Unhooking the two latches and opening the unit reveals a notebook screen of epic proportions, a widescreen 16:10 display measuring 17” across. Unlike desktop screens of the same size, this unit features far greater resolution, showing 1680x1050 pixels. The image quality is exceptional, and the display clearly has a reasonable response time, since at no point could I see any evidence of ghosting on any of the benchmarks or games we played. The fine resolution certainly makes the desktop look gorgeous, but the screen's small size for such a high definition panel comes at a cost, making the text in windows prompts slightly difficult to read at the standard size.
The keyboard is, unusually for a notebook, a full size model, complete with a numerical pad and an almost standard layout. Typing on the board was comfortable for the most part, and it was reasonable for gaming, but we would recommend a regular keyboard for the prolonged gaming sessions this notebook was designed for.
The top lid was rubbing on the area just above the keyboard for some reason, since there were some ugly scratch marks all along its side, though bare in mind this review sample has clearly done the rounds. Alienware have assured me this would never be present on a final retail model.
To either side of the keyboard you can see speakers, and there are further speakers on the front side. Sound quality from these is adequate and they play to a reasonable volume when cranked up without much distortion. They do however sound distinctly tinny compared to, for example, the latest Apple PowerBook.
Under the keyboard is the mandatory touch pad. As you would expect, it is tap-click sensitive, so you can either tap the pad or use the button to left click - something you simply have to disable for gaming. The pad itself is smooth and responsive, and the scroll section to the right is also useful. The buttons however, have too much travel and make a rather noisy click. They simply do not have that Mercedes Benz feeling of quality about them that the rest of the notebook has. Whilst you can use the touch pad for gaming, just don’t expect to be able to nail those head shots :)
