Dell Serves Up Blu-ray Notebook

The Round Rock, Texas-based computer hardware giant said Monday it's shipping a consumer notebook with Blu-ray capability. The Dell XPS M1710 notebook will have Blu-ray drives as an option, the company said.

Blu-ray, which is also supported by Dell technology partner Sony, is compatible with high-definition video and can provide as much as 50 Gbytes of storage on one disc. Dell is a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association and has been among the largest vendors championing the new media technology in the PC space.

Earlier this year, Michael Dell appeared at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with Sony Chairman Howard Stringer in a public show of support for Blu-ray.

"Our customers told us they wanted a new optical standard that would last at least a decade, and we've been working with Sony and several other companies for the last several years to create a standard that would allow customers to be able to store, manage and enjoy their content at home and on the go," Dell Chairman Michael Dell said at the time.

The XPS M1710 isn't cheap, with the base model carrying a list price of $3,699. The notebook also features an Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 or Core 2 Duo T7600G processor and can be configured with up to 4 Gbytes of 667MHz DDR2 memory.