Eee PC With Optical Drive: Still a Netbook?

[radguy]

Just cause you add a dvd/cd doesn't make it not a netbook. Just to remind everyone 9 months ago an msi wind was 499 with the cell and 549 for a 6 cell. In my opinion the first real suitable netbook because the eee 1000 was just to ugly and anything under 10 inches just isn't usable. So yes today you can pick up a nice laptop for the same price. But until recently it was pretty hard to find anything under 14 inches. Yeah the dell inspirion 13 can be customised to a very nice low end laptop for 550 bucks. Sometimes you can get a nice 12 inch lenovo under 700. But you can't compare your typical 500 dollar 6lb laptop to netbook. The inspiron 13 weights 5 lbs. This thing I think still weights about 3 and is of similar size to typical 10 inch netbooks. Impressive feat getting it that small.

In the netbook world the gma 500 sucks
The gma 950 destroys the battery life and its better but still sucks
The gn40 well I am still really waiting to see
The atom is ok but a little more speed (100% more) is really needed.
Intel and microsoft are the reason the netbook marked is the way it is.
1024 by 600 is just way to small 1280 x800 is needed on 10 inch screens.
price needs to be $400.

This one from asus will be nice but a little too pricy for my money. The gn40 and n280 is just a small step in the right direction the optical drive in my opinion doesn't matter for most people. Only a few will ever use it for a dvd drive and everyone on this site would rip the movie and then watch for battery life.

Still a netbook though

 

[jawshoeaw]

One thought: With an optical drive, it will in one sense be competing with much more expensive light weight notebooks. Like that little "drop it in your purse" Sony I just saw (not that it has an optical drive) but it was $2000.

I think theses things might just sell. People still seemed married to the DVD - as my wife put it, "how am I supposed to watch movies?" Sure I could rip it for her but the whole process is a pain from her point of view.

 

[bounty]

For that price it should be dual core. Stupid N280 automagically makes a netbook 100$ (30%) more expensive so it can be 60Mhz (~5%)faster. I'm ok with adding a DVD drive and calling it a netbook. To me a netbook = cheap and small, < 13". DVD drive shoul add 50$ at most to the price, so 350$.

 

[otivaeey]

Ok, even though netbooks have low battery time, they can be optimised to serve longer, and i think all of us will do that. E.g. dimming the backlight, disabling ports, upgrade to 6-cell batteries. So, dvd-rom is viable.

Don't think people buy netbook as their second laptop, many people are "poverty-stricken". One would invest in the full-featured netbook for sure. I can say, dvd netbook is a no-regret and one of the best approach by eeepc.

 

[otivaeey]

Ok, even though netbooks have low battery time, they can be optimised to serve longer, and i think all of us will do that. E.g. dimming the backlight, disabling ports, upgrade to 6-cell batteries. So, dvd-rom is viable.

Don't think people buy netbook as their second laptop, many people are "poverty-stricken". One would invest in the full-featured netbook for sure. I can say, dvd netbook is a no-regret and one of the best approach by eeepc.