At about 70,000 yen, or $751 US dollars, the DosPara Prime Note Cresion is kind of expensive to be considered a netbook. Throw in a 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display and I know there will be some purists out there crying that this device isn’t even small enough to be a netbook. But it is relatively small and light. It weighs about 4.2 pounds and has an Intel Atom processor.
But here’s what it has that a typical netbook doesn’t:
- Dual core Atom 330 CPU
- NVIDIA ION graphics
- 2GB of RAM
- 320GB hard drive
- HDMI output
- A Blu-Ray drive
Wait, did you catch that last part? I actually first mentioned the Prime Note Cresion a few months ago, when it was selling for closer to $600. But that Blu-Ray drive? That’s new. And it’s a feature you probably aren’t going to find in any other 12 inch laptop for around $750 or less.
The disc drive also helps answer the question of what exactly that NVIDIA ION graphics chip is good for. Because now you can easily install and play games and watch Blu-Ray movies on this portable laptop without plugging in a USB disc drive.
But you know what this model still isn’t going to be able to do? Play HD Flash video or standard definition Hulu video in fullscreen mode. Fortunately (or unfortunately) Hulu isn’t available outside the US, and this laptop probably isn’t going to be available inside the US anytime soon.
via Akihabara News and Eee PC.net
I thought the dual-core atom could handle full screen Hulu…
https://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/asus-eeebox-eb1012-teases-home-theaters-with-dual-core-atom-and/
Nope, Engadget got that one wrong. There’ve been numerous tests published
showing that it can’t.
Well that’s good to know… come-on faster CULV chips… 😀
Why? What is the target audience?
Correct me if I’m wrong: you still can’t record on a Blu-Ray drive and, at least in my neck of the woods, only about 3% of the rental videos at the local Blockbuster store are Blu-Ray. So this is sort of a “be the first on your block to own” item.
And, by the way, that name is quite a mouthful 🙂
Correction: Apparently Blu-Ray burners are on sale already, but I don’t think the Cresion has one.
You can get blu-rays from netflix for an extra $1/month
You can also get ’em from Blockbuster Online. I guess what I was trying to say, but forgot to mention, was that most techie types probably want an optical drive in their laptop for moving files and software around as much as for playing videos, and they would give up that versatility by choosing a Blue-Ray player over a DVD burner.
I’m all for Blu-Ray and bought a player myself last fall when I finally got an HDTV. But it’s been a little disappointing how long it’s taking for Blu-Ray disks and burners to replace normal DVDs. But then some people are saying optical drives will soon be replaced by downloads, flash drives, etc, anyway.
I believe BR players still burn DVD/CDs… so you aren’t losing anything over a DVD burner.
I’m with you tho: on one hand a 16 GB flash drive is great for moving around files between computers, but some times you need to give a disc (or whatever) to someone. And a 700MB CDR is tiny for today’s files (at those sizes just email it). A 4GB DVD is better but getting smaller all the time…
My Samsung BD P2500 (standalone player) plays almost anything but records nothing. But I see from this Cnet review https://reviews.cnet.com/4321-3121_7-6645287.html that some laptops already have BD burners now and many more have, as you say, BD players that will burn CD/DVDs.
So you’re probably right about the Cresion. However, I see from Brad’s links that Akihabara and eeepc.net both refer to its drive as “read only,” but they may mean with reference to Blu-Ray.