For gamers who felt the 11-inch M11x was a tad too small and the Alienware 14 was a little too big, Dell's gaming hardware division says it's planning to release a 13-inch laptop into its lineup of gaming PCs.
The Alienware 13 will compete with the latest 14-inch Razer Blade, which has a lightweight build and quad HD resolution that gave it an edge over the bulkier Alienware 14.
The Alienware 13 was said to be roughly two pounds lighter than the 14 version of the gaming laptop. With the option to upgrade its display to 2,560 x 1,440 output, the Alienware 13's resolution will be closer to the Razer Blade quad HD display, 3200 x 1800, than the Alienware's 1920 x 1080 output -- however, the Alieware 13's standard display was said to be 1336 x 768.
To pump out pixels to its display, the Alienware 13 will rely on an Nvidia GTX 860m. The performance of the GTX 860m falls a little short of the GTX 870m that the Razer Blade uses.
Setting Battlefield 4 at 1080p and using the shooter as a benchmark, the GTX 860m delivered an average of 42.5 frames per second (fps) and the GTX 870m performed much nearer to the 60 fps gold-standard with an output of 57.5 fps.
Both the Alienware 13 and the Razer Blade can be fitted with Intel i7 processors. When Intel's Broadwell line of processors is ready, the Alienware 13 will include them among its CPU options.
As far as storage, the Alienware 13 hard drive can be upgraded to a solid state drive and the gaming laptop can be fitted with up to 16GBs of RAM. For users still not sold on Windows 8, Windows 7 can be pre-installed on the Alienware 13.
While the Alienware 13 has been slated for a November 2014 release, several reviewers have had the change to get their hands on the lightweight laptop.
"Hands-on, it's more of the same in terms of Alienware design, though that's no bad thing," the reviewer stated. "The company's more recent notebooks are a far cry from the hefty models of before, with sturdy metal casings and some clean design elements that arguably leave the portables in the Alienware range more visually appealing than the desktops.
As this point, no prices have been set for the Alienware 13. For individuals with a pocket full of bitcoin, Dell may still be accepting the digital currency as a form of payment when the Alienware 13 arrives - Dell said it would take up to 10 percent off of any Alienware product that was purchased using bitcoin.
