Dell XPS M1710 decks the halls with Blu-ray

While Panasonic, Acer, and Sony all beat 'em to the punch, Dell is finally ready to get tangled up in Blu. The Texan computer giant has just announced the XPS M1710, its first laptop decked out with Blu-ray, which will read and write CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs, and will do 1080p at 48 Mbps. It also includes an Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 or T7600G processor, an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 FTX 512MB video card, up to 4GB of RAM, and up to 160GB of storage. But that tall order won't come cheap, no sir -- we're talking starting prices at $3,700. However, Dell says it'll have 'em ready worldwide just in time for the holidays. Just hope your loved one doesn't already have a library of HD DVD movies sitting around if you choose to give one as a gift.

[Via Laptoping]

[mdebeer @ Dec 11th 2006 1:29PM]

Tangled up in Blu. Hilarious. Although I like the JGB version a heck of a lot more than Dylan's...

[Rick wilson @ Dec 11th 2006 1:43PM]

Finally people might start seeing blu-ray as less of a "Sony format" (which it isn't) and more of what it truly is, the Panasonic designed, future of optical drives.

Panasonic has always provided an extremely high optical drive for notebook manufactures, that's why Apple is a partner of theirs and has exclusives from them inside their systems.

It really doesn't matter what M$ supports, as long as there is so many companies backing blu-ray, there will be support in the OS.

[Hanno @ Dec 11th 2006 2:03PM]

I though Blu-ray drives didn't read CDs, or was that just the first versions?

[Alex @ Dec 11th 2006 2:40PM]

I believe you mean an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900GTX or 7950GT, I do not know of any 7950GTX...

[GorgeousGeorge @ Dec 11th 2006 2:41PM]

Great. So now you can spend your time bragging to friends about your Blu-Ray drive while you wait for Dell to send a technician out to fix your faulty laptop!

[BradStar @ Dec 11th 2006 3:09PM]

Definitely with you there George...

It wouldn't matter if a Dell had 8 server processors, 4 tb of storage and 4 video cards, it's not worth the price of packaging to buy a computer that won't work on you.

[Mike @ Dec 11th 2006 3:41PM]

Unfortunately its still a dell :-(

[Dave @ Dec 11th 2006 5:10PM]

And the movies for Blu-ray ;)

http://video.movies.go.com/bluray/ - Buena Vista Home Entertainment
http://foxbd.com/ - Twentieth Century Fox
http://www.disneybluray.com/ - Disney Blu-ray

[Galley @ Dec 11th 2006 5:47PM]

Hey Apple, throw a Blu-ray writer in a MacBook Pro and I'll sell my spleen.

[icepop4who @ Dec 11th 2006 6:31PM]

well, thx dell for jumping on the blu wagon. now, all hd dvd need to do is go cry in the corner.

true... it's still a dell... tsk tsk tsk

[Z @ Dec 11th 2006 7:44PM]

The fact that this is a Dell is bad enough, but Blu-ray? Strike two.

They should have gone HD-DVD - at least there would've been some longevity there. Blu-ray will just be another dead format in a year, along with every other Sony format.

[Scooter @ Dec 11th 2006 11:21PM]

if it is anything like the DVD drive in my 17" Dell, it will crap out quickly.

[Jamesology @ Dec 12th 2006 3:06AM]

LMAO, it's funny how ppl keep saying that Blu-ray is a dead format but it seems like there is more support of Blu-ray back home in Japan than HD-DVD.

[submachine @ Dec 12th 2006 4:05PM]

1080p laptop without HDMI output = next.

[Z @ Dec 13th 2006 5:44AM]

"...but it seems like there is more support of Blu-ray back home in Japan than HD-DVD"

Even if this is true, I say, "So what?"

First of all, Japan is only one country in this big, big world of ours and hardly going to be a singular force that determines which format will dominate the market.

Secondly, everyone should know that Japan is Sony-crazed and will do anything to get their hands on anything Sony. If it weren't for the Japanese, Sony probably wouldn't enjoy nearly the same level of success they have as the Japanese are probably the largest consumers of Sony products. I'll put it to you this way: You could take a crap in the middle of a street in Japan and slap the Sony label on it, and in five seconds, you wouldn't see the slightest indication that you had ever took a dump in the first place. A product or technology being lackluster is largely irrelevant in Japan, so long as it has the Sony brand name on it. In Japan, Sony = blockbuster hit.

[Brett @ Dec 29th 2006 8:30PM]

"...but it seems like there is more support of Blu-ray back home in Japan than HD-DVD"

yea... and we all know how popular Minidiscs were in Japan. Did the rest of the world decide to change from CDs to MDs? Nope.