On Friday, Dell announced that they will be offering the Inspiron 1525 notebook computer with a Blu-ray drive starting at US$879, beating Apple -- an early Blu-ray supporter, to market with a Blu-ray equipped laptop. The drive is a Blu-ray player, but can burn DVDs and CDs.

"The Inspiron 1525 laptop is the one that Laptop Magazine gave their Editorsi Choice award to. It features a 15.4-inch 1280 x 800 resolution (or optional 1440 x 900) wide aspect display means it support up to 720p resolution. It also includes an HDMI port so you can connect it to a larger external display or HDTV," according to Dellis Direct2Dell blog.

Source: Dell

The blog pointed out that if customers want to take advantage of Blu-rayis 50 GB of storage, they can upgrade to a Blu-ray burner. However, the price for that option wasnit provided.

There are many reasons for customers to have either a Blu-ray player and HDMI output on their computer or, better, a Blu-ray burner that can write 50 GB optical discs. Many of Appleis own customers have been looking for just that, but so far Apple has been silent on plans for Blu-ray products.

One problem, being widely reported, is that Blu-ray drives chew up battery power. However, with the disc format war over and Dellis player-based notebook coming in at $879, at least price no longer seems to be an issue.

TMO notes that in the promotional photo, no live screen suggesting an OS is shown. Perhaps thatis to help the customer focus on the hardware and not the OS thatis pre-installed.