BolehVPN: Freedom Through Security

Just a quick note for those of you considering an Alienware M11x.

It’s an awesome system, hands down, portable, long battery life and heck it plays games! It’s also reasonably affordable especially considering it is one of the few portables that can play games and it’s still much cheaper than a MacBook Pro (which has a weaker graphics card as well).

However there is a serious drawback is in its LCD hinge construction where it suffers fatigue pretty quickly and breaks. I had first hand experience of this myself where my LCD screen had to be replaced just because of the broken hinge after a few months of use.

Dell has posted that they are aware of the problem and are working on a fix but however there’s also this post from a Dell rep:

I heard from my friend that they got the hinge problem solved.
* That is true for the M11x-R3 but false for the M11x-R1 and M11x-R2. We are still working on the solution. When it is resolved, I will let you all know. No, I do not know when the R3 will be available nor do I know its specifications.

Now the R3 (or Revision 3) is not even announced so it’s rather funny that they fixed an issue on an unreleased product while the existing R1s and R2s remain without a resolution. I have a feeling it’s more an issue of the cost of product recalls and rectifications rather than an actual technical issue. Further evidence to this shows that the ‘home’ fix isn’t difficult and it points to a PLASTIC screw support which wears out in this post.

My advice? Wait it out and wait for R3.

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Remember my post about my Alienware M11X fiasco? On March 8, I received this e-mail which confirmed my cancellation:

Dear Reuben,

Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Service.

As per your request, we have cancelled your order# [7044269].

Please allow 1-2 weeks for the payment to be cancelled and credited back to your account.

If you would like to place a new order, you can call our sales department on (MY) 1800 88 0301 / (SG) 1800 394 7486

Thank you.

Today after about a month of waiting, the Alienware arrived despite the above cancellation…Oh gawd! Now to decide whether I want to accept it and open it or to return it.

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