The Eee PC Gets an Optical Disc Drive

As we touched on in our news post for OCZ’s DIY Neutrino netbook the other day, this is one product-type that has really taken the world by storm. These full-featured computers are small and light, fast enough for most needs, normally include better-than-average notebook battery-life and of course, carry an easy-to-stomach price. For many people, a netbook is a perfect fit. But, there are a few obvious drawbacks, and ASUS takes care of one of the biggest ones with their upcoming Eee PC 1004DN.

What could that drawback possibly be? Well, if you own a netbook, you probably guessed it was the total lack of an optical disc drive. It might seem simple to use a PC without a disc drive, given the advent of flash drives and the like, but it becomes a chore when you want to either redo your computer, install something like Linux, or even install some other piece of software you have on disc. It can be done, but it’s time-consuming (unless you happen to have an external drive).

So, the 1004DN includes a CD/DVD burner, but the only press image that seems to be floating around is seen below. While it’s a nice shot, it conveniently doesn’t show the side, which makes it rather clear that this Eee PC isn’t going to be as thin as the others, and that’s no surprise given that was the problem all along. Compared to previous Eee PC’s though, this one also adds the Atom N280 1.66GHz to the mix, in addition to 2GB of RAM. Sounds like quite a nice netbook actually, but let’s wait to see the pricing first.

ASUS says that its new 1004DN is the first netbook in the Eee range to offer an integrated Super-Multi optical drive allowing users to read and write to CDs and DVDs on the go. The machine also features an Express Card slot for expansion. The new Chicklet-style ASUS keyboard is used on the machine that puts the right shift key in the correct position and the machine uses the Super Hybrid Engine (SHE) to extend battery life.