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Alienware M17: you pay for what you get
You're probably wondering what an Alienware M17 costs. I sure was. But there's no single answer. It's basically $2000 dollars or more. When you buy one, you pick and choose your options as if you were buying a car. But make no mistake: you are buying a high-end power machine. You are going to pay for what you get. And you're probably not going to come in under $2000 if you're the kind of guy who's buying an Alienware. The M17 is not the system for people looking for a deal.
The most outrageous option is to pay $49 for a back-up CD. I think that crazy ribbed lid up there in the picture costs extra. That might have been pretty cool when I was fourteen. One option is a little silly: colored keyboard lights for $25. The keyboard I got was blue. It glowed coolly. In a movie, it's the keyboard you would use to control the cryogenic chamber.
I thought you got to choose between blue, red, and green keyboard lights. I was wrong. But I didn't know this until the product manager from Alienware tracked me down.
Read how that conversation went after the jump.
At first, I was a bit concerned when I heard the product manager wanted to talk to me. I thought I might be in trouble. I'd confessed to Alienware that I wasn't a normal hardware reviewer. Maybe they had changed their minds. Maybe they were worried I was just going to write a series of jokey and only borderline informative blog entries instead of a real review.
The product manager's first question to me was what behchmarks I was going to run. I told him I wasn't a normal hardware reviewer, since he apparently hadn't heard. He seemed okay with that. He kept asking me if I had any questions. I didn't. He asked me what games I'd installed. I ran down the list. He asked if I had any questions. I didn't. He told me they're all gamers at Alienware, which is something I hear nearly every time I talk to anyone in the games industry: "We're all gamers," they tell me. Which is pretty cool, since that's what I am, too. He asked if I had any questions. I told him I didn't.
"Will you do me a favor, Tim?"
"Sure."
"Do you like Left 4 Dead?"
"I do. Sure."
"Play Left 4 Dead on that M17 for me. But I have a request."
"Sure."
"I want you to turn the lights out. Can you do that?"
"Okay. You want me to play Left 4 Dead with the lights out."
I was afraid he was about to tell me to wear something special. Or even worse, maybe he was about to tell me to play naked. I wasn't sure I liked where this was going.
"Yes. And I want you to do something else for me."
Uh-oh.
"Do it with the keyboard red. You have to experience it to believe it."
Phew. Wait, what? They shipped me an M17 with a blue keyboard, which makes it the thing in my house that most looks like it should be on a spaceship. Second place would be my toothbrush.
"Red?" I asked the product manager.
"Yeah. Red. With the lights out. Will you do that for me?"
"My keyboard is blue."
"Ahh," he purred. "Let me show you something."
So the product manager pointed out the command to cycle the keyboard's colored lights. They go from blue to green to red to off. Pretty nifty. In case you're wondering - I know I was - the lit up blue alien head on the lid of the computer doesn't change colors. He's always blue. I also wondered how much battery power those lights were sucking. Could I boost the battery life while playing a game from an hour to an hour and two minutes?
I was on a Painkiller kick at the time, so instead I later played that in the dark, with the keyboard turned red. I hoped he wouldn't mind. And, yeah, I guess it was pretty cool. Truth be told, I think Painkiller would be pretty cool in the dark even if the keyboard was lit up pink. Heck, it's pretty cool even without a lit up keyboard. I guess if someone else was watching, it might have thrown some sort of eerie underlighting onto my face. Dario Argento would be proud.
Okay, maybe it is worth $25. What Alienware is figuring is that once you're resigned to dropping a few grand into a high-end gaming laptop, you're not going to want to look back one day and wish you'd gotten the lit-up keyboard. You're going to just tack on another $25 to prevent that day from ever happening.
But I will tell you one thing, and this is important: I like the M17 enough that I had decided I was going to buy it. When the review period was up, I decided I was going to pay Alienware instead of sending it back. Not necessarily because it was practical for me to buy a two-grand gaming laptop. But because I liked it that much.
Tomorrow: Just how much did I like it?
(Click here for the previous Alienware M17 game diary.)
By Felipe 058 at 2:57 PM ON 06/25/09
You know, I've always had a thing for Alienware computers. They can be damn powerful beasts, and on top of that they look frakking awesome. But they're also incredibly expensive. I suppose it's like choosing between an iPod and a Zune; either one would be an excellent choice, but nine times out of ten you're going to buy the iPod because it looks cooler. Well, actually that's not an entirely accurate comparison since the 120 GB Zune and iPod both cost about $250. I guess using cars would've been a more accurate example... Anyway, when it comes right down to it, the only question you have to ask youself is, "Am I willing to shell out the extra cash for it to look awesome?"
By Balasarius at 3:12 PM ON 06/25/09
He's right. It's very fucking unlikely I'm going to blow $3k on 12lb. desktop replacement.
But IF I did...
I'd pay another $25 for the glowy keyboard.
By AndrewM at 3:46 PM ON 06/25/09
They should also have an extra option to make the speakers produce a VROOOM car noise when the CPU activity level is high.
By Felipe 058 at 3:48 PM ON 06/25/09
I have to add something else, Tom. Maybe it's the M17 making you giddy an' all that, but I've been noticing an increase in your frequency of grammatical errors since around the time you started this set of diaries. And I'm not talking about the intentional, silly errors but the actual ones that come from not paying attention to what you're doing. Or maybe they're intentionally made to seem unintentional... Hmmm...
By Old Man Dotes at 4:37 PM ON 06/25/09
...Or MAYBE... Just maybe... It's the alienware AI writing the review, and Tom has been dead since he opened the box and the chest-burster got him...
Hey, it could happen!
By Tim at 4:41 PM ON 06/25/09
Tom, I can just see you playing Painkiller in the dark! If we play an internet multiplayer game at some point in the future, can I ask you turn out al the lights at your house? Will you do that for me?
By Scott King at 4:57 PM ON 06/25/09
So I read that all of that and you didn't even try it out yet? These posts are becoming more or more useless.
By Felipe 058 at 5:13 PM ON 06/25/09
Old Man Dotes, I think you may be on to something! The Alienware product manager called him "Tim"! Either that's the M17's AI's name (!), or the guy cares so little about journalists that he doesn't bother to learn their names. I find the latter unlikely, though; why would the PM go to see if T(o/i)m needed assistance if he didn't care about t(o/i)m? Or Tom (the real Tom) really is becoming more careless; after all, the 'i' and 'o' keys are right next to each other. Or maybe this is all a clever ruse being created by the M17's AI! The Starbucks in the picture from yesterday's diary looked to good to be true; I've NEVER seen one like that before. The AI must've fabricated it!
By Tom Chick at 6:03 PM ON 06/25/09
Just to fuel the fire when it comes to speculating about an M17 chestburster: the default case is called the "Ripley". TRUE STORY!
By Will at 6:21 PM ON 06/25/09
So did the product manager actually call you Tim?
By dingus at 6:46 PM ON 06/25/09
I like this column. It reminds me of a Shoot Club column.
By EE at 7:38 PM ON 06/25/09
I agree.
By StarMoonCali at 9:42 PM ON 06/25/09
I have the older m17x and Ill admit - it rocks except for two things: 1) it came with Vista - i know - pity me, and 2) the thing is FREAKING HUGE. You need a special backpack just to carry the thing around! And never EVER go anywhere without the power cord. You have 30, MAYBE 40 min of battery life on it. Other than that - its awesome. ;-)
By checkers at 10:32 PM ON 06/25/09
OK, it's not that I dislike this conversational not-a-review review style, but please tomorrow include in your article the reasons you liked this laptop, rather than just some funny jokes. Because some of us hope this series turns out informative as well as entertaining!
By space wallaby at 11:46 PM ON 06/25/09
The funniest thing is that it'd be more portable (and a lot cheaper) to just carry around a normal laptop, an anglepoise lamp and a box of coloured lightbulbs. :)
By intruder at 3:41 AM ON 06/26/09
I got a keyboard that can be lit from Logitech (G15). I love it. My mouse also has a light (Razer Deathadder). It just looks so stylish. :)
Sure it's a gimmick but a nice one.
By Chijts at 6:44 AM ON 06/26/09
"The funniest thing is that it'd be more portable (and a lot cheaper) to just carry around a normal laptop, an anglepoise lamp and a box of coloured lightbulbs. :)"
Pimp my PC!
I think the alien man was trying to strain Tom's eyes by playing in the dark, for some sort of twisted scheme that has yet to be revealed.
By Mihos at 11:37 AM ON 06/28/09
I am concidering buying this also. On my trips I am even going as far as taking the PS3 with me. I did notice they give you a free upgrade to Windows 7 when you order, but I still might just wait until I can order it pre-installed. Once I shovel my software on there, reloading is a pain.
I am more interested in its performance also. Especially network and I didn't see if you had the solid state HDD or not.
By Caddish at 11:20 PM ON 06/28/09
Please don't buy such a huge laptop, a Clevo M860TU/Sager NP8662 is almost as powerfull, much more cheap and portable, less flashy and as a good build quality and cooling system (Alienware used to rebrand clevo laptop until recently) Clevo has a whole line of desktop replacement usually cheaper than alienware equivalent.
By checkers at 9:01 AM ON 06/29/09
Did you ever post the last part of this series?
checkers:
Did you ever post the last part of this series?...More »