The problem here is that reviewing the Alienware Area-51 m15x (we’ll just call it the m15x) isn’t a straight forward laptop review. The specifications simply don’t fit the parameters of laptop comparison, yet here it is – neat, compact, and it folds in half. This most definitely is a laptop, but such a powerful one it defies any kind of established expectations such a machine brings. So forget about any laptop you might previously have seen that you’d be tempted to use for evaluating the m15x’s position in the market, and we can look at Alienware’s new monster without preconception.

 

Rather than ‘laptop’, this is probably better described as a portable gaming PC. ‘What’s the difference?’, you might rightly ask, but thinking of the m15x as a highly compact desktop or high-end games system – comparable to the current super-consoles with a built-in display – conveys a far more accurate mental picture of what to expect. Aimed at the PC gamer, everything about the m15x is designed to appeal to that broad, yet highly discerning demographic; from the powerful graphics processor to the HD display and sleek, futuristic case.

 

The guts are what’s really important when it comes to a PC, so let’s take a look inside first. Talking about specifications is kinda tedious, so instead, here’s a quick rundown of what’s under the bonnet, then we’ll talk about the bizarre tests we’ve run to try and fathom exactly what kind of brain power we’re looking at in the layman gamer’s terms:

 

 

Makes your electric bill light up, eh? We took a look at several standard benchmark systems, such as PCMark05 (7616), 3DMark06 (10329), Cinebench R10 (5817) and SuperPrime (31.99). Now, deciphering these test figures isn’t just boring, it’s simply not that descriptive. On top of everything else, the figures gleamed from the m15x are simply too far removed from the nearest competition to provide much useful information (without resorting to testing it against a desktop, but that’s hardly conducive to someone who’s in the market for a laptop), other than underlining the computer’s astronomical processing abilities.