Dell’s Alienware M14x is the mid ground between their champion M17x model with a 17 inch screen, and their featherweight champion the M11x which is as close to a gaming netbook as you’ll find anywhere.
The fortress of PC gaming is held by Dell’s Alienware brand, these machines provide peak graphics and powerful processing capabilities to run whatever the video game industry has to throw at them. Although they are marketed for gamers the components it takes to run such programmes make it an excellent system to manage your work on, it handle high-end graphics making it suitable for design and with the power of the quad core i7 processor matters such as video editing are a cinch.
What we like best
One of the most noticeable features on the M14x is the lighting, the keyboard and touchpad are all ringed with lights that you can control, these features include a pulsing effect and a morphing colours. You can also section the keyboard of with different colours or just turn them off that’s not your thing.
The keyboard is uniquely constructed with wider spacing between chiclets so that typing is freed up to give your hands a bit of room to stretch out.
Since visuals are all important on a gaming machine the M14x stacks a powerful NVIDIA GeForce GT55M GPU. Since the M14x is a smaller version of the M17x the reduced screen size can be remedied with Intel Wireless Display, which enables you to quickly hook up your Alienware M14x to a widescreen TV for better gaming.
What we like least
Although it is hard to complain about, the M14x is just another sized version of the M series, for layout and colour scheme Dell Alienware are just creating a multi-sized family so if your friend has an M17x, you’re just buying the same system with screen 3 inches smaller. The benefit of this is of course that it is a portable system, and with a quad core i7 processor the speed of the M14x is simply astounding.
For a medium sized laptop you get a great resolution 1600x900 which is not normally found on 14 inch machines. The Alienware M14x is a great system, although the design lacks innovation it has a familiar almost classic feel and look to it. The high price is well worth it since this laptop packs up to date technology that will last over the coming years.
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Processor Speed
up to 2.3 GHz
Processor
Intel Core i7
RAM
Up to 8 Gb
Screen Size
14.1 inch
Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT55M
Hard Drive Storage
Up to 750 Gb SATA
Battery
8-cell
Multimedia
Internal HD 5.1 Performance Audio with WavesMaxx or SoundBalster X-Fi
Speaker Configuration by Klipsch
Digital audio out HDMI
2.0 MP Webcam
9-in-1 Media Card Reader
Ports
1 x RJ-45 Gb Ethernet
2 x USB 3.0 SuperSpeed
1 x USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
1 x Mini-Display Port
1 x HDMI 1.4 Audio and Video Output
1 x VGA
Weight & Size
(W) 337 x (H) 37.8 x (D) 258.34 mm
2.92 Kg
Connectivity
Wi-Fi
Ethernet
Bluetooth 3.0
Operating System
Up to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Gamers and gadget enthusiasts around the world may finally have their dreams answered by Hewlett-Packard. Rosie Khdir reveals the “Dick Tracy” wrist PC.
Anyone who has played Fallout, Inspector Gadget, or James Bond, will know that the watch is not your average piece of wrist candy. Would you love to have a watch that formed as a telephone/videophone/personal computer? Well HP may have the answer.
The PC Watch
Hewlett-Packard has been playing with flexible organic displays since 2008 and has now announced that it is developing a next-generation watch for the U.S. military.
HP says that the watch will include an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display that can display maps and other information to soldiers in remote combats fields.
The watch, named a “Dick Tracy watch” according to Carl Taussig, director of information surfaces at HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, after the famous comic-strip detective who had a high-tech wristwatch that doubled as a two-way radio.
The technology behind it
The screen will be made of plastic and will apparently run on solar energy to limit malfunction and power outage during major operations. This is the first real test of the technology at such a small size.
Taussig, talking of the display, said:
“It doesn’t break. It’s thin. It’s potentially flexible.”
The science behind these screens is a thin strip of metal-coated plastic that’s a tiny 50 microns thick (about half the width of a human hair) and wraps around a spool. This layer is then printed with transistors that tell the screen to display certain images.
It is treated with various acid and metal coatings to make it conduct electricity and create clear images. In some ways, the system mimics newspaper production.
The watch been helped along by company PowerFilm, who make flexible solar panels; these will also be printed on the watches.
The use of plastic for the display is being seen as a step into the future and Taussig said that plastic may be used for more laptops and e-reader displays in the future. He also indicated that such technology could be used in the retail market, in supermarkets instead of paper price tags.
HP has said it expects the prototype to be done within a year.
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