Alienware M17x

The last Alienware machine to make an appearance at PC Pro, the £2,127 M17, wasn't good enough to win an award. Back then, the Asus W90 was faster, better-looking and cheaper. Alienware, however, has struck back.

Its new M17x makes a fantastic first impression. The aluminium exterior, dramatically angled front edge and mesh-covered speaker grilles make the M17x look like a futuristic Blu-ray player rather than a laptop. Ease open the lid and the Alienware continues to impress, with the keyboard, touch-sensitive media buttons, trackpad and logo all kitted out with cool, blue backlighting. Factor in the edge-to-edge screen and you have one of the most striking laptops ever seen.

It's a system packed with small, thoughtful details: the Alienware logo above the keyboard is both power button and hard disk status indicator all in one - the eyes flash to show activity. Alienware can engrave your name on the underside, and you can also change the colour of the numerous LED lights.

Distinctive design is backed up by peerless build quality. Neither the 17in screen nor the wide wristrest flexed when prodded and pushed in anger, and the rest of the chassis feels utterly rock-solid - but with a chassis this large and hefty (the M17x is 45mm thick and weighs 5.5kg), we'd expect nothing less.

The 17in screen has a better-than HD native resolution of 1,900 x 1,200 and is the same panel offered on the cheaper of Dell's Precision M6400 mobile workstations. As well as covering 72% of Adobe's colour gamut, the panel, which is lit by a pair of CCFL backlights, offers a 1000:1 contrast ratio and 8ms response time. While these figures aren't quite up to desktop standards, games still look superb on the panel, with accurate colours and sharp detail, and there's acres of desktop space available for more menial tasks.