During a press conference on the first official day of CES in Las Vegas, PC powerhouse Dell announced a new Alienware ultraportable gaming notebook.
The Alienware M11x notebook, featuring an 11.6-inch screen, uses both integrated graphics and an added NVIDIA GT335M GPU. It's easy to switch to the NVIDIA GPU by using a process that takes just two seconds while a user remains logged into the computer.
An HDMI port lets the notebook connect directly into an HDTV -- it also has DisplayPort and VGA ports, so it can also be connected to larger computer monitors.
If owners use the lower-graphics function mode on the notebook, it can have more than six hours battery life. When using the higher-powered NVIDIA GPU for gaming at higher resolution, the notebook has around two hours of battery life.
Additional hardware specs of the device were not disclosed, with Dell expected to release more details prior to launch.
Dell expects to release the notebook this spring for less than $1,000.
I applaud Dell for switching things up with Alienware, as the company is better known for manufacturing powerful, yet expensive and oversized notebooks in the past. This is a step in the right direction, but potential customers may have to make some costly upgrades from the $999 base model if seeking an even better gaming experience.
Looks like we'll have to wait until the final specs are revealed in the next few months to make any definitive judgements on the product, but it certainly has some good potential.
