Gateway Shoves DVD Drive into Ultraportable EC Series

Posted 03/18/2010 at 6:09am | by Paul Lilly

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Building a thin and light ultraportable notebook means making a few concessions, and in some cases, that includes removing the optical drive. Not so with Gateway's new EC series, the company's first ultraportable to sport an integrated DVD drive. Kicking off the new series is the 11.6-inch EC14D01h.

"Customers understand how convenient it is to have a notebook PC that is portable enough to take nearly anywhere to stay connected and have fun -- and the new EC14D01h brings a new element of entertainment to customers with the ability to watch DVD movies, play games on CD and DVD and more," said Chris Chiang, product manager for Gateway Canada. "The integrated DVD drive in such a compact device will be a huge benefit for customers who want the flexibility to enjoy and share different movies, music, photos, and more stored on a DVD or CD."

Other hardware consists of an Intel Peniu. SU4100 ULV processor (1.3GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz frontside bus), integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 4GB of DDR2-667 memory (upgradeable to 8GB), 320GB hard drive, memory card reader, Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and S/PDIF, multi-gesture touchpad, 6-cell battery,a nd Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Gateway said it will begin shipping the EC14D01h later this month in Canada for 580 moose bucks ($574 USD). No word on when, or if, Gateway plans on shipping this one south of the border.

Image Credit: Gateway