The first wave of Core i7 laptops

Dan Ackerman | Sep 24, 2009

With the Intel Developer Forum underway, one of the big stories has been Intel's official unveiling of its new high-end laptop CPU, the mobile version of the Core i7. Of course, everyone's been talking about Core i7 laptops for weeks now, so the only real surprise is which PC makers are jumping onboard right away to show off this pricey new technology. Here's a roundup of the announcements.

Dell and Alienware
Even though consumers are flocking toward low-price Netbooks and other budget-friendly laptops, there's still room for the latest and greatest technology in Dell's lineup. The company is introducing four systems that use Intel's new high-end mobile Core i7 CPU .

The Alienware M15x is largely a new system on the inside, but the company isn't digging up a new name for its powerful 15-inch gaming laptop. Featuring Intel's new mobile Core i7 processor, the Alienware m15x is the first of several Core i7 laptops we expect in the near future.

According to Alienware, this new system is for "enthusiast and hardcore gamers that require a high level of mobility while still requiring an exceptional gaming experience." Which sounds like it's not exactly going to be inexpensive. It's also not going to be lightweight--this is a 15-inch laptop that starts at 4kg.

While sure to be highly configurable, as are all Alienware systems, these representative specs seem like the highest-end options available. We suspect an m15x outfitted as below would run several thousand dollars.

Toshiba
We've always liked Toshiba's high-end Qosmio systems, which are inventive desktop replacement laptops that experimented with add-ons such as Webcam-enabled gesture controls. Toshiba has wisely thinned the lineup down to one model, the new Qosmio X505, which features Intel's new mobile Core i7 processor.

The Qosmio X505-Q850, which will have an 18.4-inch display, comes in a dark finish called Fusion Omega black. The high-end configurations will cost more, but the X505 should start at around US$1,500, and will be available on October 22, along with Windows 7.

New products

Model name	In a nutshell
Alienware M15x (Click for larger image)	Notable features: Core i7 920XM 2.0GHz processor 8GB RAM 1GB Nvidia GeForce 260M GTX graphics 15.6-inch display Blu-ray drive
Asus M60J series (Click for larger image)	Notable features: Core i7 820 QM 1.73GHz processor 4GB RAM 1GB Nvidia GeForce 240M GT graphics 16-inch display Blu-ray drive
Dell Studio 17 (Click for larger image)	Notable features: Core i7 920XM 2.0GHz processor 8GB RAM 1GB Nvidia GeForce 260M GTX graphics 15.6-inch display Blu-ray drive
Dell Studio 15 (Click for larger image)	Notable features: Core i7 920XM 2.0GHz processor 8GB RAM 1GB Nvidia GeForce 260M GTX graphics 15.6-inch display Blu-ray drive
Dell Studio XPS 16 (Click for larger image)	Notable features: Core i7 920XM 2.0GHz processor 8GB RAM 1GB Nvidia GeForce 260M GTX graphics 15.6-inch display Blu-ray drive
Toshiba Qosmio X505 (Click for larger image)	Notable features: Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz processor 6GB RAM Nvidia GeForce 250M graphics 18.4-inch display Blu-ray drive Backlit keyboard Windows 7 Ultimate