Asus W2P, now with a glorious HD DVD drive

Asus is putting its money where its HD DVD slot is, adding the swanky optical drive to its new line of W2 laptops with its latest addition, the W2P. Building on the previous W2J model, this slick little number packs HDCP support, HDMI out, an ATI Mobility Radeon X1700 chip, a hybrid analog / digital TV tuner, built-in Dolby surround sound, three-flavor WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, up to 2GB of SDRAM and "a range of" Merom Core 2 Duo chips including both 4MB L2 and 2MB L2 cache versions. Unfortunately, we've got zero intel on pricing or availability for now, but we'll keep you updated on this multimedia powerhouse as more deets emerge.

[Chris @ Sep 25th 2006 2:11PM]

I think asus may be the only computer manufacturer that really gives apple a run for their money in looks... i swear asus has some of the sexiest laptops i've seen in a long time and they are always powerful... then again i think ASUS manufactures apples laptops LOL

I love to see HDDVD and Asus together , that and core 2 duo's and awesome components this looks to be a great laptop.... but considering the specs and it being asus i'd expect 2300-2800$ to be this price range.

[D @ Sep 25th 2006 2:24PM]

Very nice. I have had the W2Jb model for about four months and I love my current machine. Now, this one is even better. I'm not upset about my purchase since I can always upgrade my core duo 2.0GHz to a core 2 duo later on.



On a side note, I also bought my girlfriend a MacBookPro couple months ago and her machine's processor can not be upgraded to the core 2 duo since Apple soldered, crippled it.

[TS @ Sep 25th 2006 2:44PM]

That's quite the media-centric laptop. Don't even want to know what price will be...

[Allan @ Sep 25th 2006 3:08PM]

Please be under 2000, please be under 2,000

[ROFLROFFLES @ Sep 25th 2006 3:10PM]

I prefer Vaio's look to Apple's and Asus' though.

'Tis a shame that Vaio has such shoddy build quality.

[LukeA @ Sep 25th 2006 3:12PM]

Why does that Windows laptop have the same desktop as is standard on every Mac?

[Naris @ Sep 25th 2006 3:51PM]

To #1: Asus did help design the ibook, not too sure if they're still doing anything with apple.

Man I love their sleek look, not too fond of the high price though. I wouldn't be shocked if this sold for $2500+

[ray @ Sep 25th 2006 4:22PM]

Asus manufactures the Vaios for Sony and all of Apple's notebooks.

[Dave @ Sep 25th 2006 5:05PM]

When we will see Blu-Ray?

[JesseRPI @ Sep 25th 2006 5:32PM]

Drool...

[Gandhi @ Sep 25th 2006 6:35PM]

CHris -

Asus builds laptops for Apple. Of course they can give Apple a run for the money - they copied the freaking design.

[Mitchell @ Sep 25th 2006 6:45PM]

Does it run Tiger too? Has a tiger background.

[D @ Sep 25th 2006 8:00PM]

ASUS awards for their products and in their design:
http://usa.asus.com/awards.asp

* 2006 1,303 awards won so far.
* 2005 1,706 awards won.

They can stand on their own.

[sdwells @ Sep 25th 2006 8:43PM]

Obviously because the design is nearly the same as apples it is a nice looking laptop... it reminds me of what probably the next instalment of apples 17incher will look and be speced like. Since apple appears to be coloring a few of their top of the line models in black that could quite frankly be almost exactly what a "special edition" black 17 macbookpro will look like. The asus W2P looks pretty slick though and i'd price it at just under 3,000 considering the premium price put on including the hd-dvd drive and hdmi out.

[dbell @ Sep 25th 2006 11:59PM]

um, can you even tell the difference between DVD and HDDVD on a screen that size? Why pay the extra benjamins (plus the extra cash for the movies) unless you have a 42" TV to connect it to, in which case why not buy a standalone HDDVD player? Am I missing something?

[Ebzy @ Sep 26th 2006 6:56AM]

O you tease