Alienware Aurora m9700

Alienware Aurora m9700

Overview

Today we bring you an in-depth review of the mighty Alienware Aurora m9700. Featuring extreme gaming performance and a price tag to match, we'll see just how badass it is, and what you can expect from a laptop of this caliber.

Sporting an AMD Turion 64 processor with 1GB total graphics memory between the two NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900GS GPUs and a snazzy blue finish and alien motif, you know this is going to be a good one. Got your attention yet? Follow me!

Design

Portability

Measuring 15.65" x 11.75 " x 1.85" and weighing in at a very conservative figure of 8.50 lbs, the m9700 is not the most portable laptop on the block. I was surprised when I unboxed the laptop, it felt like I was lugging a World War II-era .30 caliber ammo can. This should be taken with

a grain of salt though, as the Aurora m9700 is more of a desktop replacement than anything else. The people that will buy this laptop most likely won't move it around too much.

Case and Design

After I unboxed the m9700, I have to say I was pretty impressed. Not only was the laptop friggin' huge, it was bright! I'm used to fairly bland fare when it comes to laptops- you get your typical grays and blacks and silvers, etc. The crisp blue paintjob (Conspiracy Blue, in Alienware-speak) was a breath of fresh air in this department. The color had a gloss topcoat that prevented a lot of fingerprints from

being left.

Embedded in the lid is a raised alien head logo, with blue LEDs illuminating the alien's eyes. Neat I suppose, but I'm an old fart now who's kind of over the garish LEDs and CCFLs fad that still adorn many cases. Maybe it would look cool at a LAN.

The build quality of the m9700 is top notch. It didn't feel flimsy or flexi

ble in any place like some of the other laptops we've reviewed. The lid closed into place easily and without hassle. There are also two small cutouts on the lid made of textured black plastic that look somewhat like gills or ribs.

Keyboard

The Aurora m9700 comes with a full size keyboard, including a

numbe

r pad on the right, for a total of 99 keys. The keys were silent an
d depressed easily.

The m9700 also has a bunch of Instant Access Buttons. These include shortcuts for programs such as the Internet, E-mail, Windows Media Player, Power DVD, Windows Media Center, and also function keys for Play/Pause, Skip Forward, and Skip Backward.

Touchpad

The Aurora m9700's touchpad is of average size and consists of a scroll pad and one mouse buttons, though both left click and right click were supported depending on where you p

ressed. The touchpad kind of reminded me of a MacBook Pro, but without the neutered functionality.

I found that the m9700's touchpad was pretty responsive. It

seemed to work well, though Alienware included a Logitech G5 with the laptop (this is a gaming machine after all!), so I didn't use the touchpad very much at all as a result. Alienware was even kind enough to include an Alienware branded Func gaming mousepad, which was a v

ery nice touch indeed.

Connectivity Options

The Aurora m9700 has a ton of ports - plenty of USB, Firewire, DVI, V

GA, S-Video, ExpressCard, Coaxial, you name it.

There are two speakers on the front of the laptop, the releas

e latch, and the optical drive. Nothing too out of the ordinary here.

There's a lot going on in the back of the laptop though. From left to right we have audio in, coaxial (for the TV tuner), S-Video out, and modem right alongside the GPU vent.

Next we have the DC Power jack, a spare USB port, S-Video in, a

nd something I found really cool- both DVI-D and VGA ports to ensure compatibility with any type of external monitor you could plug the m9700 into.

The right side of the laptop is devoted mostly to audio related inputs, and includes a volume scroll wheel, headphone and microphone jacks, inputs for front, surround, and center speakers, optical, and finally another USB port. I liked that the m9700 included a place for both speakers and

headphones. It's annoying to have to unplug one to use the other.

On the left of the m9700, you will see the security lock sl

ot, CPU vents, Ethernet port, two USBs, a Firewire IEEE 1394a port, memory card slot, and lastly ExpressCard. For the memory card slot, SD, MS, MSPRO, and M

MC are the supported formats.

Normally we don't include detailed shots of the bottom of our review samples, but the Aurora m9700 included a cool extra not found in most laptops: a subwoofer mounted in the bottom

casing. Pretty cool but questionable in its effectiveness.

Heat and Noise

The m9700 runs pretty quietly under normal circumstances. The single

fan o

nly spins up when it needs to, in order to keep noise levels at an absolute minimum. I noticed during longer gaming sessions that hot exhaust was literally pouring out of the back of the laptop (from the GPU vents). This is normal though considering the level of hardware Alienware has wedged

into the m9700.

Features Continued

Display

The m9700s display is very bright and crisp. The contras

t is excellent, due much to the Clearview glossy coating of the LCD. Native resolution was 1920x1200 (W

UXGA), which in my opinion is slightly too high for this size LCD (17) for daily use. If you bought this laptop primarily to game though, you would be disappointed if yo

u didnt choose the WUXGA resolution. I realized after a few hours of use that every day tasks such as checking email or writing a Word document were a little tougher than normal because I found myself squinting on occasion to see the screen. Alienware must have taken this into consideration because they offer a 1440x900 (WXG

A+) resolution for those who may not game as much.

The glossy coating definitely improves contrast and sharpness, but at the same time, there are many times where the glare and reflection is just flat out awful (which is mostly when using the m9700 is areas with high levels of light). I found that the m9700s screen looked best

when gaming at night, with the lights out. It provided a very

immersing gameplay experience with no glare.

Optical Drive

Alienware offers two optical drive options: a 24x CD-RW /

8x DVD

Combo or an 8x Dual Layer DVDRW / 24x CD-RW. The unit I reviewed here came with the latter.

The drive was quiet and in my own subjective opinion, r

an average or above average in speed.

Wi-Fi

The Aurora m9700 comes installed with a RealTek B/G wireless card and integrated Bluetooth. Within moments of configuring the card I was up and running on my ho

me wireless network. Speeds were at the 54Mbps equivalent level, and signal strength never dropped belo

w Very Good.

Battery

The standard battery that ships with the m9700 is a 6000mAh 12 cell battery operating at 14.8V. The battery clips into place in the underside of the laptop and is flush against the surface. With all the high end hardware inside the m9700, battery life suffers as a result but most users probably wont unplug this thing too often.

AC Adapter

The Alienwares AC adapter is truly enormous, so much

so that the first time one of my friends saw it, his eyes almost bugged out of his head. The cords are incredibly long too, maybe even a little too long. Good thing Alienware includes some cable management with the AC adapter, otherwise youd have a huge pile of wires on your

floor.

HP TOUCH SMART IQ 500

HP TOUCH SMART IQ 500

Want simple, easy-touch access to information, social networks, music, photos, videos, e-mail, TV? The convenience of connecting via webcam? Check out our slim and stylish, next-generation TouchSmart IQ500t series PC, which will look "at home" in any room of your home. Once you start working, listening to music, editing photos and videos, checking e-mail, and watching TV from your kitchen or family room, you'll never go back.

Interacting with your PC by directly usingyour hands instead of a peripheral is not something new, but it's not yet mainstream either. In fact, it seems like a bit of a novelty

when you first start using the TouchSmart PC. It's not until you launch HP's own TouchSmart interface that you quickly realise how useful, and how much fun, it can be.

This interface allows you to access your media libraries by dragging, holding and tapping your fingers on the screen, similar to what you can do with the iPod

Touch — although the HP doesn't support multiple inputs. It's a very easy-to-use interface (it can also read your iTunes music library) and it looks great on the PC's 22in glossy LCD screen.

We should probably talk a little about the hardware first. The Touc

hSmart PC is an all-in-one unit that's slim (it's about 6cm thick) and rests on the desk much like a fold-out photo frame. It's about 46cm tall and very different to the . It boasts a powerful configuration, which drives the 64-bit version of Windows Vista and HP's TouchSmart interface, and its performan

ce in our benchmarks was typical of a well-rounded PC. Our WorldBench 6 benchmark recorded a score of 73, while iTunes took 1min 42sec to convert 53min worth of WAV files to 192Kbps MP3s. Both results indicate that the unit will run office and multimedia applications comfortably, and it will also multitask without dragging its heels.

Running the show is a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 CPU, alo

ng with 4GB of RAM (all of which can be used as the 64-bit version of

Windows has been installed), integrated Intel (G965 Express) graphics and a 320GB hard drive (which isn't much storage space these days). You can get different configurations, of course, and prices start from $1999, which isn't too bad for a new-breed PC.

question you have to ask yourself when looking at this PC though, is "Why would I want something like that?" The answer is style. HP is hoping this PC will bridge the gap between PC technology and consumer electronics, and that users will set it up in their living room as a kiosk of sorts. Of course, the touch screen is handy when all you want to do is play m

u

sic and videos — indeed, it's liberating to be able to use your fingers to select and drag music to a playlist, or hit a few icons on the screen to start watching a DVD — and you can also use your fingers to write and draw, but you'll want to use the supplied cordless keyboard and mouse for conventional tasks such as using the Internet and office applications.

But it's not just for the home; the suitability of this PC for making presentations in a boardroom and for installing something flashy in a reception area is apparent. Its scree

n possesses wide viewing angles and reproduces colours vibrantly. For small presentations where a projector is overkill, this unit will run slideshows and videos without any hesitation.

In our tests, we had lots of fun using the touch-screen to navigate aro

un

d Windows and launch applications. The only place where the touch-screen was inaccurate was in the lower-right area of the desktop, near the System Tray (we've seen inaccuracies at the edges of screens before; for example, Fujitsu's ). You will have to calibrate it before you use it, in order to get the best results.

Although the screen isn't high definition — it comes close at 1680x1050 — we still think the TouchSmart could benefit from a Blu-ray drive and an integrated high-definition TV tuner. (A TV tuner is supplied in the IQ508 model.) These components would definitely make the TouchSmart the main focal point of a home entertainment set-up, although you co

uld

argue that its 22in screen just isn't big enough for that sort of thing. (A 27 or 30in version of this unit with built-in Blu-ray and TV tuner would be something to behold!)

The HP TouchSmart IQ500 Series is a line of "all-in-one" desktop PCs that feature an HD widescreen 22" touchscreen. The slim all-in-one PC/monitor only requires a single cord for power and uses a wireless keyboard with integrated WLAN. The pia

no-black design with espresso-toned side-panels and HP Ambient Light feature give it a stylish look while the monitor tilt and keyboard stow area provide a comfortable work area. They are an ideal choice for multimedia applications with features such as integrated webcam and microphone, NTSC/ATSC integrated tuner (upper models), hi-def widescreen, integrated premium speakers and SuperMulti DVD burner. The Intel Core2 Duo processor gives solid performance while the SATA hard drive provides ample storage. There are several options when They are also ENERGY STAR qualified, use up to 45% less energy, use 55% less metal and 35% less plastic than standard PCs. HP also offered the TouchSmart IQ800 series which most notably have a 25.5" monitor, are wall mountable and have advanced media functions. The HP TouchSmart IQ500 Series comes in 3 models; the HP TouchSmart IQ504, IQ506 and I

Q507.

Features
HP TouchSmart IQ500 PC Touchscreen Your digital life at your fingertips * Get quick, easy touch-screen access to information, entertainment, and social networks1 * Simplify access to photos, videos, music, and applications with the HP TouchSmart software

Slim, stylish, next-generation PC * Plug and play with a single power cord * Go wireless with the wireless keyboard and integrated WLAN2 * Stow the keyboard when not in use to free up desk space * Tilt the screen for maximum viewing comfort * Set a mood in the room and see your keyboard in the dark with the HP Ambient Light feature * Accent your décor with the sleek, piano-black design with espresso-toned side-panels
* Have more fun with photos videos and music * Hold video chats 1 with the built-in webcam and microphone * Watch, pause, rewind, and record live TV with the dua

l-format NTSC and over-air ATSC high-def3 TV tuner * Enjoy your favorite TV shows on the integrated 22" diagonal hi-def widescreen (also great for slide shows) * Get super sound through the integrated premium speakers * Burn and watch personal videos

with the built-in, slot-load SuperMulti DVD burner, or upgrade to a Blu-ray player * Get premium performance, reliability, and security with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition with Service Pack 1 * Be productive with the Intel Core2 Duo processor options * Get ample storage with the SATA hard drive configurability

The unit's built-in speakers produced fuller sound than we were expecting, and you do get a decent bass kick out of them, although they do rattle at high volumes. The volume can be adjusted via the control buttons on the right-hand side of the screen.

Interestingly, the TouchSmart doesn't have an ExpressCard slot, which

indicates that it's not entirely based on mobile technology, and this is reinforced by its 3.5in, 320GB hard drive. This drive spins at 7200rpm, so it provides good speed. A notebook hard drive, on the other hand, would probably hinder the TouchSmart's performance a littl

e, but it would save energy, too. During our tests, the TouchSmart PC consumed about 87W when running the TouchSmart interface, and 7W when the computer was shut down, but still switched on at the outlet. This is more economical than a typical PC and monitor configuration though.

For connectivity, you get integrated 802.11 draft-n, Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth 2.0, so you won't need to add anything to it in order to get the fastest possible network connection speeds. There are five USB 2.0 ports to accommodate external storage devices, but three of these are inconveniently located at the rear of the PC. You might want to plug in a USB hub to make more ports available to you. You also get an SD memory card reader, digital audio output, a mini-FireWire port, a webcam, and microphone and headphone ports. The right-hand side of the unit features a slot-loading DVD burner.

As you can see, the basic foundations of a PC are there, but the TouchSmart PC IQ500 offers a very different user experience thanks to its intuitive touch-screen interface. We like it a lot and think it's a great concept, especially for users who use a PC to primarily play music and view photos and videos.