Acer took its place in line behind Toshiba to say it will release an HD DVD-packing laptop, the Aspire 9800. This is going to be one unusual notebook, with a whopping 20.1-inch 1680×1050 LCD. The thing is loaded for video of all types, including a 1.3-megapixel webcam, and both analog and digital TV tuners feeding that big display. It’s also HDCP compliant, with a DVI port in the back to hook up to an HDTV. Acer hedged on that HD DVD drive, though, mentioning that the laptop will initially ship in May with a DVD burner, and wouldn’t say when the HD DVD drive would be a part of the spec list.
Although it’s great the notebook will have such a huge screen, we’re puzzled at that oddball 1680×1050 resolution, frustratingly short of 1080p which will eventually be the lingua franca of HD DVD. And, at that big screen size, anything short of 1920×1200 is not what we would call state-of-the-art. Oh, well. Can’t have it all.
Acer unveils world’s second HD DVD laptop [Reg Hardware]
