True say a small part of me sighs face by a portable Thursday. Not because I do not believe in them, but because although some of the most powerful notebooks that you may find there is nothing particularly sophisticated about them. They are all big and powerful and there are many who play games of parameters decent, but it is a matter of brute force in the best case and with a propensity for gaudy focused on the design of video games he are some that catches the eye in a positive way.

In fact, one of the few who has been the Alienware Area-51 m9750, the last notebook we looked at Alienware. Like most notebooks on Thursday it was a 17in machine and it is both ambitious and expensive, but its rubberized Batman-esque arrival (circa Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney and Bale, not Adam West) and of curved lines provided a compelling example of what a modern Thursday notebook should look like.

On the other hand, the Dell XPS M1730 is the perfect example of the worst excesses of the sector, with its false wicked carbon-fibre models, unsubtle lighting effects and bastardised Inspiron chassis little to inspire. Meanwhile, the chassis manufactured Clevo offered by people like Rock (see: Rock X770 T7800-8800) were sitting somewhere in the middle, providing a well put together, but take restraint on the concept.

Today, however, I am looking for something a little more interesting, in fact something really exciting in the form of Alienware Area-51 m15x. As the name suggests, it is based on a 15.4in form factor and, unlike the plethora of other so-called “notebooks of the game” of this size is the Real Deal, because it presents the best available evidence, in this case a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 and NVIDIA GeForce 8800M mobile GTX 512 MB graphics card. They are both firsts for a notebook of this size and bearing in mind the requirements of heat dissipation, it is not a trivial matter.

It is worth recalling, however, that being smaller than the notebook typical game can not be m15x a sort of hungry waif. It is still quite high. Our sample weighed to 3.6 kg, while Alienware starting price weighing 3.18 kg in its basic configuration. It is also quite thick, a measure consistent 33mm. But, more importantly, its footprint is nothing more remarkable, manage a measure 369.5mm diameter, 272.5mm deep. It is therefore hardly wider and deeper than, for example, the Dell Inspiron 1525 (357mm wide x 256 deep), which is much more a basic machine.

It’s  an accomplishment that has not come without its problems, too. Some of the first to adopt the USA, where the m15x has been available for some time, complained of problems caused by overheating, including instability and small cracks appear on the chassis. In this case, we can perhaps grateful that Europe and the United Kingdom have received later, since Alienware promises it has resolved these problems. It is not right that the early adopters are essentially Answers To these questions, but our time with the m15x we had no issue related to overheating.

Notebook game by the standards m15x is quite discreet. Once almost exclusively in sub-silver with a smooth, bright, it does not appear a wedge-shaped, as recent pads, with all chassis resembling a large block of metal - or plastic in this case.

This description, however, does sound rather negative, which would betray the fact that this form is not without charm. It does not try too hard to impress, he finds himself right there in a threatening manner and confidence subtle giving an impression of the power that lies inside, just waiting to be released. Some in the office asked if it was just a little too subtle, he was not “special” enough, but I think for a Alienware has obtained the right balance - no doubt you have your own opinion, too.

This is a glance aided significantly by the lighting system on the m15x. Outside it is in the form of head overseas on the cover and “ray of light” on the wire, while across the keyboard function keys fast, Alienware letters and touchpad surround all are lighted. In addition, each component can be customized using the software provided AlienFX, changing both the color and behavior based on your desire. For example, the alien head to vibrate mode and can be set to do so when the load, while if you wish, you can combine different configurations of color and save them as themes.

It is very intuitive and easy to configure and, as you can see on our plans, the effect is startling. The keyboard in particular looks great; similarly, the light beam, as it is called, on the outer edge of the screen is a very pleasant and overall the lighting system is a real triumph. The customization does not stop there either, since you can specify all sorts of things to point agenda including the lighting of default, the window colors in Vista, desktop image and the image provided on the mouse pad. There are also some other supplements, including a bulletin case fabric and even a brand Alienware baseball cap - mmm, fashionable.

Dodgy ceiling later these are all nice touches and clearly Alienware tries a little harder than most to provide more personal service. It does not weigh on its systems with software too. You get commodities such as Cyberlink PowerDVD and Youcam along with Nero 7 Essentials, but unless you do not ask productivity or security software is pre-installed. So it is not necessary to remove any annoying trialware happens when your system.