Goodbye HD DVD, hello Blu-ray. Standalone Blu-ray players used to cost a bomb (some of them still do, which was what made the Sony PS3 all the more attractive if you were looking for a firmware upgradeable Blu-ray player instead of a gaming machine first), and laptops that came with Blu-ray drives actually required you to sell off a kidney in order to own one. With the pseudo format wars behind them and Blu-ray emerging the victor in their tussle with Toshiba’s HD DVD, it is easier for companies to make a commitment as to include the winning format’s technology into their products. Take Dell, for example. This Texan computer giant has finally taken the plunge in the world of High Definition, offering a Blu-ray laptop that does not break the bank - retailing below the magical $1,000 mark. The laptop in question is the Inspiron 1525, featuring an optional Blu-ray optical drive with prices starting from $879 upwards.

Getting a Blu-ray optical drive doesn’t mean you have to start purchasing all your DVDs over again in the new format, as this optical drive is fully backwards compatible and boasts the ability to make backups onto standard DVDs and CDs if the need arises. There is also an option to purchase the Inspiron 1525 with a Blu-ray burner drive, although that will set you back by quite a fair bit - but think about the benefits from owning such a drive, you will be able to store way more data on a single Blu-ray drive (50GB) compared to a standard DVD which holds 8.5GB of data at most.

Other features of the Dell Inspiron 1525 include a 15.4″ high definition wide aspect display at 720p resolution, an HDMI port for convenient connectivity to HDTVs and other high resolution displays, an integrated graphics card and a built-in dedicated accelerator to help out in high definition video playback. You can choose from Chill, Blossom and Commotion designs, or from Sunshine Yellow, Midnight Blue and Ruby Red colors.

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