Alienware M18x Intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz w/Turbo Boost review: Alienware M18x Intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz w/Turbo Boost

While 17-inch desktop replacement laptops with decent gaming performance are easy to find, if not exactly common, to truly move into the realm of mobile home entertainment center, there's nothing like an even-larger 18-inch screen. We've recently seen both 18-inch multimedia laptops (the Acer Ethos 8951) and 17-inch hard-core gaming laptops (the Origin EON17-S), but the new Alienware M18x combines the best of both worlds in a powerhouse 18-incher with the muscle for serious gaming.

8.2

Alienware M18x Intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz w/Turbo Boost

The Good

The new <b>Alienware M18x</b> is built around a stunning 18-inch display, with copious configuration options for killer performance, including overclocked CPUs and dual video cards.

The Bad

The M18x starts expensive and goes up from there, and for that kind of money, we expect a better design than the aging Alienware dorm-room chic.

The Bottom Line

Alienware again pushes the boundaries of laptop performance (and price) with high-end parts and a great-for-gaming 18-inch screen.

Of course, that kind of hybrid doesn't come cheap, and the M18x starts at $1,999, while our tricked-out review unit added up to $5,071. For that you get a quad-core Intel Core i7-2920XM CPU, dual Nvidia GTX 580M GPUs, and an impressive 16GB of RAM. At the lower end of the price scale, you're paying more for the brand name and custom chassis than anything else; this is clearly a go-big-or-go-home kind of laptop (Alienware's 11-inch M11x, in contrast, is really designed to present well at its under-$800 starting price).

Related links
• Origin EON17-S review
• Acer Aspire Ethos AS8951G review
• Alienware M11x review

The huge screen makes a surprising difference over slightly smaller 17-inch ones, and if you're eschewing a flat-screen TV in a den, dorm room, or vacation home, the M18x can be an all-in-one entertainment center, especially as it has a separate HDMI-in port for your game console, cable box, or other device.

The biggest drawback, beyond the heart-stopping prices, is the Alienware design itself. Despite making small evolutionary jumps over the past several generations, this is still a big black box with a glowing alien head stuck on the back. It's what we call dorm-room chic, and for $5,000, it's not wrong to expect something a little more sophisticated.

Beyond that, it's been tremendous fun to pull out every high-end PC game release from the past year and run them through the M18x's giant screen with the graphics settings cranked to high.