Top 5 home entertainment notebooks

2. Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue (8920G) Forget about plugging this notebook into a big-screen TV — its built-in 18.4in screen is massive and it's also the first 16:9 widescreen we've seen on a notebook. More than that though, the Gemstone has a very good speaker system, a Blu-ray player and HDMI, as well as a digital TV tuner. There's also space to add a second internal hard drive. Read the full review here.
1. ASUS M70SA Grabbing the number one spot is the ASUS M70SA. This notebook stands out due to its 1TB of internal hard drive space — the most we've seen from a notebook to date. Like the others, it has a Blu-ray player, HDMI and a digital TV tuner, but it also adds TV input ports. Again, its features still need some refinement, but overall, we think it's a winner. Read the full review here.
5. Alienware Area-51 m15x-R1 Okay, so it's very expensive. However, this Alienware unit is the most powerful notebook you'll find for playing games and watching high-definition movies. It's got all the necessary ports for connecting to a TV and home theatre system, but the stand-out features are its Blu-ray recorder and 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics adapter. Read the full review here.
4. Lenovo IdeaPad Y710-200 This Lenovo has some shortcomings: it doesn't have a digital TV tuner installed, digital audio output or Gigabit Ethernet. However, it does have HDMI, an ATI HD 2600 graphics card and a Blu-ray player, so it can be used for high-definition viewing on a big-screen TV. Read the full review here.
3. NEC Versa P9120 (2401DR) While this unit isn't perfect, it's still a decent choice for a home entertainment notebook: you'll get a digital TV tuner, a Blu-ray player and HDMI, and it also has pretty good speakers. However, it could use more storage space and it could also use a built-in receiver for its remote control. As it stands, the receiver has to be plugged in to a USB port, which can be unsightly. Read the full review here.

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