Acer Covers Bases with Laptops for Blu-ray, HD DVD

January 8, 2007, 9:05 PM by Ed Oswald

Ed Oswald, BetaNews: Instead of choosing sides in the still-ongoing next generation DVD format war, Acer said Monday at CES that it would offer consumers the option of either Blu-ray or HD DVD depending on which format they prefer. While the TravelMate 8210 would include a Blu-ray drive, the Aspire 9810 would use HD DVD.

Both laptops would include Intel Core 2 Duo processors. In the TravelMate 8210, the Blu-ray drive would come as an option, unlike its HD DVD-enabled counterpart. Up to 4 GB of dual-channel memory and hard drive space as large as 160 would complement the drive. Also included is integrated wireless Internet, VoIP, and videoconferencing, and security features to protect data.

However, in this battle the HD DVD laptop seems to have won out. The Aspire 9810 would include an nVidia GeoForce Go 7600 graphic chipset, up to 4 GB of memory, and 240 GB of RAID ready hard drive space, 20.1-inch widescreen LCD, as well as integrated wireless, VOIP and video conferencing.

The TravelMate 8210 would start out at $1,999, while the Aspire 9810 would begin at $2,899. Acer says both would be available immediately from its retail partners.