Toshiba is leading the HD DVD charge with a laptop that sports its chosen brand of hi-def player inside.

It’s the Qosmio G35-AV650, and it is the first notebook computer to feature an HD DVD player. Other highlights include a 2GHz Intel Core Duo processor with two 100GB hard drives, an NVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB graphics card, 1GB of DDR2 memory, and a 17-inch 1920×1200 display.

The operating system of choice for this new model is Windows Media Center Edition 2005. The price is estimated to be US$3,000, with availability targeted to be online this week and in stores next week.