18-inch 'big' laptop races to dominate the market

Blu-ray players, HD content and the presence of Acer, Sony and HP help 18-inch laptops start competing with some traditional sizes and in the long run may replace 15 - 17 inches.

The first version that caught the attention of consumers was Acer Gemstone Blue 8920 in March 2008 with an 18.4-inch screen, 16: 9 aspect ratio, supporting full HD content viewing thanks to natural resolution. 1,920 x 1,080 pixels.

Acer Gemstone Blue 8920. Photo: Compareindia .

This system integrates CineReal television and audio transceiver - the second generation of Dolby Surround, 1.5 GHz Penryn chip, Nvidia 9650m 512 MB graphics and Blu-ray drive. The device works on Windows Vista, allows you to watch movies continuously for 3 hours and sells for 1,700 USD (you can choose a lower profile with a starting price of 900 USD).

Toshiba Qosmio G55. Photo: Toshiba .

Toshiba Qosmio G55 (formerly known as G50, introduced in Japan to promote the HD DVD format) has just appeared in the US in late September 2008, using SuperMulti DVD drive, TruBrite screen, Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 2 GB, 4 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT 512 MB graphics, 500 GB hard drive and cost 1,550 USD.

Sony AW. Photo: Gizmodo .

Sony has also introduced a number of 18.4-inch versions of the Sony AW series with different configurations and prices range from $ 1,600 to $ 3,000. All are equipped with XBRITE-FullHD 1,920 x 1,080 screen, Blu-ray drive, 250 GB basic hard drive (can be expanded to 1 terabyte or 64 GB SSD drive).

Sony Vaio Type A

Earlier this month, the Japanese electronics company continued to make a strong impression with the Sony Vaio Type A using a T9600 Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB of RAM and running parallel 128 GB SSDs and 500 GB SATA - features that Japanese electronics firm claims to be "the first in the world". This laptop is sold at the lowest price of 1,700 USD and can be up to 3,000 USD.

Hewlett-Packard HDX 18. Photo: PCMag .

The latest face to introduce an 18.4-inch computer is Hewlett-Packard with HDX 18 using Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 640 GB hard drive (2 320 GB drives), Blu-ray reader and DVD burner, map Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT 512 MB graphics. The product works on Windows Vista and has a starting price of US $ 1,550 but in order to achieve the above configuration, users can pay more than US $ 2,000.