Toshiba announced the availability of ‘Qosmio® G45-AV690’ during CES 2008, which is the company’s latest iteration of its cutting-edge high-definition notebook computer series and world’s first notebook to feature an HD DVD-R/RW optical drive.

With an HD DVD-R/RW optical drive, the Qosmio notebook provides users with a versatile, state-of-the-art multimedia machine that can burn, erase and re-burn data, including home-videos, entire photo albums and music libraries onto a single HD DVD1 rewritable disc. The drive can also play today’s most popular HD DVD movies in the highest quality possible.

Designed to be a truly interactive medium, HD DVD delivers an unprecedented experience that will change how people watch and enjoy their movies. Available to users are features, such as picture-in-picture director’s commentary, online bonus content and instant scene book-marking, for instant access to a user’s favorite scenes on-the-fly. Unlike today’s DVD viewing experience, many HD DVD interactive features can be enjoyed while the film is being viewed.

Additionally, an HD DVD enabled notebook is compatible with today’s standard-definition DVD titles, ensuring that a user’s collection of DVD movies is not left obsolete.

The Qosmio is built around a stunning 17-inch diagonal widescreen Ultimate TruBrite™ display that delivers a full HD 1080p experience. The Qosmio can also be integrated into the user’s home theater system thanks to the built-in HDMI output which can send 1080p high definition video to a 1080p HDTV along with 5.1 digital audio.

Sony’s showcase 17-inch desktop replacement, the VAIO AR, adds a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo with the new ultra-dense chip and its media instructions that greatly improve speed for encoding videos or playing future games. Appropriately, the system comes with the full 4GB of memory, a Blu-ray burner, a 512MB GeForce 8600M GT for video, and two 200GB hard drives. A CableCARD tuner also lets it capture cable-borne HDTV feeds. Shipping under the AR790U Premium moniker, the top-end VAIO will be available soon for $3,300.Three smaller notebooks also receive the treatment. The 15.4-inch VAIO FZ’s FZ485U Premium model trades up to a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo as stock and ships with 4GB of memory out of the box. Its 256MB GeForce 8400M GS and Blu-ray drive remain unchanged and leave the system priced at $2,200. Slightly smaller, the 13.3-inch VAIO SZ will be much faster with a 2.5GHz processor in addition to the same 4GB of memory. It also carries a 250GB hard disk inside a lightweight carbon-fiber shell and will be ready soon for $2,500.

Last among these systems, the 11-inch VAIO TZ (pictured) will receive the only ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo in a new TZ298N/X flagship version. It adds the energy-efficient 1.33GHz Core 2 Duo to improve speed over the 1.2GHz predecessor and carries the same 4GB of memory as the far larger computers, cutting down on disk access and improving battery life. It will ship in a unique configuration that ships with both a 64GB solid-state drive for speed and a 250GB rotating drive for capacity, and should sell for $3,600.

The Dell Inspiron 1525 is a revamped version of the Inspiron 1520. Dell has introduced quite a number of changes, most noticeable, of course, being the appearance.

The new 1525s are around 25% thinner than the 1520 and even shed half a pound off the original bulk. With a 15.4-inch high-res screen, 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 processor, built-in webcam, and almost four-and-a-half hours’ battery life and all sorts of holes for you to stick things into, including an HDMI port.

In addition to making it smaller, Dell also introduced 8 different colors and 4 patterns — Street, Blossom, Chill and Commotion. After choosing what you want your Inspiron 1525 to look like, you can then choose the hardware that goes in it. Pricing for the new Dell Inspiron 1525 starts at around $499 an up, depending on your configuration. Sounds like a powerful alternative to the Asus Eee PC.

Specifications:

• CPU 2.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250
• Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium
• RAM/Expandable to 2GB/4GB
• Hard Drive Size/Speed 120GB/5,400 rpm
• Optical Drive 8X DVD+R DL
• Display/Resolution 15.4 inch/1440 x 900
• Graphics Intel GMA X3100
• Wireless Networking 802.11a/g/n
• Ports Four USB 2.0, FireWire, HDMI, S-Video, IR, VGA, S/PDIF, Ethernet, modem, two headphone, mic
• Card slots ExpressCard, 8-in-1 memory card reader
• Size 14.5 x 10.8 x 1.4 inches
• Weight 6 pounds
• Warranty/Support One-year parts and labor/one year 24/7 toll-free

First we have Dell’s new Latitude XT convertible tablet, followed by Lenovo’s more affordable X61T tablet. The Dell seems to borrow a fair amount of touches from the Lenovo, boasting a very impressive widescreen touchscreen display. The $2,500 price is off-putting though, considering that number is just for the base configuration only

NEC has released a Hello Kitty laptop named LaVie G. It’s decorated with Swarovski crystals and kills us all with Hello Kitty’s cuteness.Check the pink version …I think NEC was just waiting for the right moment to reveal the pic of the pink-colored LaVie G. I bet Japanese Hello Kitty fangirls and gadget geeks have gushed “kawaii” (translation: cute) when they saw the pic. The laptop sells at USD$1840 and in my opinion, you’d have to be not just a casual Hello Kitty fanatic to shell out that much cash for a laptop with Hello Kitty’s face on it.via .mobilewhack.com

Asustek is preparing the release of the Asus G2K 17-inch gaming notebook, based on AMD/ATI technology. The G2K notebook resembles the Intel-powered G2S model in looks. The latest Notebook especially designed for gaming, it features 256MB of DDR3 video memory, the ATI RS690M chipset, AMD Turion 64 X2 TL64 dual core processor at 2.2GHz, 2GB of system memory, a 160GB hard drive at 5,400rpm, a DVD burner, and the DirectX 10 compatible ATI HD2600 dedicated video card. The G2K comes with a 17-inch 1920-by-1200 widescreen display, good enough to let people view their favorite characters in a good size. The G2K-A1’s will be available at a price ranging from $1,628 to $1,847.