<13’’ Gaming Ultraportable

Hello. I am looking for a;

-        Ultraportable, no bigger than 13’’

-        Good Battery life

-        Good build Quality

-        Good Keyboard(preferably Backlit bling bling)

-        Good gaming performance

My research has led me to these options;

Macbook Pro 13; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QtSw9lM-4s

-        Good Battery life, great display, backlit keyboard, great build quality, little footprint

-        Sort of Heavy and it can get warm due to the Aluminium chassis

-        Still Core 2 Duo, but new Nvidia 320m Graphics

-        OSX means boot camp(rebooting computer) to run most games

-        WoW, Warcraft 3, and a few other games run well in OSX. Will Steam ever run better? Will the support get better optimized?

-        Has poor battery life in Boot Camp under Windows!

Acer Aspire Timeline X 3820;

-        Amazing performance. ATI 5650 and i7 core processor, this baby gets over 7000 in 3dmark 06 with no OC. With OC, some have gotten to almost 10,000 The best ever for a 13’’ Laptop

-        It’s a Acer! Some reviews have complained about the screen, viewing angles, brightness, black levels, floating keyboard(and flexing). Build quality should be great otherwise!

-        No backlit keyboard( -minus 10 e-peen status)

-        No DVD drive!

-        Good OC potential as they put in two fans instead of one!

Alienware M11x; http://www.tested.com/first-look-at-the-alienware-m11x/47-46/

-        11,6’’ Display might be to small to gaming?

-        Powerful 335m graphics(a bit less powerful than the one in Acer 3820)

-        Has i5 and i7, but they are Ultra Low Voltage to save battery life, so they are not CPU screamers. Bottleneck in CPU demanding games?

-        No optical Drive

-        Backlit keyboard! Can customize the colors of the machine! Trackpad and display seems decent!

-        Build quality seems great. Sorta big and heavy for a 11’’ but is supposed to be build like a tank!

-        Talks of around 5 hours of battery life, which is less than MBP13

Anyone got any suggestions?

Have heard nothing but amazing things from the Alienware M11x. I would go with that for sure.

m11x got to try one when shopping around and that thing is a god send

I wouldn't suggest using a Mac for gaming. They're great for WoW, but if you want to be doing any other gaming, go with the M11x.

Ok. I never thought I would buy an Alienware because the price used to be so expenssive. but this one I can actually afford.
 
 
apetura - I actually am thinking of going back to WoW when Cataclysm comes, but who knows for how long? And I defintely want to do other gaming as well!

Not gonna lie buddy laptops don't make good gaming machines, I would get the mac book for reliability- and play Tales of Monkey island!

I wouldn't recommend any mac products for pc gaming at all. It doesn't have the speed or power for the price, go look elsewhere for a more suitable gaming laptop.

"

I wouldn't recommend any mac products for pc gaming at all. It doesn't have the speed or power for the price, go look elsewhere for a more suitable gaming laptop.

"

The MacBook Pro is a great machine all-around, and I do think that Steam is going to be great for the platform too. TF2 and Portal run decently enough on mine. Now that Valve is with Blizzard and Telltale in doing day-one releases, I'm a happy camper.
 
If what you want to play is available on the Mac, I'd say go for it. BUT if you're really thinking of using it primarily for gaming, I would hesitate to recommend it.

Unless the only gaming you want to do on the Mac is through Steam, avoid the Macbook. Not to mention the fact that Apple products are horribly overpriced as well as super closed platforms.

" @HitmanAgent47: Gaming laptops are a joke. Bulky with poor battery life is the antithesis of a good notebook.  The Macbook is probably the best way to go if you actually want to take it someplace. The Aluminum unibody is incredibly sturdy. and its got a backlit keyboard and great battery life. Steam is getting better with each update. Most people here will say to ignore the Mac and buy something else but at least go try one out at an Apple Store and see for yourself. "

" Have heard nothing but amazing things from the Alienware M11x. I would go with that for sure. "

If you're in it strictly for gaming i'd say don't go for the mac, but if not the mac is the only way to go.

" @HitmanAgent47: While boot camp is a must for gaming on a Mac the OP was looking for something portable that is capable of playing games. The Macbook Pro fits the criteria. the M17X on the other hand does not since its a 17" laptop. "

The Mac Pro 13" discrete graphics are not up to much gaming or any sort unless you do stick with really old titles. Also, there's no such thing as a gaming notebook with good battery life. Once you load up a game, my full-charge Macbook will suck through the battery in just a couple of hours (when normal usage goes anywhere between 6 and 8). Unless you mean good battery for general usage, in which case yes, the battery in the Macbook is pretty dang good. You're simply going to have to be plugged in if you want to get any realistic amount of gaming done.

I got a macbook pro for my birthday, I didn't ask for one and probably would have preferred the m11x. I had never owned a mac product before and I don't really intend to start buying them now.
That being said, every game I've tried to run so far on it runs very well. I can run Crysis on medium with a steady and high framerate. If you want a laptop for gaming and also want it to be lightweight and/or you like macs I guess... the macbook pro isn't a bad choice.
You would, of course, have to install windows on it.

Hello. I am looking for a;

-        Ultraportable, no bigger than 13’’

-        Good Battery life

  Okay how about an Alienware M17x to the op then. Has a gtx280, more powerful than anything macs can use. Maybe even a dell studio XPS 16.

" @gike987: Read the OP again 
 

Hello. I am looking for a;

-        Ultraportable, no bigger than 13’’

-        Good Battery life

and read hitmans post again 
   

  Okay how about an Alienware M17x to the op then. Has a gtx280, more powerful than anything macs can use. Maybe even a dell studio XPS 16.

The M17x is anything but ultraportable. "

 Alienware M11x; http://www.tested.com/first-look-at-the-alienware-m11x/47-46/   

I have a 4 year old xps m1210 laptop that I used in college. It was never a great gaming laptop (Doom 3 at full settings, no AA, is still a stretch) but it did what I wanted it to do. It got pretty decent battery life for its size and power, but clearly you're looking at newer laptops that are far more powerful and have newer, better batteries. 
 
My biggest complaints with the machine are that its stuck with Vista and only 1 GB of ram. I'd recommend getting a machine with Windows 7, which in my experience runs much, much, much better than Vista could ever hope to, and make sure you've got plenty of extra RAM. Since you're looking at the M11x, you'd likely be getting it from Dell's website, I imagine. If I were you I'd also splurge and get the beefiest battery upgrade their options allow you to get if portable gaming is a real must for you. If you don't mind bringing the power supply with you wherever you go, like I do when I want to use my laptop, then maybe stick with the standard battery.

" The Mac Pro 13" discrete graphics are not up to much gaming or any sort unless you do stick with really old titles. Also, there's no such thing as a gaming notebook with good battery life. Once you load up a game, my full-charge Macbook will suck through the battery in just a couple of hours (when normal usage goes anywhere between 6 and 8). Unless you mean good battery for general usage, in which case yes, the battery in the Macbook is pretty dang good. You're simply going to have to be plugged in if you want to get any realistic amount of gaming done. "