Alienware 14 Reviews

Today's notebook market, are in the pursuit of ultra-thin, ultra-light, ultra-portable. Look at the hundreds of notebooks on the market, is not some feel that there is no characteristic? In fact, in the notebook field, there is a force that can not be ignored, it pursues performance, the pursuit of appearance, volume, weight is not in the slightest consideration, that is the Dell Alienware (alien) Series game Notebook, Tank products in the notebook sector.

Recently, Dell has also updated the Alienware series of games, introducing an upgraded version Alienware 14 portable game with Intel's new Haswell platform processor adapter Alienware m14x. Alienware 14 has a very small lift, both in terms of shape design and internal construction.

A new definition

For the Alienware series, the shape is definitely one of the most eye-catching bright spots, for Alienware 14来 said is no exception. Although the thickness of the Alienware 14 is 1.6 inches (40.64 mm) thick, which is thicker than the two MacBook Air, and the overall style is completely different from Apple's, this does not prevent Alienware 14 from being a distinctive notebook product.

The design of Alienware 14 is similar to the overall style of previous generations, but it also adds more facets and edges, and looks more sedate and sophisticated. After opening the notebook lid, whether it is the texture of the keyboard panel, the Gap, the keyboard, trackpad or the bottom of the glow bar, after the operation is really like an alien working equipment, the future is full of sense.

With a weight of 6 lbs (2.7 kg) and a thickness of 1.6 inches (40.64 mm), the Alienware 14 is a Big Mac for a notebook product. But its new magnesium-aluminum frame is the author has seen the most robust and powerful consumer notebook products, even if accidentally fell directly on the ground, but also basically do not cause too much damage to the product itself. Alienware 14 has abandoned the former plastic material to choose metal alloy, although to a certain extent increased the weight of the product, but the robustness of the consolidation, and reduce the bending of the screen, but also add a fashion flavor.

While there is no one-of-a-kind design that is currently very popular, the Alienware 14 is a very sophisticated design for gamers. The black keypad panel is soft-touch and looks mysterious after the backlight lights up. At the same time, the metal housing looks very heavy, and the previous generations of the product looks more technical sense.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the Dell Alienware 14 game supports WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0, optional 802.11N/AC wireless network. There are three USB3.0 interfaces, a mini DisplayPort interface and an HDMI HD output interface, a multi-in-one reader, two audio outputs, 2.1 Klipsch speakers, a 2 million megapixel camera, two digital microphones. However, the HDMI input port and the traditional VGA port, Alienware 14 does not have.

Screen effect

One of the biggest highlights of Alienware 14 is the display. The Alienware 14 is available in a 14-inch matte glare-free screen and does not feature a very popular mirror display, which ensures that the Alienware 14 is used outdoors or under strong light, and still has a very clear visual effect. While the minimum Alienware 14 screen resolution is not too high, only 1366x768, but if willing to spend $150 (about 900 yuan) to upgrade, then you can have a very gorgeous IPS panel 300-nit 1080p display. Although compared to the MacBook Pro or Google Chromebook pixel with retina retina displays, it does not show fine detail, but is very good at both the screen viewing angle and the color reduction. In addition, for gamers, the resolution is not the higher the better, 1080p standard HD resolution with 14-inch display, it can be perfectly compatible with most of the mainstream games on the market, in addition, for those who like to watch movies, 1080p resolution is also very suitable for viewing Blu-ray DVD.

However, the audio quality of Alienware 14 is slightly more general. Although compared with ordinary notebooks, Alienware 14 is equipped with the Klipsch (Tong Yee) Dolby Surround home Four-channel system is good, but compared with the professional speaker effect is still a small gap.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard area of the Alienware 14 is very good, soft and very comfortable to enter, and then with the adjustable color of the background light, absolutely very eye-catching. The Alienware 14 game features a new keyboard design, the first keyboard change in 6 years. Compared with the previous products, the key cap area is bigger, the ALIENFX backlight is weakened some, makes the eye more comfortable. In addition, the baseplate is reinforced to reduce the bending of the keyboard. Whether in the game or ordinary typing process, Alienware 14 can provide users with moderate feedback, and even long-time use will not have a feeling of pain in the wrist.

Again, the trackpad, Alienware 14 's trackpad can be said to be the author in the Windows system notebook most satisfactory one. First of all, the Alienware 14 trackpad can be customized to the user's needs of the color background, and the use of the touch is very smooth, very timely response. I have used a touch panel of other system notebooks, including MacBook Pro and Chromebook Pixel, and the Alienware 14 trackpad is no better than theirs. However, Alienware 14 seems to turn off most gesture operations in the default settings, and if there are users who need to use them, be aware that they are open in the settings screen.

Performance

Alienware 14 in the game performance is very good, the author deliberately selected a few of the machine configuration requirements called "harsh" game in Alienware 14 run, including "Battlefield 3", "Max Payne 3", "No Master of the Land 2" and other games, and the configuration has been adjusted to the highest, Resolution also on the 1080p,alienware 14 is able to run smoothly, whether in the game of blood, gun effects, can be very delicate display.

But when the author uses Alienware 14来 to challenge the legendary "Crysis 3", Alienware 14 is a little bit powerless. If the smooth operation of the premise, "Crysis 3" can only be 1080p resolution on the premise of the switch off the effect, and reduced to 30 frames per second to be able to have a smooth game experience.

It is worth mentioning that the Alienware 14 with the "dual graphics" configuration, we can use the Fn+f5 shortcut key between Intel and Nvidia two video cards to switch between, but after the switch is complete to restart the machine to take effect.

If you need to run a large game, users can switch the Alienware 14 video card to nvidia mode, but this mode is a significant test for the battery life of the notebook. When using the Nvidia version of the graphics card for the game, the Alienware 14 battery only lasted 2 hours and 33 minutes, if switching to another mode, the use of time can be extended to 4 hours. So, if you want to run a large game with Alienware 14 without connecting to the power supply, the user has to make a choice in game performance and battery life.

Throughout the testing process, the Alienware 14 heat dissipation device performed well, most of the heat can be shot through the bottom fan, and the body temperature is not very high. But note that in the use of the process as far as possible not to Alienware 14 fan cover, if the impact of the cooling system air flow, then Alienware 14 of the two graphics card performance, the temperature of the fuselage will be what you believe there must be a number of hearts.

New Dell Alienware 14 game optional Intel Core I7-4700MQ (3.4GHZ), Core i7-4800mq (3.7GHz) or Core I7-4900MQ (3.8GHZ) processor with up to 16GB ddr3l 1600MHz memory, optional nvidia GeForce GT 750M (1GB GDDR5) and GeForce GTX 765M (2GB GDDR5) high performance discrete graphics. Choose from 14-inch 1366 x 768 TN or 1920x1080 IPs screen. For hard drives, the Dell Alienware 14 game offers a wide range of hard drive options, ranging from 750GB 7200RPM HDD to a single SSD SSD and high-end configuration for dual 256GB SSD + 256GB MSATA SSDs. DVD-Burning optical drive as standard, optional Blu-ray drive.

Summarize

The 14-inch screen size, metal alloy look and body weight of 2.77 kg, these features may not make you look very tempted. In particular, compared to the current market on the ultra-thin notebook computer, looks much more cumbersome. But the premise is that it's a game book, with excellent performance, powered by Intel's newest Haswell processor, which is enough to differentiate it from the best of its kind.

At present, the Dell Alienware 14 game has been shipped, starting from the sale price of 1199 U.S. dollars (equivalent to about 7354 yuan), Alienware enthusiasts or gamers can see the opportunity to shot.