All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
* Photo: Romulo Yanes * Light Speed
Gamers want two things: power and glory. The first comes easily for Alienware's new m15x, the most potent 15-inch laptop in the known universe. Rocking Intel's 2.8-GHz Core II Extreme processor and Nvidia's GeForce 8800MGTX graphics card, it scorches its way across any animated landscape, leaving a trail of rapidly rendered polygons panting in its wake. As for glory, well, that's up to you. But the m15x will gladly look the part, with six independently customizable LED-lit zones that accent everything from the notebook's perimeter to its touchpad and keys. You can choose from 12 colors and set them to flash while you vanquish your enemy.
m15x: $1,399 and up, alienware.com
Photo: Romulo YanesNever Forget a Face
Thirty years from now, as you're replaying footage of your kid scoring the winning goal, you'll prefer his beaming face not be blurry. But clarity isn't an easy feat for standard-issue autofocus, which usually locks in on objects closest to the camera — not necessarily the hootin' and hollerin' ones. Still cameras have had face-recognition capability for years, and now Sony is bestowing that power on moving pictures, with a camcorder smart enough to index faces. The SR12 brings sharpness to as many as eight mugs, automatically adjusting exposure and white balance to make them as purdy as possible. How'd Sony do it? A ton of processing power, courtesy of a PC-worthy chip that flexes enough silicon muscle to run a recognition algorithm 60 times per second.
HDR-SR12: $1,400, sonystyle.com
PLAY PREVIOUS: Reviews: Chicago 10 in Theaters, Hot Chip’s Made in the Dark, Dan Kennedy’s Rock On NEXT: Test: Stylish All-in-One PCs, Comfy (and Not-So-Comfy) Ice Skates
