The basics
The latest incarnation of the Alienware M15x gaming laptop is completely customisable, but the version we tested came with 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and the jewel in the crown, an Intel Core i7 1.6GHz processor - you can boost that up to 2GHz if you're prepared to pay an extra �890.
The good
If you dig Alienware's flying saucer looks, you'll love the build of the Alienware M15x. It's smooth, flashy, and comes with a backlit keyboard essential for night time gaming sessions. The screen is pin sharp and responsive, so Blu-rays will look gorgeous if you make sure to add a BD drive into yours, and the Intel Core i7 chip is ludicrously fast. DVD ripping flies, and even without the optional 1GB NVIDIA GTX260, you can get ultra smooth frame rates from a game as hardware hogging as Crysis.
The bad
It's hardly surprising that the Alienware M15x is huge, and has a miserable battery life (about an hour and a half with Wi-Fi on). And even the lowest specced Alienware M15x comes in at a hefty �1,179, but if you want any of the bells and whistles like a full 1080p screen, bigger hard drive or more memory, you're looking at enormous additional costs. We decked out an Alienware M15x on Dell's shop with all the max settings available, and it comes in at �4,266. Why not buy a bigger monitor with that spare cash? Performance isn't something we can complain about - you get what you pay for - but we're a bit baffled by the lack of an HDMI connection, with a DisplayPort in its