Todd's Alienware Area-51 15x Review

After reading Packer's excellent review, taking out a second mortgage, selling my soul to the Devil, and thanking the heavens for such a loving wife I bit the bullet and clicked purchase. In the not too distant future I will be the proud owner of:

[1] Area-51® m15x

Display: 15.4" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p)
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Blue
Video/Graphics Card: 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800M GTX
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
Turbo Cache Memory: Intel® Turbo Memory (1GB) – Accelerate Data Transfer Speed
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Ultimate
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: With Express Card Media Center Remote Control
System Drive: 200GB 7200RPM (16MB Cache)
Optical Drives : 2x Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc Burner (BD-R, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Sound Card : External Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card
Keyboard Options: AlienFX® Illuminated Keyboard
Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista® Edition
Security Software: McAfee® VirusScan Plus – 36-Month Subscription Factory Installed!
Microsoft Office Suites: Microsoft® Office 2007 Professional - Factory Installed!
Includes Small Business + Access!
Power: Additional Battery – 6-cell Smart Bay Battery
External Storage: 500GB Seagate Free Agent External Hard Drive
Security: Targus Combination Notebook Security Cable
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mobile Binder
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Personalized Nameplate
Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Protective Cloth Sleeve
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Keyboard Diagram Overlay
Alienware Extras: Area-51® m15x Smooth Mylar Touchpad
Avatar: Alien Cyborg
Window Style: Blue Window Style
Mouse Pointers: Standard Mouse Pointers
Wallpaper: Alien Cyborg (Widescreen)
Power Plan: High Performance
Automatic Updates: Automatic Updates On
Sidebar Gadgets: Calendar
Sidebar Gadgets: Weather Forecast (default location)
Time Zones: (GMT - 5.00) Indiana (East)


To the best of my knowledge there is no hideously overpriced option I did not include...which is why the price tag was a whopping:

SubTotal: $5,781.00
Shipping: $71.63 (3-5 day)
Discount: $0.00
Tax: $351.16
Order Total: $6,203.79


The Decision Process
The 15x incorporates technology that is leaps and bounds ahead of the Dell 1530 (the only other laptop I seriously considered) and offers additional upgradability/expandability. I opted for the Blu-Ray on the news that HD-DVD is no more. I probably could have waited for sales volumes to go up and upgraded later for less money but in general my experience is that the more installed by factory the fewer problems later. The RAM I admit was a waste as I probably only needed 2 Gig and it would have been cheaper to add another 2 Gig later from a reseller. I chose the 1200p over Packer's 720p and I am hoping that's not a mistake. After reading some exceedingly bad reviews of AW's customer service/support I opted for the the 3 yr service plan to hopefully counter any problems. Since AW has been aquired by Dell I am hopeful the customer serivce will be on par with them which I have always found outstanding. Although the internal audio card was probably more than adequate I chose the external X-Fi card as I am going to try to use this as a desktop replacement and want to ensure the maximum performance / playability for simulation and FPS games. I will also end up using the laptop for some business applications. I travel almost continuously so the portability and perfomance are key as I hate tranfering data / using two systems.

The Order Process
A few things jumped out at me as I clicked my retirement away. As a neophyte I could have used some more online info embedded into their site but I opted not to call or chat with one of their sales agents and did external searches for more info. I think it is very low class to charge someone spending what Alienware is charging for shipping. The credit card processing should be a little quicker but I am guessing this is the result of legal advice regarding liability and not a lack of customer service. The build time seems a little long to me but I am hoping it will be more than worth it.

I will make an update to this once the laptop is actually here.

18 months later....

So 18 months later and here is an update:

So once I actually received the laptop...which took forever (think it was around 6 or 8 weeks) out of the box looked pretty good. There was the tiniest of hairline cracks next to the hinge though on the laptop lid but I could not let this stop me as I travel a lot.

Over the course of the year the crack slowly grew and grew, becoming more unsightly and starting to allow the lid to pull away from the screen when opening.

Eventually the laptop started to not "wake up" and stopped running my external monitor so it was time to call AW.

I called, the did a remote diagnostic and informed me that I must send it to them as they had to disassembe it to replace the lid. They said it would take 12 days to turn it around. I sent it in Oct 13 and it arrived Oct 15.

It is now Dec. 14 as of this writing; 63 days later and I don't have my laptop back.

I started calling about Nov 6 as I had been out of the country (I travel ALOT!). They said I had never shipped it. So the next 2 days was proving to them that I shipped and that Houston signed for it. Then Houston just never gave them an update. About a week or 10 days later they said that they needed a new video card but there were none available and they were going to upgrade it but that there were none of the 9900's available. A week or 10 days later still no update from Houston and no one knew what was going on. Finally after lots and lots of screaming (I had all my data on here for my business etc.) they offered to send me the hard drive...it only took another 15 days to get that. Finally I have had enough and they are refunding my entire amount (less opened software?!) and that should be credited back to my credit card in 6 days...that was about 2 weeks ago.

Alienware has a visually stunning laptop. In the end though their customer service was soo unbelievably horrible that they could not PAY me to own their product. I need a performance laptop that a company will stand behind.

I am putting a Sager NP 8690 on order today. Totally tricked out and higher performance than the alienware 15x for $3753...I'll put the other $2500 in my pocket...lesson learned.




NP8690

- Display: 15.6" Full HD LED Display with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080)[+$60.00]
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-920XM Processor Extreme Edition ( 45nm, 8MB L3 Cache, 2.0GHz )[+$755.00]
- Video & Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 Video Memory
- Operating System: Genuine MS Windows® 7 Ultimate 32/64-Bit Edition[+$95.00]
- Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 2GB[+$55.00]
- Primary Hard Disk Drive: 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive[+$60.00]
- Optical Drive: 2X BD-R Blu-ray Burner/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software[+$325.00]
- Wireless Network Card: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300AGN - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
- Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth V2.1 Module
- Primary Battery: Smart Li-Polymer Battery Pack
- Integrated Security Device: Fingerprint Reader
- Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition[+$255.00]
- Warranty: Sager 3 Year Limited Parts & Labor Warranty + 30 days No Dead Pixel Insurance[+$349.00]
- Carrying Bag: Standard Carrying Bag

Sub-Total3,753.00