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Toshiba upgrades Qosmio laptop line with HD DVD recording

The latest update to the Qosmio series is the G45-AV680

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman
Toshiba

The oddly named Qosmio series of laptops from Toshiba has always been a favorite of high-end home theater types, combining big, bright screens with HD DVD drives and Harman Kardon speakers.

The latest update, the Qosmio G45-AV680, adds a recordable HD DVD drive (not as common as recordable Blu-ray drives) and keeps the line's built-in Dolby surround-sound technology and high-resolution 1,920x1,200 display. The G45 returns to Toshiba's glossy white "piano finish," unlike the recent G35's matte gray look, and has both a large, circular volume wheel and an AV control wheel.

Other highlights include an HDMI port, draft 802.11n Wi Fi, built-in subwoofer, an external USB TV tuner, and a DirectX 10 video card, the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT.

Of course, all this multimedia power doesn't come cheap. The Qosmio G45-AV680 (with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU, 2GB of RAM and dual 160GB hard drives) is a whopping $3,199, and is available starting today.