Samsung, one of the most prominent manufacturers of consumer electronics and also one of Sony's biggest competitors, has recently announced a new product that has been designed to deliver the quality of a Blu-ray player in a portable package. Simply dubbed R610, the new notebook from Samsung has been launched shortly after Sony announced a couple of new Vaio notebooks that also feature support for Blu-ray optical drive.

 

It would seem that these two manufacturers are preparing to meet an increasing demand of Blu-ray equipped portable systems, which would certainly explain the most recent releases of notebooks. However, while Sony decided to go for a 14.1-inch and 15.4-inch form factor for its VAIO CS and NS notebooks, Samsung went for the 16-inch version, which will offer users all the benefits of having a built-in Blu-ray optical drive in a portable computer system.

 

The 16-inch display of the R610 has a 16:9 ratio, and should prove as an ideal choice for watching Blu-Ray quality movies, wherever your business may take you. In addition, Samsung has also featured this notebook with the graphics power of an NVIDIA GeForce 9200M graphics card, which should provide the user with a high quality video experience at full 1080p viewing.

 

Aside from the notebook's graphics specifications, it is also equipped with two 2 watt stereo speakers and Enhanced Digital Sound, which should deliver a decent HD audio experience, although, for high-quality sound, it's best if you make use of the notebook's 7.1-channel support. In addition, you will also benefit from the computing power of an Intel Core 2 processor, support for Bluetooth 2.1, a 3-in-1 card reader, 1.3 MP webcam and four USB ports. There's also a HDMI/VGA port that should come in handy for those users that have HDTV.

 

Price-wise, the R610 from Samsung is expected to become available in stores later in October for a price tag of £799.