Dell Alienware M11x 11in gaming notebook

Apart from lacking an optical drive, the M11x's most visible flaw is its screen. Even with its LED backlight on full, it's so glossy that you'll spend more time looking at your reflection than Narcissus. The viewing angle isn't great either. And with a bezel running a half-inch around the sides and an inch top and bottom, it's obvious that the screen has been constrained at 11.6in to squeeze the most out of the GeForce GT 335M.

Audio options can be configured to deliver a 5.1 surround output

One final issue is the lack of Nvidia Optimus to provide automated switching between integrated and discrete graphics. Even though there's a simple function key to switch, it's easy to forget, and carry on working while the GT 335M chews through the battery.

The test system came with the upgraded SU3700 Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM (adding £120 to the base price). Testing was carried out in the M11x's overclocked mode, which speeds up the SU4100 and SU7300 from 1.3GHz to 1.73GHz through a simple BIOS selection, and is covered under Dell's one-year warranty.

The PCMark Vantage charts show the Mx11 performs excellently against its ultra-portable peers, but highlights the SU7300 as a bottleneck compared to the 2010 Intel Core processors, as seen in our recent review of the Acer Timeline X 4820TG.

Using Reg Hardware's PCMark Vantage loop test, and turning off the AlienFX lighting, the M11x lasted 3 hours and 11 minutes with the GT 335M switched on. Reverting to integrated graphics, but still overclocked, the 8-cell lithium ion battery lasted an impressive 5 hours 23 minutes, which corroborates Dell's theoretical 8 hours and 39 minutes during lighter use and, presumably, with no overclocking.

Power saving options can drag out the battery life for less demanding use

Battery tests and PCMarks are one thing, but the M11x's USP is gameplay. The M11x scored 6,294 in 3DMark 06 and 2,690 in 3DMark Vantage Performance, albeit using a monitor for Vantage's required 1280 x 1024 resolution. But benchmarks are for number crunchers. The real tests came in-game, at the full 1366 x 768 resolution, and recorded using FRAPS.