DELL vs ALIENWARE !!!! Dilemma

Dell vs ALienware ?

I want to buy a laptop, budget is $2000

I narrowed it down to Dell Xps 15 and Alienware M14x ( for college ) heard IBM Lenovo was bad and Sony isn't worth the buck.

So the model's I configured had some similarities

Intel Sandy Bridge i7 2720QM
6GB DDR3 RAM 1600 MHZ I suppose
Bluetooth 3.0
750GB HDD 7200 RPM

Differences were

Dell had GT 525M 1 GB and ALienware had 1.5 GT 555M
ALienware had Intel® Wireless-N WiFi Link 1000 a/g/n 1x2 and Dell had Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000
Alienware had 1600*900P resolution and Dell had 1920*1080P and also is 15.6 inchs

ALienware has 8 cell battery and Dell has 9 cell battery and I have come to heard Dell XPS has a very good battery life ( like atleast 5-6 hours easy ) whereas Alienware has only maximum of 4.5 hours.

Both round up to around $1700.

It will be used for my university and I will occasionally play games like Crysis 2 and what not. Battery life is important to me so I can atleast go by with 3-4 hours of class time with light browsing and notes taking.

If you were me which one will you choose ? Please also tell me if their customer service is good ? I read online that if your laptop breaks more then 3 times Alienware replaces it ? Is that true ?

Also heard good things about Asus but whenever I go to their website I can't seem to figure out how to customize a laptop and how to order it ??

BTW I live in Canada

ANy other suggestion would be appreciated too.

Thanks in Advance