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New Asus netbook includes optical drive
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 30th March 2009
The new Eee PC 1004DN is the first attempt by Asus to merge the ultraportable notebook and netbook markets.
As reported over on PC Launches, the Eee PC 1004DN is a fairly standard netbook in most respects: a N280 1.66GHz processor give it a little more poke than most while avoiding the rumoured shortages and price hikes of the more popular N270, while the familiar 10” 1024x600 display gets driving by an Intel GMA 4500M graphics chip. The company has opted for a mechanical drive in this model – a svelte 1.8” 120GB PATA unit, to save space and battery life over a more common 2.5” – and has even thought to include an ExpressCard expansion slot more commonly found on full-size notebooks.
The ExpressCard slot isn't the only thing the new Eee PC has in common with its larger brethren: for reasons best known to itself, Asus has seen fit to include a “Super-Multi optical disc drive.” While an optical drive is often a necessity on a full-size laptop, it seems a trifle superfluous on a netbook designed from a perspective of leaving out as much as possible to create a still useful but primarily portable unit.
The rest of the specs – screen resolution notwithstanding – point more towards the ultraportable notebook end of the market, rather than the traditional netbook market the Eee PC range has always aimed at: 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth are both integrated, giving users a choice of wireless standards. The keyboard has been redesigned to make it more ergonomic than existing Eee PCs, and an alleged 5.9 hour battery life.
While Asus has been kind enough to reveal full specs for the 1004DN, pricing has not yet been made available: it's more than likely that this particular Eee PC will début at the top end of the range, however.
Tempted by the thought of a netbook with internal optical drive, or has Asus missed the entire point of the netbook design aesthetic it helped create with this model? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Any other specs aside from the Optical drive?
Kind of like most mp3 players that are basically the size of their batteries.. (:
I doubt this would be anywhere near as expensive as "true ultraportables", which generally sell for at least £1,000. I expect this will cost around £500, because apart from the optical drive and the new chipset, it's pretty much just the same old Eee. And there is definitely room in the market for something this size, for that price, with an optical drive and the ability to play back video smoothly.
Bar the CPU, it's not that different to my current notebook
Guessing the main issue is going to be the price on this
Blame the Intel+Microsoft bullying. Once NVIDIA and VIA come out with some nice Nano+Ion2 products, based on Linux, we could see 30" netbooks with 16GBs of memory and a handful of juggling tricks to entertain your kids!
Intel and Microsoft impose limits on OEMs (such as Dell, Asus, etc.) regarding screensize, memory, graphics capabilities and so forth so they don't lose money from the pricier Core 2's, i7s and Vista machines. Something like "if you want a better machine, pay for our more expensive laptops".
That's why I'm hoping for Nano+Ion2+Linux products!
then its not a netbook, its a laptop ;)