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
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
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,
Touchpad
The
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
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
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
me wireless network. Speeds were at the 54Mbps equivalent level, and signal strength never dropped belo
w Very Good.
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.
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