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Alienware M17x R3 Laptop Review (Core i7 2630QM / 256GB SSD)

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.

Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.

New and Improved Features

  • Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
  • Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
  • Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
  • Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
  • Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
  • Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.

For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2hr 12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power.

The system took just over 16 minutes to convert a 2 hour and 12 minute high definition video file, a superb result and certainly one of the faster times we have recorded.

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22 comments

  1. Well thats damn nice. its also the price of my car mind you :p

  2. Looks a lot nicer than the earlier versions. Although I loved that 11 inch version, that was sexy. these aren’t for me, too bulky to carry about.

  3. Brilliant. Not sure id ever pay that for a laptop, but certainly made for nice reading.

  4. Gotta love twitter alerts. need my daily review fix 😉

    Very impressed with this unit, but the 15 inch one might make more physical sense. im all for desktop replacements, but it doesnt work for me. insane performance, thats without question.

  5. Id love one of these, see them on tv shows a lot (as well as apple machine obviously).

    Id be tempted to look at one, once they get the mobos replaced. When will that be? march?

  6. Wow even this machine is affected by the bloody intel mess. will it ever end. its like the end of the world, i tell ya !

  7. Its good, but they need a stronger GFX for such a high end machine.

  8. My mate has a alienware, he uses it alot, but his keyboard fell apart over 3 years. hopefully they fixed that.

  9. I read a lot of horror stories about these previous versions, google them ! I love the looks, but its hard to review long term strenght. some of these companies should let the reviewers hold onto them for months, so they can do follow ups. but they wont do that.

  10. The lighting is awesome, that sold me before anything else :p

  11. Its nice, and its fast, but why dont they make a ferrari one ? like the cars. I know acer did it, but dell would make them nicer.

  12. Great laptop. I have the first revision and I agree, it wasn’t built to really last a long time, but ive looked after mine and its been great.

  13. Pricing the components and the system isnt bad, including the overhead for the lighting and custom chassis etc. the SSD alone takes up a big portion of the price. but well worth it as the HD tests show.

  14. Id love a 17 inch laptop, but Id need one for college and I dont fancy hauling this around. shall look at their 15 inch models, once the sandybridge fiasco is sorted.

  15. I always loved their case designs and these look stunning, my professor has one in college and all the kids think he is cool for owning it (he is a 65 year old guy who can really use it too!)

  16. I was going to order one, then realised at the last part of the review that this uses one of the troubled sandybridge motherboard. so will have to wait. Any ideas on the time frame for the fix? march? april?

  17. Yes, the laptop is terrific, but that is one seriously awesome review guys! Boot time; acoustics; SSD; screen quality! Wow! Best I’ve read! Keep it up! (and rustle up a Eurocom equivalent!)

  18. I’m prefered to call it M17X 2G rather than M17 R3 because: i) new redesign, and, ii) new ports (USB 3.0, HDMI 1.4)

  19. I bought the m17x r3 before it was removed. One feature that was listed on the Alienware site was the wireless HD. I have not been able to figure out how this feature works. I looked for a WirelessHD icon or WiDi icon but did not find it on my system. I did find it on the resource CD. When I tried to run it there was an error stating it could not find the wireless Display card. I looked in the BIOS and found an entry under wireless that read DMC Sibeam. Have you tested this feature? If so what is missing?

  20. Its back on sale now! ordered mine yesterday 🙂 nice and complete review!

  21. You forgot to do a section on the audio quality………

    For such an expensive laptop, headphone/speaker performance is important to prospective buyers.