Reviews - Dell Alienware M11x R2 notebook review

[TooNice]

Have no idea why people want 14" + laptops!

That one's easy. Not everyone has the space (or want to allocate a space) for a desktop. It's not a big deal carrying a 14" + laptop once every few months/years.

[kingpotnoodle]

That one's easy. Not everyone has the space (or want to allocate a space) for a desktop. It's not a big deal carrying a 14" + laptop once every few months/years.

Some laptops never leave the house, I know plenty of people who have them because they don't have room for a desk or just so they can sit on the sofa with a computer... (although my personal dream is a desk at sofa height)

[oolon]

Understand why people would not want a desktop. However many 14" models have huge edges arround the screen and the same resolution as 12" models, even the keyboards have plastic edges arround them, so it makes me wonder why anyone would buy them as they are no better than a smaller model. This is my 4th laptop first was a huge X series thinkpad because it was the only thing thats 1280x1024 back 10 years ago, however it was a brick so heavy to carry arround I left it at home most of the time but it got stolen the insurance bought me a Sony C1 picture book and a saw the light! Small was the new large! New for old is great!

[kingpotnoodle]

Understand why people would not want a desktop. However many 14" models have huge edges arround the screen and the same resolution as 12" models, even the keyboards have plastic edges arround them, so it makes me wonder why anyone would buy them as they are no better than a smaller model. This is my 4th laptop first was a huge X series thinkpad because it was the only thing thats 1280x1024 back 10 years ago, however it was a brick so heavy to carry arround I left it at home most of the time but it got stolen the insurance bought me a Sony C1 picture book and a saw the light! Small was the new large! New for old is great!

There are people (mainly older but I know at least one ~30 yr old) who would prefer a larger screen with low resolution so that they can see things properly... not everyone has the vision to comfortably use a screen with high dpi.

[Noli]

Some laptops never leave the house, I know plenty of people who have them because they don't have room for a desk or just so they can sit on the sofa with a computer... (although my personal dream is a desk at sofa height)

Hmmm, think I may be able to help you there - google "coffee table"

[kingpotnoodle]

Hmmm, think I may be able to help you there - google "coffee table"

Haha... not quite, that means sitting forward to use it, it needs to hang over the sofa so you can sit back.

[matty-hodgson]

This?

[kingpotnoodle]

http://www.williambartlettcollections.co.uk/sale/images/1174_sofa_desk.jpg

This?

If only it didn't look like something from Gran's house! But yes, that! I want to put my whole desktop on it... hmmm modding project, build the PC into the cabinet!!

[TooNice]

There are people (mainly older but I know at least one ~30 yr old) who would prefer a larger screen with low resolution so that they can see things properly... not everyone has the vision to comfortably use a screen with high dpi.

That. I remember building a good desktop for a friend only to find a few months later that they (mainly the gf) went back to an the old one. Why? The old one ran the monitor at lower resolution (non-native, so it looks really crap to me), and she found the HD resolution on a 23" monitor to be too small.

Taught them about Ctrl++ for browser zoom, and how to change resolution (if they really wanted). Not sure which option they went for in the end, but there you go. I think they are on the in the late 30s or early 40s, capable of safely drive, but still favour bigger characters.

The other thing for us enthusiast is that there is a big difference between the available GPU wise on the average 12" and average 14". I also think that you are also more likely to find higher resolution 14" than 12". And frankly speaking, I'd rather game on a 14" than 12" even at equal resolution.

[Noli]

Haha... not quite, that means sitting forward to use it, it needs to hang over the sofa so you can sit back.

Yeah I knew what you meant but I couldn't resist taking a crack! For productive work (multitasking/lots of typing) I just couldn't do anything on a sofa - too uncomfortable, magic desk or not. Only thing I would consider on sofa (computing wise) is web browsing, and I hate to admit it, but something like an ipad is probably ideal for that rather than a lappy.

[baius]

And frankly speaking, I'd rather game on a 14" than 12" even at equal resolution.

Second that except to say it depends on the game.

Crysis, which I tried on my 12" HP TX2, looked too small. (& it ran terribly on the Radeon 780g .) On my 15" it looked much, much nicer.

Age of Empires, Sims 1, etc, are perfectly playable at 12"; nevertheless, I even prefer these at 15".

( I prefer Crysis on my 24" (Dell) screen to my 100"-or-so projector. So, for me, it's not a case of bigger is always better with gaming. /)