Not to be confused with Honda’s Asimo, the Toshiba Qosmio E15-AV101 shows us that notebook PCs no longer have to be thought of as something that is used strictly for work.

The notebook comes with PVR, TV, and DVD-burning functionality. You would be nuts not to want find one of these under your Christmas tree. While it may not be the ideal PVR solution for all, it would be totally cool to take to the hotel on business trips.

The Qosmio incorporates some trendy, cutting-edge laptop technology–it’s a Windows XP Media Center-based PC with PVR, TV, and DVD-burning functionality that plays CDs and DVDs without requiring you to boot up the OS. But at $2,599 (as of October 2004), the Toshiba Qosmio E15-AV101 is no less expensive (or less complicated) than buying a separate TV, CD/DVD player, PVR, and laptop. If you’re a space-constrained apartment dweller, the Qosmio could be the answer to your prayers, but if space isn’t an issue, the Qosmio smacks of overkill (it comes with two remote controls, after all). There are other multimedia laptops, such as the Acer Aspire 2020 and the HP Pavilion dv1000, but they don’t offer the amazing breadth of connectivity options, both wired and wireless, upgraded sound and display technology, and performance of the Qosmio E15-AV101.