Dell today chose to avoid a direct CES announcement for the Inspiron 15, its long-expected overhaul of its staple 15-inch notebook. The new model is cosmetically much closer to the wedge-shaped Inspiron 13 and switches from a 16:10 aspect ratio display to a 16:9, 1366x768 screen deemed better for movies. Extras that have been common to the Inspiron 1525 carry over and involve at least Blu-ray, Bluetooth and a webcam.

The portable is making an unusual retail-first debut and ships first as an aggressively priced Best Buy model that comes with a previous-generation 2GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, GMA 4500MHD integrated video and a DVD burner for $600. Dell plans to carry the system through its own site late this month and should offer faster processors as well as the rest of its options slate.

Inspiron 15 units should be reaching stores in the US today and should also be available now at Currys and PC World in the UK.