m15x battery life

I used to lurk these boards back when I owned a m9700. I'm extremely close to biting the bullet and ordering a m15x. Question though to those that have one... What's the battery life?

Also, do you guys think the 1920x1200 is too small for a 15.4"? I would probably go for 1440x900 because 1920x1200 is small enough for me on a 17". Thinking about it on a 15.4" gives me a headache.

To those of you that have a m15x already, are you happy with it? Build quality still top notch?

Good point on the interpolation issue, but I can generally still see fuzziness from pixel mapping at lower res, even within the same ratio which is supposed to minimize the issue. I just hope the battery life isn't atrocious. I had been debating lately about getting a macbook pro since my gaming is very phasic and I generally haven't had a lot of time for games recently, but the more I think about it, the more I would probably be unhappy. Especially when Guild Wars 2 and some other games come out later this year or next.

On another note. It's nice to see Alienware is finally offering On Site repair through their warranty. I'm assuming that has something to do with Dell.

Well, I'm not any expert on the matter, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that interpolation issues and fuzziness are "lessened" by using a resolution with the same ratio but not excluded entirely. I'm using a 24" LCD with native res of 1920x1200 and I can still very much see fuzziness from interpolation issues when I switch to 1440x900.

I just read some more and it seems that the image needs to be an integer factor of the alternate resolution in order to minimize the interpolation effect (not eradicate). The example given was 800x600 and 1600x1200 where 800x2 equals 1600, etc.. That way you have a precise block of 4 pixels representing one pixel. You don't have this when going from 1920x1200 to 1440x900. There's no geometric shape that can be formed by multiple pixels that can adequately approximate the sharpness you would get from a single pixel. I mean, 1920x1200 and 1440x900 are multiples of 480x300 but I don't think a pixel grouping at the lower res can approximate a single pixel well enough to fool your eyes so to speak. At least, I can notice it very easily at the lower res on this current monitor, but that may be due to the fact that it's 24" and allows me to see errors more easily.

Archalien, shoot me some tech links on the issue if you find them. I wasn't able to find anything indicating the issue could be completely resolved, regardless of integer factors and/or aspect ratio. If what you're saying is true, then any resolution with an aspect ratio of 16:10 (1920x1200,1680x1050,1440x900,1280,800) would retain sharpness and clarity, regardless of the native resolution of the monitor and that's just not the case for LCD's. Anytime you can't 1:1 pixel map and are forced to approximate a single pixel with multiple pixels, you're going to lose sharpness and clarity, even within the same aspect ratio. I'm not talking about distortion of the image such as going from 4:3 to 16:10. I'm talking about the fuzzy quality. Take a 1920x1200 native res screen and bump it down to 1280x800 and I'm sure you'll see what I mean. Some people are more sensitive to the distortion than others. I think you might be only talking about aspect ratio stretching of the image and I'm not referring to that at all.


Cancer, thx. I wonder if the new 2.5/2.6 Ghz chips are Penryn's? If so, that should provide an additional 15% battery life or so. I had read another report somewhere that stated 2+ hr battery life, but I guess I'll find out when it gets here.

1920/1200 = 1.6
1680/1050 = 1.6
1440/900 = 1.6
1280/800 = 1.6

All are 16:10 resolutions. Where's my math breaking down?

How do you figure a 1440x900 is being resized to fit your native 1920x1200 screen if it's not being interpolated? The fuzzy phenomenon is a common side effect of this type of pixel mapping where you map one pixel to multiple pixels so you can display a lower res image across a high res screen. Otherwise how is it being displayed if you don't have black bars around the image? There's a multitude of links on the matter. Here's one for you to check out: