Click to enlarge

In the US, Dell's Inspiron 1525 laptop retails at around $AUD950 and features a 15.4-inch high definition wide aspect display and a HDMI port for easy connectivity to high resolution displays and HDTVs.

The Blu-ray player disc drive is fully backwards compatible, and will play as well as burn traditional DVDs and CDs.
Even though the Inspiron 1525 laptop has been available in Australia since January, the local release only comes with a standard DVD player/burner.

The version with Blu-ray has been available for a week now in the U.S., Canada and Europe, but it seems, Australian consumers, as is usually the case will have to wait just that little bit longer. Of course they could always buy it from the US and pay the extra on shipping and handling, but for the price conscious, it seems patience is definitely a virtue.
As yet, there has been no word from Dell as to when or even if a sub-$1000 Blu-ray notebook will be launched here, although the company notes that an alternate model, the Inspiron 1520 does come with a Blu-ray player?but at a price almost twice that of the US machine- starting at just under $1600.