This is
kind of interesting. Whereas a lot of people, when they hear of the new blue laser laptops, they might be wondering what kind of a experience watching a film on one would be like. In this interview with both Sony and Toshiba reps, Australian Personal Computer (APC) magazine, has asked what apparently is a delicate question, what would one of these drives set me back if I wanted to purchase it or had to replace it?
It would be nice to know what percentage of the overall cost of these very expensive laptops, was accountable to the blue laser drives. But, this question may not have been asked before, as they could not get a firm response from either company. The respondents hesitated to give an answer in both cases.
|
When we asked that question of both companies and were met with the sound of the background hiss on the phoneline, we took a different tack. We asked: 'how much will it cost me to replace the drive if I drop the notebook and break it?" Toshiba took a while to stump up the info, but eventually came around. Product Marketing Manager Matt Codrington said the cost for replacement HD-DVD drives was 'about $600'³ though he couldn't give a more exact figure than that.
Sony, on the other hand, is more cagey. Its PR firm quoted the Sony product manager as saying 'no price has been set yet" for a replacement BluRay drive used in its similarly lavishly priced $5,499 Vaio VGN-AR18GP (pictured right). |
The extremely competitively priced, HD-DVD packing, Toshiba Qosmio G30, carries a $5,499* price tag as well. Looks like, if you shell out over 5 grand for one of these nice laptops, you might want to protect yourself with an extended warranty!
*Australian
Source: APC
