ASUS announces Eee PC E1004DN with optical drive, 1008HA gets a release date
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted March 27th 2009 3:32PM
posted March 27th 2009 3:32PM
In a bombshell of moderate proportions, the gang at DigiTimes have reported that ASUS will be following Mouse Computer's lead (when was the last time you heard that?), and have announced the first Eee PC equipped with an optical drive, the E1004DN. This bad boy sports an Intel Atom N280 CPU, a 120GB HDD, and will be in the ballpark of NT $18,000 - 20,000 (roughly $531 - $590). It should see the light of day sometime in mid-April. The same source reports that the Eee PC 1008HA will be getting its release in May. Out of curiosity, we asked @billyjoel for a comment and have yet to receive a response.
afternoon, engadget. scared me there with that NT price. might suprise my mom with one of these
so way off topic but guess what, bitches... skyblze just got himself an HP HDX18t! customized it with pretty nice specs but when I get done upgrading it (with stuff HP either charged my nuts for or just didn't have) its gonna be b.a.l.l.s. t.o. t.h.e. w.a.l.l. A.W.E.some, ya digg!
I concur.
Rather stuff something interesting in there, like blood sample meter, or dual sim cards, finger recognition, or ANYTHING..but i dont remember the last time i used my optical drives.
you're a very odd character, skyblaze.
he blurs the line between troll and badass comic relief
he is an internet superhero now.
really. who wants an optical drive? i rarely even use it... i prefer to buy an external one for the extra 90 bucks they are charging (which i might as soon as i buy an eee) Personally i would rather see a release date and price on the eee t101h.. I could say ive been dreaming about it but it would be a lie. but i defenetly would prefer that if the price is close.
Hm, I use the optical drive on my large laptop all the time, especially for use as a portable DVD player- considering that a major point of these netbooks is for portability, I can see the benefits for some people, and as Asus seems to be trying to leave no potential niche uncovered with their myriad of models... though I suppose with an optical drive you'd even more so want to be in a situation where there's access to a power outlet...
If it is not a Blue Ray then forget it...
Get a nice huge Speedy 16GB flash drive for $25
"sarcasm"
Unfortunately, the disc drive only plays Audio CDs..
..wouldn't that suck?
EEE + Optical = WTF?
Agreed. The Eee has officially jumped the shark, so to speak.
I have an irrational hatred for these things. They're too small to be useful for prolonged periods of time, and are now approaching the price of a regular sized laptop that has much better specs (aside from battery life).
Optical drive? Thanks ASUS, now netbooks have officially jumped the shark...
Not sure about anyone else here but I picked up a 1000he a week ago. I love the damn thing. Small, compact, powerful and perfect. I was thinking how bad it would be without an optical drive but then I realized - I have not used one for a very long time. The only thing I use one for is my blu-rays. Other than that, nada. I don't burn or rip anything. Besides, if I need an optical drive, I can use my desktop one through the network.
Most all media now is via USB drives or downloads.
I've heard "adequate for my needs" but I've never heard "powerful" to describe a netbook...
What were you using before? An abacus?
I like the sound of a netbook priced PC with an optical drive in it, that's the main reason why I didn't buy one recently for myself and why I will wait to consider getting one for my aunt.
Optical drives need to disappear.
I know a lot of Billy Joel, but I don't get the reference here. Can anybody help me out?
Okay, since the image is from the back cover of "Glass Houses" (which is the whole reason I clicked on this article, as that was my very first favorite album when I was in third grade, and it brought a smile to my face to see it, but I digress), I'm guessing it is an attempt to say that, by making this move, ASUS is the proverbial glass-house-living stone thrower. Honestly, it's a bit of a stretch, IMO.
PS - I love your 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution, Dr. Funke!
Isn't that 'The Man Inside Me' not the band, don't think they showed an album covere for the band.
I'm guessing he's hopped up on some Chemgrow drug, and very confused.
For $531-$590 you might as well buy a cheap notebook which would be substaintially more powerful and functional, but a bit larger at 10" versus 15.4".
Sure, if you consider 50% just a "bit", and of course if you dont plan to move it AT ALL.
Thanks for your input
This is brilliant news! Like several others, I couldn't care less about the optical drive, but this means that standard netbooks now have tons of extra space - useful for an extra HDD (standard or SSD), or extra battery capacity, or redesigning the whole thing much thinner and lighter! Can't wait to see what they come up with ...
Stupid move Asus, no one wants a netbook with an optical drive. And for that price they could have a real notebook! The whole point of a netbook is to not be a notebook!
A major discrepancy is that ¥20,000 is actually closer to $205. I live in Japan and know you will be able to get them for less!
Google says 18,000 yen is roughly 183.67 U.S. dollars.... Seems like a mighty fine price for a portable DVD player that I can play solitaire on.
NT $ = ¥??
Too bad the currency is New Taiwan Dollar and not Yen...RTFA.
NT $ != JPY.
New Taiwan Dollar.
1.00 TWD (Taiwan New Dollars) = 0.0296103 USD (United States Dollars)
Nice job of getting rid of the crappy old eee PC logo that they throw on everything. I commented about how amateur it looks yesterday and BOOM, today you throw it out and place a nice BJ on the screen. Excellent work!
that picture rocks
We don't need an optical drive. We do need a tv-out. Give us a netbook with a tv-out.
I like the addition. Not sure i would pick that model up though.
That looks awfully similar to the macbook keyboard
for the extra cost of a cd drive wouldn't it have made more sense to either make a proper display with atleast 768pixels, or redesign the shift key? those are the only two things keeping me from buying the 1000HE
would... much... rather... have... 1080p... decoding... and... HDMI... out!!!!!!11111
Seriously... I'm getting impatient. :-|
Does anybody else here feel like we're slowly getting screwed by the industry? I mean these things are approaching and even surpassing regular laptop prices, but they are giving us smaller screens, weaker Atom processors and now even giving us optical drives? Meanwhile everyone is cheering.
Netbooks are supposed to be cheap small laptops designed for surfing the web and priced around $300-350 tops. When they start getting into the $400-$500 range I want a better processor, dedicated graphics and a bigger screen.
Soon you won't be able to buy a regular laptop for less then $1000 because everything under that price will be an inferior netbook.
I dont care about the optical drive but his is a sweet looking netbook, no doubt.
I'm holding off on a netbook still.
Primary use for my computer is FFXI. get me a netbook that will play that well and I'll be game.
Why is it EVERY netbook seems to have the same specs now. it was fantastic when the first one came out. ohhh ahhhh... it so tiny, I bought one for my friend. now the market is so saturated with netbooks that are all alike. what gives?
adding an optical drive? isn't that going to reduce the battery just to add functionality nobody really wants that bad anyway? Sure, it will fill a niche, and those people that would use it will love this! but we need REAL innovation. let me see the technology of today crammed into that bad boy! 1.6 ghz Intel Atom is old news now.
About 8 months ago I bought this laptop for my sister (starting college)
TL-60 (Dual Core athlon) 2.0ghz. - I knew it wasnt the best but good enough for her to listen to music and surf the internet while doing "homework".
2gb ram
250gb harddrive
14.1" Widescreen
HDMI Output
DVD Burner
Webcam
This was all for $425 delivered. I know it's not the smallest laptop, but definately small for a full functional one, and for the price it was a great deal.
Hook it up to the 42" plasma and it looks great for movies!
I am hoping I can get a decent processor netbook with an HDMI out and some type of optical drive. I would love to be able to take the laptop up the mountains and watch movies by the fire on TV without having to bring all types of gadgets. I'd be willing to pay upwards of $450 because of the decreased size.
I know I'm in fantasy land.. but hopefully in the near future!
Just to show a variety of people read this site I thought I'd respond and give my own seemingly very different two cents.
1) Regular notebook prices may be that low in the States but they certainly are not in Australia or here in Japan - the very base models start at at least US$800 equiv (current xch anyway) - much higher than netbooks.
2) Asus is trying to find themselves another audience for their machines - it's smart business. As others have pointed out netbooks are pretty much all the same and Asus is distinguishing itself by offering something different while still staying within the product's initial function - portable computing. They are not meant to be high rez entertainment machines - other things perform that function far better. Netbooks are selling well because they are cheap computers not because they have an internet connection (as ALL computers do) or even because they are small (the increasing size is proof of that.) People don't want to pay for the latest whiz bang specs if they aren't going to use them. Sure, if you're backpacking around the world then they'd be a godsend but if you're going to put it on a table somewhere why on earth would anyone WANT to surf on a screen less than 14" (hell 21") unless they absolutely had to.
3) Who would want an optical drive? People like me who use a desktop (rather than a notebook AS a desktop, I'll never understand that one) and like the idea of a notebook small enough to be actually portable but large enough to touch type on (10-12") which will allow me to get up from the desk and AWAY from the internet and just work on documents. I don't need full specs, a netbook is enough for word-processing (the writing part, not the layout part, obviously) and to have some music playing BUT I need an optical drive to install apps, music etc... For anything else (including editing after the work is actually down with no distractions) I can use my desktop.
I nearly bought the Kohjinsha, despite its ridiculous size, the day this news came out - I'm glad I waited, I'll be snapping this one up.