This is a combined review from Jaycat and HellAwa8s_
Ordering
Myself and HellAwa8s didn't do the ordering, our boss did. Can't comment on the customer service or impressions of the entire ordering thing, except to say my boss did it on the website and had no problems. Ordered 11/24/2004.
Phase Game
We patiently waited in Phase 2 from 11/24/04 to 1/04/05. Almost 35 straight days of refreshing the Alienware order status page showed Phase 2. We called a few times, were told AW was waiting for parts to come in (video card, lcd). We knew that the phases listed on the order status page weren't always up-to-date. Anytime we called AW, got a courteous service, although sometimes it seemed like they didn't all get the memo about the parts being back-ordered, the quality control timeline, etc. Overall, no complaints.
Ordered 11/24/2004
Phase 2 11/24/2004
Phase 9 01/04/2005
Phase 12 01/05/2005
Phase 13 01/07/2005
Phase 14 01/10/2005 *Shipped
Phase 69 01/15/2005 *Arrived
Opening the Box
Met my coworker at our bosses house on Monday afternoon (Jan 17th, also my birthday!) and picked up the boxes. Took it straight home and opened it all up.
Other people in this forum have already posted awesome reviews (AlienRex), so we will try and write about other stuff.
Size:
This thing is huge... breathtakingly so, biggest laptop i've ever seen.. by FAR. Feels really chunky, solid. Case doesn't twist much, LCD flips up smoothly. It's also quite heavy (for me, anyway, my forearms aren't as well developed as yours). Wouldn't be able to have it on my lap for very long without my legs becoming numb.
Mousepad: really neat, comes in a metal tin. It's a three piece mousepad; black rubber "holder" mat, metal surface which fits nicely in the holder and a mouse cable clip. The mat doesn't slide around on my desk, and the mouse glides very smoothly over it. Nice Alienware logo ablazened on the top, nice touch.
Speed:
Very fast, haven't had time to benchmark, but blows my desktop system out of the water.
(p4 2.2ghz, 768megs, radeon 9800 pro). Time from power-off to Windows XP desktop; about 60 seconds. That includes loading up all the taskbar stuff.
Battlefield1942 (With all the DC stuff); loaded "El Alamein" map in less than 30 seconds. Smooth progress bar the whole time, BIG jump at the end.
Doom 3 runs silky-smooth, and all sexy like
Battery life:
Haven't tested yet. I assume it'll be ~ hour or so. The power box is quite large, about twice the size of my Compaq N610C's power. Long power cord, plug into laptop looks proprietary, has 4 pins kind of like a miniature XLR audio plug meets a PS/2 port. Like a Din5 AT keyboard or whatever.
Screen:
Got the 1440x900 screen, good-looking screen(not XGLASS or whatever you want to call it).
Res is a little low, but I'll use a monitor for any high-res stuff. No stuck pixels, no
visible shearing or anything like that in games. Crisp and clean, lots of extra options with the NVidia drivers.
I can see the little USB camera hole, but since we didn't get the bigger screen with it, the usb camera isn't there.
Finish:
Very clean paintjob, no blemishes of any kind, interesting color, everything fits as it
should, very tight construction. Smooth surface, almost reflective.
Keyboard/Touchpad:
No flex whatsoever, my main annoyance is that the period key is at the top of the number
pad, but i'm not going to lose any sleep over that. Keys are nice and solid, no clicking, short travel keys.
Hell_: I hate touchpads, this one is no exception. Seems nice and all, but I'll never use it.
Jaycat: I love touchpads, this one is awesome. Scroller on the left makes it nice to use, quick response. NVidia drivers support mouse gestures and the
touchpad has enough space to accomodate throwing and spinning.
Speakers/Sound:
Internal speakers sound great, good spatial projection, not much bass at all. Audio DJ controls on the front work great. Even though the LCD is down, sound from the top speakers still leaks out and it's quite hissy. Fix: open the LCD lid slightly.
Accessories:
Backpack : Huge bag, all kinds of pockets and such, very well-built. 7700 fits snuggly, no room for movement. Nice touch, not sure if this was a design accident or just a happy coincidence, but with the wireless PC card, there's enough room for the laptop to fit vertically with the card popping out. The zipper on the notebook portion of the laptop is about 2 inches higher than the top of the wireless card. Nice bubble packing, hard plastic interior. Plenty of room for cables. The cellphone holder (with alienhead logo) is a nice touch.
Belkin 802.11abg card: Decent wireless card, drivers could've been better put-together,
overall a painless install.
T-Shirt : What can I say, it's a shirt...
Hat : Again.. it's a hat, with an alien head on it...
Mouse : Intellimouse 4.0, seems a little cheap.. Fairly accurate though. Chunky roll on the wheel.
Folders+Manuals+etc : Also very well finished, more companies need to do this.
Benchmarks for Doom3/BF/3dMark coming soon. Also audio performance benchmarks (Reason/ProTools) and 3d rendering (Truspace) coming soon...
Any questions or requests for photos?
Ordering
Myself and HellAwa8s didn't do the ordering, our boss did. Can't comment on the customer service or impressions of the entire ordering thing, except to say my boss did it on the website and had no problems. Ordered 11/24/2004.
Phase Game
We patiently waited in Phase 2 from 11/24/04 to 1/04/05. Almost 35 straight days of refreshing the Alienware order status page showed Phase 2. We called a few times, were told AW was waiting for parts to come in (video card, lcd). We knew that the phases listed on the order status page weren't always up-to-date. Anytime we called AW, got a courteous service, although sometimes it seemed like they didn't all get the memo about the parts being back-ordered, the quality control timeline, etc. Overall, no complaints.
Ordered 11/24/2004
Phase 2 11/24/2004
Phase 9 01/04/2005
Phase 12 01/05/2005
Phase 13 01/07/2005
Phase 14 01/10/2005 *Shipped
Phase 69 01/15/2005 *Arrived
Opening the Box
Met my coworker at our bosses house on Monday afternoon (Jan 17th, also my birthday!) and picked up the boxes. Took it straight home and opened it all up.
Other people in this forum have already posted awesome reviews (AlienRex), so we will try and write about other stuff.
Size:
This thing is huge... breathtakingly so, biggest laptop i've ever seen.. by FAR. Feels really chunky, solid. Case doesn't twist much, LCD flips up smoothly. It's also quite heavy (for me, anyway, my forearms aren't as well developed as yours). Wouldn't be able to have it on my lap for very long without my legs becoming numb.
Mousepad: really neat, comes in a metal tin. It's a three piece mousepad; black rubber "holder" mat, metal surface which fits nicely in the holder and a mouse cable clip. The mat doesn't slide around on my desk, and the mouse glides very smoothly over it. Nice Alienware logo ablazened on the top, nice touch.
Speed:
Very fast, haven't had time to benchmark, but blows my desktop system out of the water.
(p4 2.2ghz, 768megs, radeon 9800 pro). Time from power-off to Windows XP desktop; about 60 seconds. That includes loading up all the taskbar stuff.
Battlefield1942 (With all the DC stuff); loaded "El Alamein" map in less than 30 seconds. Smooth progress bar the whole time, BIG jump at the end.
Doom 3 runs silky-smooth, and all sexy like
Battery life:
Haven't tested yet. I assume it'll be ~ hour or so. The power box is quite large, about twice the size of my Compaq N610C's power. Long power cord, plug into laptop looks proprietary, has 4 pins kind of like a miniature XLR audio plug meets a PS/2 port. Like a Din5 AT keyboard or whatever.
Screen:
Got the 1440x900 screen, good-looking screen(not XGLASS or whatever you want to call it).
Res is a little low, but I'll use a monitor for any high-res stuff. No stuck pixels, no
visible shearing or anything like that in games. Crisp and clean, lots of extra options with the NVidia drivers.
I can see the little USB camera hole, but since we didn't get the bigger screen with it, the usb camera isn't there.
Finish:
Very clean paintjob, no blemishes of any kind, interesting color, everything fits as it
should, very tight construction. Smooth surface, almost reflective.
Keyboard/Touchpad:
No flex whatsoever, my main annoyance is that the period key is at the top of the number
pad, but i'm not going to lose any sleep over that. Keys are nice and solid, no clicking, short travel keys.
Hell_: I hate touchpads, this one is no exception. Seems nice and all, but I'll never use it.
Jaycat: I love touchpads, this one is awesome. Scroller on the left makes it nice to use, quick response. NVidia drivers support mouse gestures and the
touchpad has enough space to accomodate throwing and spinning.
Speakers/Sound:
Internal speakers sound great, good spatial projection, not much bass at all. Audio DJ controls on the front work great. Even though the LCD is down, sound from the top speakers still leaks out and it's quite hissy. Fix: open the LCD lid slightly.
Accessories:
Backpack : Huge bag, all kinds of pockets and such, very well-built. 7700 fits snuggly, no room for movement. Nice touch, not sure if this was a design accident or just a happy coincidence, but with the wireless PC card, there's enough room for the laptop to fit vertically with the card popping out. The zipper on the notebook portion of the laptop is about 2 inches higher than the top of the wireless card. Nice bubble packing, hard plastic interior. Plenty of room for cables. The cellphone holder (with alienhead logo) is a nice touch.
Belkin 802.11abg card: Decent wireless card, drivers could've been better put-together,
overall a painless install.
T-Shirt : What can I say, it's a shirt...
Hat : Again.. it's a hat, with an alien head on it...
Mouse : Intellimouse 4.0, seems a little cheap.. Fairly accurate though. Chunky roll on the wheel.
Folders+Manuals+etc : Also very well finished, more companies need to do this.
Benchmarks for Doom3/BF/3dMark coming soon. Also audio performance benchmarks (Reason/ProTools) and 3d rendering (Truspace) coming soon...
Any questions or requests for photos?
