Toshiba has confirmed that the Qosmio G35-AV650, the first notebook to support the new generation of DVD technology in the U.S. market, will be available on their website this weekend and distributed to retail partners shortly thereafter.
Qosmio G35-AV650. (Image: CNet)
The G35-AV650, part of Toshiba’s Qosmio line, features a 17-inch display with a high resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. Although HD DVD compatible films are currently rare, Toshiba has stated that around 200 films will be released by the end of this year.
The Qosmio G35-AV650 also comes with several premium features, including an Intel Core Duo processor running at 2 GHz, two 100 GB hard drives, RAID (redundant array of independent disks), and 1 GB DDR2 RAM. Additionally, the G35 is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card with 256 MB DDR3 memory.
With all these features, the price of the Qosmio G35-AV650 is quite steep: at least $2,999, and the device is relatively heavy at 4.5 kg.
The G35-AV650 operates on Microsoft’s Windows Media Center OS, but Toshiba has chosen not to support the Intel Viiv program on this system.
HD DVD technology is facing stiff competition from the Blu-ray format led by Sony. Laptops, players, and HD DVD films are gradually entering the market, while Blu-ray compatible products are not expected to be available until after June.
