Digital Trends

Alienware Area-51 m9750

January 2nd, 2008 | by Josh Norem

OS situation

The unit we’re sampling comes with Vista Home Premium, but you can also get Vista Ultimate, or even XP Professional and XP Media Center, which would be ideal in our opinion since the m9750 has a built-in TV Tuner.



Pre-installed Software

We hate bloatware and free trialware that a lot of builders cram onto their PCs, but it seems there is none of that on the m9750. The notebook comes with Cyberlink PowerDVD and Adobe Acrobat reader pre-installed, and nothing more.

Goodies
Like most boutique PCs the m9750 comes with a slick leather binder that includes a manual, quick-start guide, recovery CD and so forth. There’s also a hat and a very nice “mousing surface” included as well.

The included leather binder is handsome, and includes a manual and media.


Alienware also throws in a very high-quality mousing surface…


…and a high-quality Flexfit hat.

Soft-touch controls

At the top of the keyboard, below the LCD, is a series of soft-touch media controls that can be activated just by grazing them with a finger. The controls include Internet Explorer, Windows Mail, media controls, and buttons to open DVD software, Media Center and Media Player.

Soft-touch controls for Internet, media and other apps require a mere tap from your finger.