Japanese PC maker DosPara is no stranger to pushing the limits of netbooks and ultraportable laptops. The company was one of the first to put out a notebook with a dual core Atom 330 CPU and NVIDIA ION graphics, for example. But DosPara’s latest notebook ups the game with the addition of a Blu-Ray drive.

The Dospara limited edition “Yu-pon” model is based on a character from game animation company Nitro+. The notebook features a 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and an HDMI output. It’s loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium, and according to Akihabara News it’s due out in Japan this month for 69980 yen, or about $783 US. I doubt we’ll see this laptop in the US anytime soon though.

via Eee PC.net

The Asus Eee Box EB1501 was already one of the most powerful nettops in the Asus family thanks to a dual core Atom 330 processor, NVIDIA ION graphics, and a built-in DVD drive. But now it looks like there’s a Blu-Ray option as well, at least for European customers. Swiss retailer web site Toppreise.ch has listings for a Blu-Ray version of the nettop with Windows 7 Home Premium and 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive for about 426 Euros or $617 US.

Of course, for that kind of money you could get a much more powerful machine if you don’t care so much about size and low power consumption. But the EB1501 is one of the smallest Blu-Ray players you’re likely to find. The nettop is roughly the same size as a Nintendo Wii, which is to say, it’s not that much larger than the Blu-Ray discs it can read.

Toppreise.ch says the EB1501 with Blu-Ray will begin shipping on January 19th.

via Netbook Italia

With a growing number of mini-laptops packing NVIDIA ION graphics, it’s becoming more and more common to find notebooks that have no optical disc drives, but which are capable of handling Blu-Ray playback. The solution? You could rip your movies using another machine, but that takes ages. Or you could find a portable Blu-Ray drive that you can throw in your bag.

The Asus SBC-04D1S-U is a slim optical disc drive that can read Blu-Ray discs and burn CDs and DVDs. Aside from being slim and light, it has two pretty cool features. First, t’s BUS powered, which means you can connect it to your PC with 2 USB ports to turn it on without plugging it into a wall socket. And second, the pattern on the side of the disc drive glows when it’s powered up.

The disc drive doesn’t appear to be widely available yet (I couldn’t find it at the 5 or 6 electronics retailers I use most), but Google Shopping shows a number of vendors are selling it for between $175 and $200.

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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

Intel’s upcoming GN40 chipset is designed to provide improved HD video playback. But what exactly does that mean? You can already watch plenty of 720p content on a netbook with an Intel Atom N270 CPU and 945GSE chipset.

According to Fuzilla, an Intel product manager says the new Intel Atom N280/GN40 chipset will be able to handle 1080p playback. But it is not designed to decode Blu-Ray discs. In other words, you’ll be able to stream 1080p videos over the internet or watch high quality files stored on your hard drive. But the chipset won’t be able to keep up with Blu-Ray playback.

If you’ve got a netbook, that’s probably not a big deal. After all, most netbooks don’t have optical disc drives at all. And were you really planning on carrying around a USB Blu-Ray drive to plug in?

But if you were planning on picking up a nettop (or low power desktop) with the N280/GN40 combo and using it as a video player, you might want to hold out for NVIDIA’s ION platform to arrive. NVIDIA plans to pair a GeForce graphics processor with an Intel Atom CPU to deliver higher performance graphics. Machines with the ION chipset will probably cost a bit more than Intel-only hardware. And they’ll consume a little more electricity. But they should also be able to handle Blu-Ray playback.

via Netbook News.de