New Asus netbook with optical drive

The new E1004DN comes with an optical, further blurring the gap between netbooks and notebooks.

The E1004DN with optical drive

The optical drive sure looks slim!

 In a few months from now, you will not be able to tell what a netbook is! Asus showed off this piece in the recently concluded CES. Thank God it will make its way to the market including the US.

The Eee PC 1004DN is the first Asus Eee PC with an optical drive. The E1004DN is built with an Intel Atom N280 CPU which is the latest in a series of Intel Atom chips specially designed for netbook-like devices carrying a clock speed of 1.66GHz. It is paired with the GN40 chipset which can render HD video, and a 120GB hard drive.

Other specs should include the usual 10.2-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel display, Windows XP, 1 GB of RAM (expandable to 2GB), three USB 2.0 ports, and VGA. At least there’s an 8-in-1 card reader and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. Also included will be a 57.72WHrs - 6 cells battery of 5200mAh. Inclusion of the optical drive will surely help watching DVD movies without ripping them to a hard drive; and also for software installation from the discs such as an OS a lot easier for the non-technical person.

Other specifications include,

·         Integrated GMA 4500M graphics core

·         Dimensions: 277mm x 194mm x 27.4-34mm

·         Weight: 1.45kg with HDD (with 6-cell battery and ODD)

·         254mm chiclet type keyboard

The E1004DN will start rolling out in April, and will be followed by the 1008HA in May. The suggested retail price will be about US   $531-590 – as reported by Digitimes.