Alienware shows off ultra-ultra-wide curved screen

I’ve always had a weakness for big monitors. On my main computer I have 3 19-inchers for a total resolution of 3840×1024. My friend Rick Ross over at DZone has 3 24-inch panels on his desk (5760×1200). And who wouldn’t want one (or more) of the Apple Cinema 30-inch displays 2560×1600 each)? The problem with all these setups, of course, is that they’re flat. The distance from your eye to the center of the screen is shorter than the distance to the corner. This can lead to problems with focusing and eye fatigue.

The solution? Make it curved. Alienware showed off a prototype for a curved display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At 2880×900, the resolution leaves something to be desired for such a large monitor (it’s 3 feet wide), but hopefully this is the start of a new trend. Maybe one day, we’ll even see direct displays that are curved in both dimensions. This should be possible by using more, smaller panels arranged in a grid or hexagonal pattern. Imagine sub-panels that you could snap together to make displays arbitrarily large. Dead pixel? No problem, just replace one of the panels. Now who’s going to build the first one?

Gizmodo has a nice photo gallery here, including a view from the back that looks something like the grill of my mom’s old Dodge Charger R/T. Vrooom!

We can't have one of these Alienware curved monitors until the second half of this year, but until then, we've been abducted by its four nearly seamless and sharp screens of DLP goodness. Lit by LEDs, this 2880x900 monster is well over three feet wide and is said to have an other-worldly .02ms response time, great for gaming. The Soylent Green: You can see the seams between this monitor's four segments, but the Alienware humanoids tell us that flaw will be gone by the time this craft lands on Earth. The blacks look a bit washed out to our eyes, too. Price is yet to be determined.

Alienware Launches Gaming Notebook with Quad-Core Processor, Dual-GPU Graphics Sub-System.

Alienware, a haute couture maker of personal computers aimed at gamers and performance enthusiasts that belongs to Dell, has unveiled the world’s first laptop from a major system builder that may be equipped with mobile quad-core Intel Core 2 Extreme processor as well as two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 graphics cards in multi-GPU mode.Alienware M17 laptop, may be configured according to the orders of a final user, in maximum configuration can be equipped with quad-core Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 (2.53GHz, 12MB cache, 1066MHz processor system bus) central processing units, two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 graphics cores, 4GB of PC3-8500 (DDR3, 1066MHz), two 500GB hard drives in RAID Stripe mode, Blu-ray disc optical drive, 802.11a/b/g/draft-n wireless network controller, TV-tuner, 17” screen with 1920x1200 resolution and so on.

In the best possible hardware configuration the system costs rather whopping $4119 with Windows Vista Ultimate operating system and without any special software or service plans.Meanwhile, gamers without demands for maximum performance possible, can get their hands on an M17 featuring an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 cores in CrossFireX mode, 2GB of memory, 1920x1200 screen and Blu-ray drive for about $2350. In fact, Alienware has put special attention on keeping the M17 gaming laptop price on a relatively low level.

“The M17, loaded with all the capabilities of ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU technology, delivers outstanding performance at an extremely aggressive price point. Paired with an award-winning chassis design, mobile gamers will be blown away by the realism that the scalable ATI graphics solution provides,” said Patrick Cooper, director of product planning at Alienware.

Alienware M17 are available in both Europe and the U.S.

Alienware M17 - Hands-On Preview

Alienware has had something of a mixed year. Back in April we took a look at its Area-51 m15x, a 15.4in gaming notebook boasting some serious power, and it left us suitably impressed that Alienware had managed to cram such high performance components into a comparatively small chassis. More recently, however, we were distinctly underwhelmed by the Area-51 Desktop Gaming PC, to the point that we wondered whether Alienware's once unique desktops had become something of an anachronism. It's lucky, then, that the company has another notebook to come, the new M17.

In terms of design it's very similar to the Area-51 m9750 that we reviewed over a year ago, though this is by no means a bad thing. On the outside it sports the rubberised Skullcap design common to many of the company's notebook offerings. It looks a bit like the outside of the Batman suit, but thankfully you don't get that weird gravely voice that makes Christian Bale sound like an axe murderer who eats nails for breakfast.

This is matched on the inside with a similar soft-touch black finish, one that adds a tactile and premium feel.It lends the M17 a pleasingly stealth-like appearance, too, and it's something that instantly sets it apart from the overly 'blinged' overtones of the Dell XPS M1730 and similar efforts, or the rather cheap feeling re-badged equivalents. Indeed, in this sense the M17 is the very antithesis of Alienware's own desktops, whose plastic shells lack that sense of quality we'd expect from premium products. Given it can house two graphics cards it's no surprise to discover it's a big machine, measuring just shy of 400mm across and 300mm deep. To put that into perspective, the whole chassis is in fact deeper than an MSI Wind is wide. Alienware also quotes a weight of an incredible 5.65kg, so if someone happens to drop one down the stairs you should probably get out of the way and then maybe swear profusely. Its size and weight should also make it handy in the case of a zombie apocalypse, though a handle would probably enhance its brain crushing capabilities - Alienware, take note!

History

Established in 1996, Alienware assembles high performance desktops, notebooks, and workstations. According to employees, the Alienware name was chosen because of the founders' fondness for the hit television series The X-Files, hence the theme to their products, with names such as Area-51, Hangar18, m15x, and Aurora.[1]

Alienware was originally established to tap a niche in the high performance game market, which back then was not on the radar of the major PC manufacturers such as Dell. Since high-end game hardware was not widely distributed, the company's founders formed an OEM which sold personal computers with the highest performing hardware and settings according to benchmarks. The company products are not only famous for their hardware configurations, but also for their unique, sci-fi-based designs.
Acquisition and current status

Dell had been considering buying Alienware since the year 2002, but did not take any action until March 22, 2006,

when it agreed to purchase the company.The new subsidiary maintained its autonomy in terms of design and marketing.
However, Alienware's access to Dell's supply chain, purchasing power, and economies of scale would lower its operating
costs.

Initially, Dell maintained its competing XPS line of gaming PCs, often selling computers with the same specifications. In hindsight, the XPS line may have hurt Alienware's market share within its high end market segment. Due to corporate restructuring in the spring of 2008, the XPS brand has been scaled down. Many of the founders of Alienware have been moved from executive roles to product-development roles. Product development of gaming PCs has been consolidated with Dell's gaming division, with Alienware becoming Dell's premier gaming brand. It remains to be seen if this move will dilute the Alienware brand's reputation for irreverence.

Operations

Alienware established its EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) headquarters in Athlone, Ireland in October 2002. As of FY 2005, Alienware brought in upwards of $170 million USD in annual sales .while undertaking an international expansion initiative launched in 2003 to maintain a presence in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Costa Rica. Alienware has had a self-owned and operated call center in Costa Rica to handle all sales and support calls for a number of years. The Alienware call center in Costa Rica has won numerous awards and has been the subject of study by industry insiders. Additionally, Alienware allows customers to send in old computer hardware in exchange for credit toward new hardware as part of their AlienExchange program.

News

November 2008, Alienware launched the new Alienware M17, their first mobile quad-core processor, ATI CrossfireX™ notebook.

In the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a prototype was presented of what is being described as a "giant 'curved' widescreen", i.e. a display which would be equivalent in size to two, slightly bent 24-inch LCD screens glued together.

Competitors

Alienware has traditionally competed with companies such as Falcon Northwest, Puget Systems, Velocity Micro, and VoodooPC (which is now part of Dell's largest competitor, Hewlett-Packard). Before being acquired by Dell, Alienware also competed against Dell XPS gaming systems.