Toshiba announces first HD DVD notebook

Tokyo (Japan) - Toshiba today responded to Sony’s recent announcement of upcoming Blu-ray PC drives with a promise to ship the first notebook equipped with a HD DVD ROM drive in mid-May. The model G30/697HS will be part of the firm’s Qosmio family of multimedia devices - and only be available in Japan at launch.

The device will be integrating all components multimedia enthusiasts will be looking for. There is a 17" screen offering a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, two TV tuners that can receive digital (DVB) as well as analog TV broadcasts, two 120 GB hard drives, an HDMI port and standard wireless connectivity via 802.11 b/g.

At the core are G30/697HS is a 2.0 GHz Core Duo T2500 processor as well as a 128 MB GeForce Go 7600 graphics chip, which provide ample horsepower to decode movies in 1080i resolution. An integrated, backwards compatible HD DVD drive will be sales driver of the notebook, even if it is unclear which and how many HD DVD titles will be available at launch of the device.

At this time, Toshiba did not announce any intentions to ship the G30/697HS outside of Japan.

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