Toshiba on Monday announced the availability of a new model in the manufacturer's Satellite series of laptops, the A205. This is the fulfillment of a statement the company made in March promising to make HD DVD more widely available in its more popular lines of computers.

The Satellite A205 equipped with HD DVD carries with it a retail price of $1,149.99 USD, approximately 30 percent higher than the Satellite model without the high-definition format, and the two share very similar specs.

An Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5250 runs the system at 1.50 GHz. It also comes with 2 GB of RAM and a 200 GB, 4200 RPM hard drive. The screen is a 720p high-definition (1280x800 resolution WXGA) 15.4-inch diagonal widescreen display that features Toshiba's patented TruBrite technology.

Toshiba's initial HD DVD-enabled laptop was the Qosmio AV notebook PC, which was reported to weigh over 10 pounds (4.5 kg) in certain configurations. A bare-bones Satellite weighs just about 6 (2.72 kg) but the replacement of the DVD drive with an HD DVD will cause some weight gain.

Toshiba continues to be one of the biggest proponents of HD DVD. Company representatives were giving away handfuls of free HD DVDs at the Digital Life convention in New York this past weekend, and Toshiba is also offering a special deal with the A205. For a limited time, customers who purchase an HD DVD-enabled laptop also receive a mail-in offer for five free HD DVD titles. The offer is valid until February 28, 2008.