And the big surprise: it actually works quite well. I say that with the one obvious caveat that I’ve only seen the work done via the demo video, not with a DVD or Blu-ray movie of my own choosing, but when I spoke to a Sony product manager on the stand he claimed he and his wife watched the whole of Iron Man on the 16in display, “live” in 3D.

To see for yourself – kind of – what this brief clip below.

This live encoding is only possible, Sony claims, due to the combination of Intel’s latest Core i5/i7 processors, top-end Nvidia graphics and a 240Hz screen – and it also claims it’s unique to offer the ability to convert Full HD content from 2D to 3D on the fly. Certainly it’s the only such laptop I’m aware of.

Existing owners of Nvidia 3D systems may be wondering where the transmitters are to connect with the active 3D glasses; that is, the powered kind of glasses rather than the passive kind. The answer is that they’re embedded into the lid.

It’s a neat solution in one way – there’s no dongle to worry about – but the compromise is a lid that’s near enough 1cm thick. Then again, you aren’t going to be carrying the F Series around with you much anyway. It’s luggable rather than portable at 3.1kg, and it’s a big feller too; according to Sony’s stats, 45mm at its thickest point.

The styling is certainly bold. A glossy black finish (which, predictably, picks up fingerprints very easily) is underlined by the thick plastic wrist rest which stands out a millimetre or so from the main chassis.

Ignoring its 3D abilities for a moment, the 16in screen looks impressive in 2D too. It’s sharp, vibrant and the high resolution means you can pack in a huge amount of detail too.

The F Series is already available with a number of different specifications, so you can pack in as much performance as you can afford – all the way up to a quad-core Core i7-740QM with 8GB of memory and Nvidia GeForce GT 425M graphics.

We look forward to giving the F Series a proper run-out in our Labs as soon as Sony can send a full production model to us.

I know this not through some astonishing psychic abilities, but because I spent two hours this morning at a Sony briefing. There, Sony confirmed it would be filming 25 matches in 1080p 3D, but don’t expect these to be broadcast on Sky: Sony is using the footage to create “promotional trailers” which you’ll be able to watch at its retail stores.

I also had a quick blast on a 3D game, “enjoyed” a 3D music video, and was distinctly underwhelmed by watching a few minutes of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Of all those, only the game came anything close to persuading me that 3D TVs have a future in the home. The trouble with films is the limited size of the TVs: even a 40in or 50in TV leaves you with too much peripheral vision, so objects can’t properly envelop you. As soon as they reach the edge of the screen, where they disappear, the 3D “magic” is lost.

Rather more disturbing is the idea that Sony is delving into its back catalogue and 3D-ising classic performances from the likes of Jimi Hendrix. This reminds me of the “colourising” of black and white movies when colour TVs first appeared (not that I was actually alive then, naturally). Once the novelty wore off, most right-thinking people decided the original was better.

This isn’t to say I’m anti-3D. There are some clear benefits to the technology… it’s just that the areas where it excels tend to be in a niche. For example, earlier this year I saw an impressive demo of a 3D projector – the interactive dissection of a frog when viewed in 3D rather than 2D makes a whole lot more sense, and according to a teacher I interviewed made a real difference to the children’s interest.

Likewise, cinema is an obvious candidate for 3D. With one proviso: that it’s done well. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Avatar, which was designed to appear in 3D from conception, but the thought of studios jumping on the 3D bandwagon and 3D-ising the film after it’s been shot is a clear signal (so far as I’m concerned) to do one thing only: not go and see that film.

Games, too, can benefit from being created in 3D. It makes sense in anything where 3D over 2D gives you greater clues to what’s happening, with obvious candidates being shoot ‘em ups and driving games.

But 3D-ready TVs in the home? Sony quoted “industry experts” Future Source Consulting, who predict that, by 2014, 40% of new TVs sold in the UK will offer 3D capabilities.

Sony hopes that march begins tomorrow, with its own range of TVs, Blu-ray players and home cinema systems all going on sale. PS3 owners will also be able to apply a firmware update to allow their systems to support 3D, and four games (WipEout HD, SuperStardust HD, PAIN and Motorstorm Pacific Rift Demo) will take advantage. Note these are only free to people who buy a Sony 3D TV.

Later this year, Sony promises, it will also be producing laptops capable of 3D playback, joining existing offerings such as Acer’s Aspire 5738DZG and Asus’ G51J. But does anyone really care?

I’ve been wrong about new technologies before, and it’s always dangerous to base predictions based on early implementations. Sony says it’s already learned plenty of lessons about how to film sporting events in 3D, and if 3D does take off in the way it’s predicting then the cost will come down as the size and quality of the TVs increase.

But even in this vision of the future, we’ll all have to wear those glasses when we want to watch a 3D film or football match. While early adopters may be willing to suffer this annoyance, until the viewing experience becomes an awful lot better, you’ll have to use negotiation skills worthy of Nobel Peace Prize winners to persuade the rest of your family to don them too.

(And before any pedants jump in to point out to me that, actually, all laptops are 3D – yes, I know.)

The background you see above is, actually, really in 3D. That is, it uses a combination of software, hardware and specially coated glass (if you’d like more detail than this hazy description, we wrote a whole feature dedicated to the future of 3D a few months ago), and you then have to watch the image using the polarised glasses supplied.

And it works well. I watched a number of nice-looking demos where futuristic planes flew through futuristic landscapes, monsters emerged threateningly from the screen at random moments, and, um, I looked at a 3D photo.

There are drawbacks. You need to have your head positioned carefully to see the 3D effects without ghosting – where every object seems to have the slightest of shadows – and you do look a bit of a fool. Just to prove it, that’s me looking a fool above.

And, naturally, demos only tell you so much. We want to test it properly, with 3D games designed for the purpose and see just how immersive the technology really is.

As a piece of hardware in itself, the Aspire impresses. Though the screen has some very slight horizontal lines – a side effect of the 3D technology, no doubt – it’s bright, sharp and vivid. And it’s pretty large, too, at 15.6in.

The keyboard is a joy to type on, with large keys and a solid feel to it. Thanks to the extra-wide chassis, there’s also room for a separate numeric keypad.

It’s set for release in tandem with Windows 7 on October 22, and as with the Acer Aspire One D250 with Android we’re already chasing Acer for a review sample so we can provide a full, in-depth review.

*Incidentally, I say “first mainstream 3D laptop” because, as a colleague of mine has kindly reminded me, we actually reviewed the Sharp Actius RD3D way back in 2004. It didn’t catch on.