The size of big screen notebooks like this can come as a shock, especially if like us you're used to dealing with ultraportables. The M70 is big and it's anything but portable, but as one of the new breed of home cinema laptops it's well above par.

The M70 is a milestone for a couple of reasons. Firstly it's a powerful machine, with a Blu-Ray drive, but it doesn't break the $5,000 mark. At $3,699 it's expensive, but this is cheaper than what HD afficionados have paid in the past (up to $5,000 or more for Toshiba's Qosmio G40). Take into account Acer's $2,699 Blu-Ray 8920G and it's clear the cost of full HD is coming down, if slowly.

The M70 is also very, very fast - which you'd expect with a $3,500+ price tag. Under the hood is Intel's T9300 (2.5GHz) with 6MB cache, 4GB RAM. Graphics are taken care of by an ATI Mobility Radeon HD3650 (with 2GB in our test unit). The standout features are the two 500GB drives, for a whopping 1Terabyte of storage. You won't even need external drives with this.

So what does all this power add up to? Most importantly, the machine will handle full HD playback properly. We cranked the M70 to 1900x1200 and it performed brilliantly playing Casino Royale on Blu-Ray - no lag, no noticeable jittery movement, even with multiple apps running in the background. It seems like a minor point, but if you've ever tried watching movies on a laptop you'll know that cheaper notebooks can struggle even with regular DVD.

We also gave the M70 a workout playing Crysis - it managed 1024x768 with high detail settings, with things getting choppy once we hit 1920x1080. The maximum volume on the Altec Lansing speakers and subwoofer isn't incredibly loud, but more than does the job for close-quarter viewing.

We're still not entirely sure about notebooks as a Blu-Ray platform - the movies look great, but viewing HD on such a small screen seems to miss the point of going HD. It's about big screens! (ok, and better sound).

Still, if you regularly find yourself kicking back on the lounge (or heaven forbid, in bed) watching a movie on your laptop, the M70 certainly won't let you down. It is pricey, so if price is a factor, then the 18.4inch Acer 8920G Gemstone might be a better bet. The advantage here is you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.