14 DAY TRIAL // Sure thing, Toshiba has had its share of adrenaline rush these days as its old friend Warner Bros turned its back on the HD-DVD format in favor of the shinier Blu-Ray. As of May 2008, Warner Bros will stop releasing its high-definition titles on HD-DVD media. The Japanese corporation is however hard to kill and knows how to promote what belongs to it.
Warner Bros' declaration alone was enough reason for Toshiba and its allies on the HD-DVD battlefield to cancel an important press conference prior to the Consumer Electronics Show, an action that could be labeled as big PR mistake. However, Toshiba and its companions pushed things a little and unveiled yet another soldier in the format war: the Qosmio G45-AV690.
Toshiba's new device is more than a sexy and powerful notebook: it is world's first notebook to come with a HD DVD-R/RW drive.
"The Qosmio continues to lead the computer industry in terms of high-definition capabilities by bringing many of the most advanced technologies together into a solid and cohesive machine," said Toshiba's Jeff Barney. "In a digital world that is driven by power cloaked in simplicity, the Qosmio G45-AV690 is the central hub of a user's personal Digital Ecosystem, providing users with the ability to enjoy their HD content, while expressing themselves more fully in a digital world, and using HD DVD as a personal means of doing so."
The Qosmio G45-AV690 notebook is built around an Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 processor. Apart from the HD-DVD recorder, the laptop features a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPU, 3GB of DDR2 memory, a 320GB HDD, 17" 1080p display, 5.1 surround sound, HDMI output, an OpenCable (OCUR) HDTV tuner and four Harman Kardon stereo speakers with an integrated subwoofer.
The notebook is available for a retail price of $3,199 USD.
