It's smaller than I'm used to (my other car is a "17 HP) and I'm having to learn how to not have a Key pad and G-keys. But the size doesn't really matter I'm finding out. The key to immersion in a game is the audio, not necessarily the size of the screen. I'm getting totally great results with a good set of headphones or my Altec Lansing 5 pt sound system via the "1/8 plug (really loud with wooden floors). I am jazzed and now I an buying Steam games instead of Mp3s and Kindle books lately.
My one big complaint is that 1. It is a Windows computer. It glitches all over the place randomly and I even needed a special tech support session already to get the Optical drive to recognize Blueray discs. As usual, Windows was updating for the first 72 hours and it made the unboxing real lame from the get-go.
2. The "Killer wireless" suuuuuuuucks. It's killing me. I get no wifi reception 10-15 feet away from the router. Maybe the router sucks? Nope My HP gets great signal all the way in the back bedroom. Heaven forbid there should be a wall in between the router and you ... I can't even sit on the swing on the porch because I don't get enough signal to run Twitter ... Twitter!
3. The Left and right click buttons are cheezy. They were obviously an after thought. I know the little box lights up and everything, but you can't count on the thing to work when your thumb hits it. Again, my HP laptop mouse buttons feel like they were made with years of use in mind (almost 4 years now to be exact). The Alienware people are probably assuming that Gamer geeks will have a really expensive mouse ready to plug in so no biggie.
How am I supposed to kill terrorists on the spur of the moment with no external mouse, though? I mean ... some of these dark Jedi are hard enough to dismember as it is with out you missing an attack in the middle of a fight!
Also, why is the t-Pad left of center when a more comfortable position for gaming ... on a gaming laptop ... would be farther on the right? Typing would be awkward, yes, but you could have a physical kill switch close by (like my HP!!!!).
4. The Killer wireless Suuuuuuuucks. It's probably going to dump when I hit "Preview your Review" right now. I actually get a more robust internet experience using the 4G Hot spot via USB on my iPhone. What a let down. Yes it's for gaming, but you need to justify even having a wireless capability in the first place ... it's a laptop for crying out loud.
I really like the battery life. If you put it in powersaver mode, you can get some pretty good battery life out of it. I put the windows theme in "High contrast black" and turn off the Alien FX and I can add an hour onto the whole thing. If someone knows how I can "overclock" the wireless thingy and make it jam, please let me know and I'll add the star to make it a high five. If I've missed some obscure check box on some hidden utility menu (Uncheck the "Make it suck" box), contact me and I'll make the change.
In conclusion, my grand kids may be gaming on this laptop, it's that good. If you need to be portable, like me, and don't want a sissy thin and light net book, this would be the way to go. I write and blog and edit photos and design flyers and research online in a mobile setting many times, and I just couldn't do it with a battery-sucking 17" HD screen all day long. Well, you can't do it all day with this thing either, but at least it has pretty lights. The Killer Wireless sucks.
***********UPDATE 08-21-2013*************
The wireless got fixed. We stumbled on the problem when we had to fix the keyboard! The "I" key started to get real sensitive, when I'd hit the "I" key, I'd get [ii] and sometimes it would stick and I'd get [iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii}. When I'd type a bunch of "O's" I'd get [oioioioioioioio} and the same with any key around the "I" key. My Windows password had an O in it ... that was real aggravating. I had to use an external keyboard for a whole week. Finally I called Tech support.
They sent a technician to my house within 72 hours of my call and replaced the entire keyboard. When the opened it up the tech discovered that one of the wires on the wireless card was dislodged and he couldn't snap it back on. The whole thing is modular an built with repair in mind, so he had to order another Wifi card and a whole new screen because the antenna is built into the screen. Just today, 3 weeks later, another tech came over with the goods and totally disassembled the laptop. It was scary. But he put Humpty Dumpty back together again and it works. I am able to stream Amazon video from the back bedroom and websites come up amazingly faster now, I was shocked at what I'd been missing.
But sorry, Alienware, you still get four stars because of all the work that was required on such an expensive hand built machine. I once heard that all the problems you'll have with a computer happen in the first year of owning it. That sage advice has paid off. They ship parts to a repair company that comes out to your house and fixes it there instead of you sending it to Dell like the old days. Make sure you at least get the full-on one year warranty because if I hadn't, Id be typing this: "Theieie Wiiiiireiiless Suiuiuiuiuckikiks" and they'd be over there wringing their alien hands together and spending my money on spaceship parts.
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hallo:this laptop was very very good,and very very powerful,it can run all the game what i have.
and alienware's light was awesome,specially is Alien FX,it can change with your game.
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