It’s very hard not to be sucked into the exciting world of gaming laptops. Some are pricey, yet many of the remarkably small computers will make the technophile in you come out over their amazing capabilities. In order to keep your wallet in check I’ve decided to inform you on the facts (pros and cons) of the top gaming laptops. It turns out that some are surprisingly practical for almost any application, while others have the potential to be little more than glorified internet browsers.

Dell XPS M170 S4
MSRP: $4,734.00*
www.dell.com
Dimensions (H x W x D): 1.67" x 15.5" x 11.3"

A bit overpriced for most gaming laptops, the M170 S4 is on the beefy side for an ultra-portable. However, if you’re currently using a laptop you will undoubtedly notice the increase in weight as you lug it around in your bag. What you won’t notice is a difference in functionality. With its full-sized keyboard, 17” (diagonal) screen, and standard array of ports and networking capabilities, including external VGA, USB, infrared, and 802.11b/g wireless, using an M170 is pretty much business as usual. It’s packing a powerful 2.26 GHz Pentium M Processor, 2 GB of RAM, 100 GB hard drive, and let us not forget its 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX.

Pros:
- Top-shelf processor and graphics engine
- Lightweight for a gaming machine
- Good multimedia features

Cons:
- Pricey, even for an ultra-portable gaming laptop









Alienware MJ-12 ® m7700i
MSRP: $2,119.00*
www.alienware.com
Dimensions (H x W x D): 2.1" x 15.6" x 11.7"

Cheaper than the Dell XPS M170 S4 even when fully customized, this proves to be the most practical and full-featured ultra-portable gaming PC. It provides a larger and stunningly clear widescreen WXGA display (17”), a DVD-RW drive, and plenty of connectivity options, ranging from Bluetooth, Ethernet, and 802.11b/g wireless to USB, FireWire and Memory Stick ports. Amazingly, this machine has the undeniable power of a full-blown desktop system coupled with the flexibility and portability of a notebook. It’s packing a powerful Pentium 4 Processor, to support Intel’s full-speed Pentium 4 desktop processors, the MJ-12m 7700i was designed from the ground up to maximize power and minimize heat. The machine packs clock speeds of up to 3.8 GHz which include features like 1MB of cache, and an 800 MHz front side bus with Hyper-Threading technology. Alienware also allows users to select dual Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives up to 200 GB for RAID 0 or 1 configurations. The cover, interior, and modest assortment of glowing buttons and lights work together to ensure that you will be the envy of everyone from the guy beside you on the plane to the girl sitting across from you at your local coffee shop.

Pros:
- Great price
- Complete configurability
- Pentium 4 CPU (not mobile)

Cons:
- Only comes in one color




VoodooPC Envy u: 709
MSRP: $4220.11*
www.voodoopc.com
Dimensions (H x W x D): 1.95" x 15.5" x 11.75"

A little more on the “looks” side, VoodooPC’s Envy u: 709 is supposedly one step further up the portability ladder in the world of gaming laptops. With smaller dimensions comes a smaller keyboard, and even though the Libretto’s keypad uses a standard QWERTY layout it is significantly narrower than a traditional keyboard and can be difficult to grow accustomed to. Packing an Athlon Dual Core CPU, on paper, this should be the most powerful gaming laptop available on the market.

Pros:
-Excellent, high-definition WXGA display

Cons:
- Feels like you’re carrying a monitor rather than a computer
- Poor battery life