seriously $500 for a netbook?
i'd rather get a 13 inch notebook with a core 2 duo and 2gb of ram.

Agreed - I have an asus eee 900HA. At 1.6ghz & 1gb of ram, it does everything i need. I dont think these netbooks need optical drivers - it just adds to the weight.

I use a flash drive & external harddrive to transfer files back and forth, and if needded, i would just get an external burner.

Optical drive doesntjustify the cost increase, either...

the EEE pc can now be considered as laptops.

$531 what are they apple, i mean nuts, i could get a nice dell for that, not an underpowered, over priced, old hardware junk, sounds like apple...

At that point you might as well get a notebook.

No matter how many bells and whistles they put in, no device running the Atom CPU can be worth more than maybe $399 max. The CPU itself is just too slow to be a viable alternative in more expensive note/net/notbooks.

Agreed. Crazy to think that price is remotely reasonable.

In response to the title: false. It is now a budget notebook. Not because of the optical drive -- you could always attach a USB DVD drive to the old EEE, but the price. $531 is notebook territory; cheap, sure, but notebook nonetheless.

I honestly think that an optical drive is a must for a netbook. My aspire one doesn't have one, but I can usually use my 8GB flash drive for most of my data transfer needs, and where my flash drive can't do the job of an optical drive I have my external dvd drive.

I think the industry needs a standardized and regulated definition for "netbook", in much the same way that there are standards that dictate the classification of a car. In may ways, this is similar to what's happened to the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV-4, and the Kia Sportage. They were originally intended as economic, no-frils, compact SUVs—and now the RAV-4 (or was it the CR-V, or both?) offers third row seating. This was a class of SUV that originally competed with the Suzuki Vitara/Sidekick/Geo-Chevy Tracker and the Jeep Wrangler, mini-utes, the whole lot of them, many of them with ragtops, no less. They've lost sight of what they originally intended to create. The Honda Fit/Jazz, Honda's entry-level sub-compact, is in fact larger and more powerful than the first-generation Honda Accord, whose successor is now within a stone's throw of Large Car status, a segment housing the likes of the Dodge Charger and the ancient Ford Crown Victoria.
People are always going to demand small and cheap, and when they get it, they want something just a little bit bigger, and just a little bit higher quality (and consequently, more expensive). That turns into a vicious cycle, the grass always being greener on the other side. They go bigger and better until they realize that it's too big and they decide to further downsize from the (now super-sized) "down-sized" option.

^^ Conclusion, things keep getting bigger and wider cause us north americans keep getting bigger and wider.

Netbooks are basically just small form factor laptops with really shitty spec components, bleh. How about making one in that form factor with some decent (cpu, gfx)power, then I would havee to listen to friends moaning when they can't play 4 year old games (!!!) on them?

I've only put a disc in my new (Christmas) desktop 2 times!

Where do you get a 13 inch notebook for that price? And dont bother mentioning the Dell Inspiron line ;-)

I bought an external dvd/burner along with my 1000H Eee, and I would recommend that to anyone considering a netbook over getting one with the actual optical drive. I can install anything easily if need be.

The only time you need a optical on a netbook is if you need to reinstall the OS. I use Dameon tools to mount images to install disks on my Asus eeepc 900HA. I agree a netbook is worthless after you break the $399 price. $500+ is absurd, looks like Acer will the top Netbook producer with their low prices.

A netbook needs an optical drive to watch DVD movies without having to decrypt/rip/process/copy. Sure, there is SW available to rip DVDs - but one ventures into controversial territory when doing so: Is it legal "fair use", or illegal breaching of the DVD copyright warning screen and DMCA? (The answer probably depends on how much $ you have to hire teams of lawyers to fight MPAA, if it comes down to that.)

And since one of the few valid uses of the small/light-for-travel netbook is to watch movies in-flight, this is a relevant issue.

If all you wanted to do was watch movies, spend $80 on a portable dvd player. Else, use image rips and mounts.

I have the new Eee PC 1000E and it has everything but the G40. All of my friends with $500 laptops are envious, because they have Vista which takes forever to boot on a low end machine. XP or Linux is definetly the way to go. My other laptop is a Dell M1730, but it is just too big to lug around. I want the G40 because I watch .MKV files and this is just bearly shy of being able to play them, although it is great playing back DVD .ISO's using Magic Disk (free).

[citation][nom]rtfm[/nom]Netbooks are basically just small form factor laptops with really shitty spec components[citation]

Yeah...pretty much.

I have to agree with that. Only a few people who buys netbook knows how to "download" or "shared" DVD movies into their computer. An build-in optical drive can be handy for those "unexperienced" user. However my cquestion is that will the battery last for a 2hr movie in an optical build-in net book? (don't tell me it is going to have a 6-8 cell battery... that's for notebook not netbokk... )

I paid $653 for my netbook Ok, it was AUD, so what?

Seriously, it's nice to see an eeePC that is actually different to the others besides the model name for once, even if it does put it in a price range where it will struggle to complete.

Good point

I'd rather get a crappy Dell ... wait scratch that, because the Dell would just fall apart ... I rather pop in another $100 for a decent laptop that can do a lot more than a netbook can ever do with a wider screen.

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

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.

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$.

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.

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.