Alienware sells two notebooks in the UK and this is its smaller design.

In fact, it’s the smallest one we've seen to use an Nvidia Geforce 8800M GTX, which is the fastest mobile graphics card on the market.

Its 15.4in screen makes for a compact size for a gaming computer and at 3.6kg it is reasonably easy to carry around too (compared with other gaming notebooks).

No corners have been cut as far as the screen is concerned: it has a detailed resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels and is stunningly bright.

As with all Alienware notebooks, there's no standard model on sale: the customer chooses which components are required and the price is adjusted accordingly.

A few years ago, £2,000 for a gaming computer wouldn't have been a surprise, but it seems high now it's possible to play in high quality on a computer that costs half that. However, this model offers significantly more than a standard notebook.

Our model came with a top of the range Core 2 Extreme X9000 dual-core processor running at 2.8GHz. The faster the processor, the shorter the battery life, but the m15x still lasted 90 mins playing back a DVD movie. Its spacious 200GB hard disk, loaded with Vista Home Premium, is of the fastest variety, unlike lesser notebooks that usually come with slower disks.

Its processor, 2GB of memory, and graphics card will chew through any task at breakneck speed. But it's quite easy to overlook these features though, because the m15x's external case is rather special.

Its silver panels use Alienware's new AlienFX customised lighting, which pumps out a selection of 11 different colours from the three Alienware logos, the blue-lit bezel, touch-sensitive controls, the trackpad and through the keyboard.

You can set the lighting to transition from one colour to the next, or s imply set colours to strobe like you're in a disco. As well as this unique lighting, the package includes a pleasant array of extras such as an Alienware baseball cap, mousepad and a personalised metal plate, fixed to the base of the laptop with your name inscribed on it.

It's not perfect though; the seams that join the top and bottom half of the notebook aren't joined flush, and the keyboard is sunk just a little bit too much into the body, which can make it uncomfortable to type on. There's also no eject button on the DVD writer (instead you must use the Fn key and F8) and the speakers are tinny for a gaming notebook – Alienware's 17in model and Toshiba's X200 range do a much better job with audio.

It's very expensive, there's no denying that, and the extras may only appeal to those interested in games and nothing else. Ultimately, though, there's no competitor to the m15x – nothing is as powerful and compact at the same time and no other notebook has the fun lighting system – and if you must have the best portable gaming system, then this is it.