Dell, a strong supporter of the Blu-ray Disc format since companies started choosing sides a few years ago, is ramping up its first high-end notebook with Blu-ray storage and playback capabilities. Dell rarely uses brick-and-mortar retailers and plans to sell its new unit (model XPS M1710) at its Web site, where it also has been marketing Dell brand HD sets.
Along with 1080p-level video, Dell is stressing the fact that the notebook's next-gen DVD format's huge storage capacity could serve as the main hub for supporting HD and other digital content throughout the home. Blu-ray storage runs up to 50 GB on a single disc. Apart from the Blu-ray component, the XPS M1710 typically will come with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4 GB of memory, and up to 160 GB storage on a serial advanced technology attachment hard drive.
Dell had held the lead as the world's biggest PC maker, but was recently overtaken in the third quarter of 2006 by Hewlett-Packard. Among other things, HP had the good fortune to not experience a major laptop battery recall this year--unlike Dell, Toshiba, Sony, and some other PC makers. Sony, which had made most of the nearly 10 million batteries, bore the brunt of the recall in both costs and public relations.
