Alienware Area-51 m9750: Power Gaming on the Go
by Jarred Walton on August 24, 2007 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
LCD Color Accuracy
While the manufacturing date for the LCD panel is the same as what we found for the PC Club ENP660 and HP dv6500t, it should already be clear that the overall display quality is still different. While those two laptops exhibited poor contrast ratios and poor viewing angles, the m9750 definitely fared better. However, we still need to look at color accuracy.
The Alienware m9750 is one of the worst performers when it comes to uncalibrated color accuracy. A Delta E of 11.6 only manages to best the two worst displays that we've looked at. Perhaps not coincidentally, all three of these low-scoring displays reported a manufacturing date of January 2005, though the Alienware has a different panel manufacturer. As bad as the Delta E results look, it is important to remember that our eyes are wonderfully adaptable when it comes to viewing colors, and in actual use the Alienware didn't seem all that bad. Trained professionals will certainly be able to spot the inaccuracies, and any multimedia enthusiasts viewing high-definition content will be disappointed, but unless you're really demanding in terms of color accuracy the contrast ratios and viewing angles probably take precedence.
Calibration also helps out, naturally - although not with games or movies as they bypass the color correction profile. After using Monaco Optix XR Pro to calibrate the display, the Area-51 m9750 performs much better. Only the ASUS G2P and Gateway E-155-C are clearly better.
As we have pointed out previously, ColorEyes Display Pro often manages to provide better color accuracy on laptops. CED Pro is also being actively updated, and it runs better under Windows Vista, but that's beside the point. Using CED Pro, the average Delta E drops to 2.5, essentially falling in the middle of our table. Looking at its closest competitor, the Dell XPS M1710, the m9750 bests it in virtually every color accuracy test. While the differences are generally slight, our subjective evaluation supports the conclusion that Alienware uses a better LCD panel than Dell.
As a final look at the m9750 LCD panel, here's a chart showing calibrated versus uncalibrated Delta E with both Monaco Optix XR Pro and ColorEyes Display Pro. ColorEyes also reports a lower Delta E prior to calibration, although the graphs are otherwise similar. Either way, calibration can clearly help out a lot if you need more accurate colors, but even the best laptops are still unable to match the majority of the desktop LCDs we've looked at when it comes to color accuracy.
While the manufacturing date for the LCD panel is the same as what we found for the PC Club ENP660 and HP dv6500t, it should already be clear that the overall display quality is still different. While those two laptops exhibited poor contrast ratios and poor viewing angles, the m9750 definitely fared better. However, we still need to look at color accuracy.
The Alienware m9750 is one of the worst performers when it comes to uncalibrated color accuracy. A Delta E of 11.6 only manages to best the two worst displays that we've looked at. Perhaps not coincidentally, all three of these low-scoring displays reported a manufacturing date of January 2005, though the Alienware has a different panel manufacturer. As bad as the Delta E results look, it is important to remember that our eyes are wonderfully adaptable when it comes to viewing colors, and in actual use the Alienware didn't seem all that bad. Trained professionals will certainly be able to spot the inaccuracies, and any multimedia enthusiasts viewing high-definition content will be disappointed, but unless you're really demanding in terms of color accuracy the contrast ratios and viewing angles probably take precedence.
Calibration also helps out, naturally - although not with games or movies as they bypass the color correction profile. After using Monaco Optix XR Pro to calibrate the display, the Area-51 m9750 performs much better. Only the ASUS G2P and Gateway E-155-C are clearly better.
As we have pointed out previously, ColorEyes Display Pro often manages to provide better color accuracy on laptops. CED Pro is also being actively updated, and it runs better under Windows Vista, but that's beside the point. Using CED Pro, the average Delta E drops to 2.5, essentially falling in the middle of our table. Looking at its closest competitor, the Dell XPS M1710, the m9750 bests it in virtually every color accuracy test. While the differences are generally slight, our subjective evaluation supports the conclusion that Alienware uses a better LCD panel than Dell.
As a final look at the m9750 LCD panel, here's a chart showing calibrated versus uncalibrated Delta E with both Monaco Optix XR Pro and ColorEyes Display Pro. ColorEyes also reports a lower Delta E prior to calibration, although the graphs are otherwise similar. Either way, calibration can clearly help out a lot if you need more accurate colors, but even the best laptops are still unable to match the majority of the desktop LCDs we've looked at when it comes to color accuracy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
26 Comments
View All Comments
Guspaz - Saturday, September 1, 2007 - link
Anybody considering buying a gaming notebook should refuse to purchase one until nVidia gets their act together and starts releasing notebook drivers with regularity.I myself am a notebook gamer, with a modest Dell Inspiron 9400, Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz, and aGeForce Go 7900gs. I run Vista.
Well, nVidia currently DOES NOT OFFER Vista notebook drivers at all. Not a one, nada. Your only options are to either use Dell's driver, which is an ancient beta missing support for most features of the GPU, or a hacked desktop driver (which still is missing many features under Vista, and lacks PowerMizer support).
Under XP, the situation isn't much better. nVidia's latest notebook drivers for XP are 84.63, released over a year ago on July 5, 2006.
Your notebook manufacturer MIGHT provide newer drivers, if you're LUCKY. For Dell's part, their XP drivers are still ancient and stuck in the 90 series, and they only ever released ONE driver for Vista, probably thinking "Well, they have drivers now, that's good enough."
In order to play BioShock on a notebook, you have NO other option but to hack the desktop drivers.
This is NOT an acceptable situation. As notebook gamers, we should REQUIRE nVidia to SUPPORT THEIR PRODUCT and release regular updates for their cards. The fact that their desktop drivers work so well on notebooks with a simple INF tweak should show you how EASY it would be for them to release official notebook drivers. They give us this bullshit story about how driver updates need to come from the notebook manufacturers due to differences between notebooks. This is bullshit. I don't get my desktop graphics drivers from Abit because they happen to have made the motherboard.
So what do I plan to do? I have no choice. I'll keep using hacked desktop drivers for lack of ANY other option.
monitorjbl - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
Yay, a William Gibson reference!
JarredWalton - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
Bonus points if you actually played the old Neuromancer game by Interplay. Cue Devo...Some
Things
Ne-ver
Change
....
:)
strafejumper - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
i never understood the concept of all these laptops such as this alienwarethe idea of a laptop to me is it is portable
however if the battery only last 60 mins it is not really that portable
for $5000 i would want to be able to for example watch a dvd
however this cannot even do that seemingly simple task!
battery life to me is so much more useful than the extra cpu and gpu cycles
when watching a dvd, browsing the internet, playing cards, backgammon, chess or other simple games, listening to music, typing documents, emailing, messengering etc. etc. the extra horsepower of the cpu and gpu are not even being used.
battery life > some extra frames in the latest game (which is better on a desktop probably anyway with bigger screen, full keyboard + mouse, desk, speakers, etc.)
Inkjammer - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
I am one of the people who have bought, buy and will buy workstations like these. People like me don't buy them as a "laptop" but as a "portable desktop replacement" (DTR).Some of the justifications:
Lugging an entire system to LAN parties can be frustrating, especially since I have a 24" monitor, large keyboard. I'm also using a Coolermaster 830 CM Stacker case, which weighs a ton, and breaking it down, setting it up can take far, far too long.
I also tend to take my DTR notebooks systems with me to work, where I can game during nightshifts. I'm also stationed overseas, so being able to easily transport a FULL system, even if contains in a laptop, is invaluable. I also do high end art and 3D animation, and need the additional power for job and hobby.
The tradeoff for portability and battery life on a notebook is fairly steep, but there's not much in the way of compromise.
And yes, I have a second laptop for my "on the go" needs.
yyrkoon - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
Some people do not have room for a desktop(or a desk), and use nothing but laptops. Others may travel, staying in hotels nightly, having a plug available, but do not want to tote around a desktop with them. Other people like truckers may be able to use an AC inverter for power, but have limited room in their sleepers for a computer.Having said that, I have been a trucker, and kept a full sized desktop in my sleeper, and I have also worked over the road, staying in a hotel nightly, and used a desktop during this time as well. Not everyone is like me however, and some of these people may preffer something smaller, and easier to carry around, or maybe just smaller to maximize their given 'alotted space' where ever they may be. I wouldnt buy one though . . .
wolfman3k5 - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
Well, how about there east bound, you got your ears on? I totally know what you mean, how ever I never had time for gaming. Battery life was always more important to me. I'm also an ex trucker, God, it's a lonely job. Anyway, just wanted to say hi:)yyrkoon - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Myself, for 2 years(and around 200k miles) I would typically drive 8HRs/day, 2-3 months at a time. Plenty of down time, and plenty of time to game, even in the early to mid 90's ;) Of course back then, there was nothing like this availible, and I was probably one of the first drivers to have a full blown desktop in their cab(IMB compatable 386SX-25 with 4 MB of ram YEEE HAAW!) lol . . .yyrkoon - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
IBM compatable . . .JarredWalton - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
IBM compatible you mean? :)