Alienware M17x Laptop
“With the introduction of the Dell Alienware M17x laptop and our aggressive expansion into new countries and new languages, everyone will be able to experience the most innovative and immersive gaming experience,” says Arthur Lewis, general manager of Dell’s Gaming Group. “The Dell M17x notebook sets a new benchmark for combining out-of-this-world performance with the industrial design our customers have come to expect.”

Dell Inspiron 11z review

The Dell Inspiron 11z is a thin and light laptop with an 11.6 inch display. It’s a bit larger than Dell’s Inspiron Mini netbook line, and it comes with an Intel CULV processor, which provides more power than the Atom chips found in Dell’s netbooks. But the Inspiron 11z is still portable, cheap, and a little slow compared with many of the company’s larger laptops.

The laptop comes with a variety of configuration options. Dell sent me a review unit with a 1.3GHz dual core Intel Pentium SU4100 processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, and a 6 cell battery. This configuration sells for $544 (or actually, $584, since this model has a $40 jade green lid), but the base model is available for just $379.

Of course, to get the lower price, you’ll have to settle for a 3 cell battery, single core processor, smaller hard drive, and Windows Vista.

Design

The Dell Inspiron 11z looks virtually identical to the Inspiron Mini 10v netbook. The main difference is that the 11z sports an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display while the Mini 10v has a smaller 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 screen. Along with the larger screen, you also get a larger computer chassis, a wider touchpad, and a full sized keyboard. The larger model also has an HDMI port.

Left: Inspiron 11z / Right: Insprion Mini 10v

Overall, the Inspiron 11z has the same simple look as its little sibling. There’s only a single status LED, for example. The black plastic around the keyboard has a matte feel while the silver colored palm rest is shiny (although it doesn’t attract fingerprints.

The base model comes with a black lid. For about $40 more you can get a pink, green, blue, red, purple, or white lid. Or you can use the Dell Design Studio to choose from more than 200 case designs.

Around the sides of the computer you’ll find the usual array of ports including 3 USB ports, mic and headphone jacks, a memory card reader, Ethernet jack, and HDMI port.

There are no access panels on the bottom of the laptop, which means if you want to upgrade the RAM or hard drive, you’re going to have to disassemble the PC and perform some minor surgery. Fortunately the base model ships with 2GB of RAM. But if you think you might want more memory, it might be a good idea to order it when you purchase the computer if you’re not comfortable opening up your PC case.

The Dell Inspiron 11z is designed so that a 3 cell battery will sit flush with the base of the laptop. The 6 cell battery, on the other hand, sticks out like 3 or 4 sore thumbs.

With a 3 cell battery, the laptop is just under an inch thick. But a 6 cell battery adds almost an inch to the height of the laptop in the rear. That causes the keyboard to tilt at an almost-but-not-quite uncomfortable angle. While it’s fairly common for PC makers to add a little tilt to the keyboard, I don’t think I’ve ever used a PC with a keyboard angled quite as sharply as the one on the Dell Inspiron 11z.

On the bright side, because the battery juts straight down, it doesn’t add any space to the back of the laptop. And that allows the screen to open a little wider than the screens on many laptops.

Keyboard and TouchPad

The Dell Inspiron 11z’s touchpad is pretty much the same one used on the Inspiron Mini 10v, but bigger. You would have thought Dell could have used that extra space to place right and left buttons below the touchpad instead of integrating them into the touch area. But they didn’t. And so find this touchpad just as frustrating to use as the one on Dell’s 10 inch netbook.

The idea is that Dell can provide a larger touch surface by using integrated buttons. But this means that in order to click, you need to move your finger to the lower right or left portion of the touchpad and press down. It also means that you have to be very careful not to move the finger you’re using to click, lest you should accidentally move the cursor.

The touchpad does support multitouch gestures such as two-finger scrolling and pinching to zoom.

While the touchpad is an acquired taste (and I do know some people that actually like this style of touchpad), the keyboard is quite nice.

The keys are reasonably sized and very responsive. I didn’t notice much flex in the keyboard, and there’s room for not only full shift keys on the left and right sides, but also a dedicated set of buttons for Home, PgUp, PgDn, and End.

The Fn and arrow keys on the Inspiron Mini 10v were half-sized, but the 11z provides full sized versions of these keys.

Performance

While the bade model of this laptop is available with a single core 1.3GHz Intel Celeron 743 CULV processor, the version I tested had a dual core Intel Pentium SU4100 CPU. I was particularly interested in testing this model because it’s the first laptop I’ve used with that processor.

As it turns out, it performs pretty much exactly as I would have expected. In a series of benchmarks, the Inspiron 11z fell somewhere between a notebook with an Intel Celeron SU2300 CULV processor and one with a more powerful Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU. But to be honest, the performance gap wasn’t that big.

Dell Mini 10 upgraded with Atom N450

This new single core Atom N450 introduced by Intel is 60 percent smaller in comparison to its predecessors and promises to offer battery life of more than seven hours, as per Intel officials.

With Intel’s official launch of its Atom N450 Pine-Trail, the Atom processor
got a refreshed new look, with the number of physical chips dropped from three to two on the motherboard.

Netbooks are inexpensive version of laptops distinguished by their smaller screens and keyboards. These devices are primarily designed to run basic applications such as spreadsheets or word productivity programs and to browse the Internet.

Upgrades received by Dell’s Mini 10
The Dell Mini 10 now includes:

- The new Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150, and Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, both in the same package.

- The new Mini 10 now has a different look on outside too, with access to Dell’s Studio designs. The top cover can be customized from up to 200 different designs.

- Interiors of the netbook have also received a makeover. The palm rests on the device are now textured to protect against fingerprints and smudges. Now the keycaps are slightly curved, but the mouse buttons are still incorporated in the touchpad.

Features, specs, price, and availability of Mini 10
- Fixed 3g wireless.
- GPS connectivity capabilities.
- An in-built DTV tuner.
- A Broadcom HD decoder chip to enable smooth video playback.
- 1,366 by 768 HD resolutions.
- Operating systems can be picked from Windows 7 Starters, Windows XP Home Edition and Ubuntu Linux.
- A 160GB or 250GB hard drive.

The price of the Dell Mini 10 will start at $299, but could go up to $499. Dell will start shipping the new netbooks worldwide after Jan. 4, 2010.

Another company introducing its netbook with Atom N450
Fujitus, another company engaged in PC-making business, have also announced plans to introduce its ‘LifeBook MH380’ netbook lineup, based on Intel’s Atom N450 netbook processor.

Fujitus claimed in a statement that LifeBook MH380 will offer improved processor and graphic performance.

The LifeBook MH380 is priced at $449. It includes a 10.1-inch display screen, weighs 2.97 pounds and has six-cell battery offering seven hours of battery life.

Other features are Bluetooth support, hard drive storage, a Webcam and a Wi-Fi wireless networking. The LifeBook MH380 netbook, too, will be available worldwide in January, 2010.

Dell Studio 14

With so many sleek and light laptops flooding the market right now, the traditional chunky-bodied mainstream models seem to have walked out of the limelight. We're testing one such model today; the Dell Studio 14. Dell face-lifted its Inspiron line to match the good looks of the Studio series. Now, the Studio series gets some much-appreciated features from the top-tier XPS range of laptops. This model looks good and packs quite the punch. Is this one of the best 14-inch mainstream multimedia laptop out there? Let's explore for the answers now.





Build and Design:

The Dell Studio 14 has a really cool look. The main distinguishing factor between the Inspiron and the Studio is the customizable top cover. With the Studio, you can either get a solid color or a groovy looking designer one for more money. Our red colored version had a smooth velvety feel.




Comparing it with mainstream 14-inch models out there, the dimensions of the Studio 14 are quite fair. At 2.4 kilos, it's not exactly feather-weight. But its design is quite ergonomic which makes it easy to carry. Dell has done a commendable job with regards to its build quality. The laptop feels sturdy when held. This is especially felt in its meaty screen hinge. On the inside, the black and silver combination looks awesome as well. Overall, the Studio 14 is quite a sporty looking model.





The 14-inch screen that we received was configured with a higher 1600x900 pixel resolution. A regular 1366x768 pixel version is also available. This screen looks pretty crisp and the brightness is just about adequate. The resolution isn't too high to make fonts tiny and unreadable. Placed under the screen is a rectangular speaker grille. They are quite loud and emanate decent quality sound. The keyboard has a nice feel and offers good tactility. The model we got had backlighting under every key as well. It has two levels of brightness and is helpful while typing in dark environments. Lastly, the function buttons are primarily configured to control brightness, media playback among other things like Wi-Fi/power profile/key backlighting toggle. The touch-pad has a slightly rough texture. It has decent accuracy and supports multi-touch gestures like scrolling and zooming -- which are quite nifty, if you ask us. The web-cam on-board delivers a clear output and smooth frame-rate.



On the left, we have a LAN port, one USB and an eSATA/USB combo port, VGA, HDMI, Expresscard/34 and a memory card slot. To the right, we have the slot-loading optical drive, one USB port, one microphone and two head-phone jacks -- which will allow connecting two pairs of headphones at the same time. Another helpful addition is the USB power-share feature. The eSATA/USB port on this machine can charge USB-powered devices even when the laptop itself is off.

Dell Intros Tablet PC Concept

The tablet was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev., along with a refresh of Dell's Studio and Inspiron line of laptops. The company also unveiled an 11-inch gaming laptop called the Alienware M11x.

In showing off the tablet, Dell joined other major computer makers, including Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and others, in announcing tablet PCs. The product announcements from Windows PC vendors come as major media report that Apple is getting ready to launch a tablet toward the end of the month. As a matter of company policy, Apple does not comment on future products.

Dell's tablet concept shown at CES has a five-inch display and is being marketed as a companion device to a PC. The product delivers a "full Web experience around accessing, maintaining and syncing and share digital content," Dell said.

Dell introduced the device a day after announcing that AT&T would sell its Android-based smartphone in the United States. The Mini 3 and the tablet mark Dell's move beyond its traditional role as a seller of consumer and business PCs. The Mini 3 is scheduled to be available in the first half of the year. The tablet is expected sometime this year. Pricing was not announced.

The computer maker's Inspiron and Studio lines are being refreshed with Intel's latest dual- and quad-core processors built using the chip maker's 32-nanometer manufacturing process, which boosts performance and energy efficiency from the previous generation of chips.

Inspiron 14-, 15.6- and 17.3-inch mainstream laptops are available with Intel's latest Core i5 processors and sell for a starting price of $849. Systems featuring Intel's new Core i3 chips are scheduled to be available this month for a starting price of $569.

The same size Studio laptops, which contain more entertainment features, are being refreshed with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The 14-inch Studio is scheduled to be available this month for a starting price of $699. The 15.6- and 17.3-inch models will start $849 and $949, respectively.

Dell's entry into the smartphone market is considered a risky move by some analysts, given that it would be going up against long-time manufacturers of mobile phones, such as Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia. In addition, Dell is taking on two of the most successful smartphone makers in the United States, Apple, which makes the iPhone, and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry.

Dell is also marketing the Alienware M11x as having the "graphics power of a 15-inch laptop in an 11-inch form factor." Dell has not released pricing or availability.

Dell Adamo XPS Review

In our new Dell Adamo XPS review, we review the Dell Adamo XPS laptop and find it bests Apple’s MacBook Air by a mile, but still makes a functional laptop computer.

I’ve been playing with the Dell 9.99 for about a week now, and this product defines amazing. If you thought the MacBook Air was thin, this is about half the thickness of the Air. Dell pulled this off by increasing the length of the notebook, but this also raises the screen in use to a much more acceptable height for most notebooks. Because this thing is so different than the run-of-the-mill notebook product, both inside and out, words and pictures don’t really do it justice. You really need to see it in person.

I’ll start with the specs and then roll into impressions, but let’s be clear: The last notebook that was this revolutionary was likely the HP Sojourn, which was so far ahead of the market it drew crowds. Unlike the Sojourn, which cost $7K in today’s dollars a decade ago, and was pretty much unusable, you could live very easily with the 9.99.

Dell Adamo

Today Dell officially confirmed that they will be releasing a new ultrathin laptop called the Adamo. The Adamo is a sleek laptop with an aluminum chassis, with a strikingly similar appearance the HP Voodoo Envy 133. Dell has not revealed any final specifications, and we are unable to discuss what we saw in the current version, but we did get a chance to handle and use the current Adamo prototype.

Dell has been rumored to be working on the Adamo for a while now, and they've been refining the design during that time. Since the launch of Apple's new MacBook lineup, a lot of people have been impressed by the quality of the aluminum construction, and the Adamo we used definitely looks and feels like a high quality notebook. As a side note, we asked about the possibility of using this sort of chassis Dell's other notebooks. Dell indicated that the amount of time and energy required to produce such a chassis is simply too long to do on a mass scale (not to mention the cost), so it will likely remain in smaller volume products. Dell simply ships far too many laptops to be able to produce that many chassis in a timely fashion.

Dell was kind enough to let us take some photographs of the current Adamo prototype; again, keep in mind that things could change slightly before the product actually ships. The current plans are for two base models, one black and the other white/silver. While they both look incredibly stylish, we have to admit that we are partial to the white notebook, since Black has a nasty habit of showing every single fingerprint/smudge, even with a brushed aluminum surface.

While this appears to be an upper end product, Dell has always done exceptionally well in the realm of mass production, so there's a reasonable chance that the Adamo could end up being more affordable than the competition. We hope so, as there's a lot of demand for a light ultrathin notebook that can still pack more power than the current netbooks. Final pricing and details will have to wait until Dell is closer to shipping the Adamo, which should be sometime later this spring.