MSI adds a DVD drive to a 'grown-up netbook'

MSI HAS ACKNOWLEDGED that the lines between netbook and laptop buyers are blurring even further by adding the much-anticipated MSI X-Slim X600 to its current roster.

Thightop pioneer MSI was among the first makers of pocketable PCs to ditch the optical drive in favour of a smaller footprint and longer battery life. But it seems that users are looking for a compromise between portability and usefulness as evidenced by the Taiwanese company's latest offering, which comes bundled with an external optical drive.

The MSI X600 is aimed at the thin and light market currently dominated by Apple's oh so pretty but pricey Macbook Air line as well as a raft of slick offerings from Sony. MSI's entry has been treading the rumour mill for months, but now it's out and MSI has taken to calling it a "grown-up netbook".

Currently on sale for $800 at Amazon and Newegg in the US only, the 15.6-inch 'ultraportable notebook' weighs in at a reasonably hefty 2.5 kilos (5.5 pounds) but is less than an inch thick at its fattest point and a little over 15 x 10 inches long and wide.

Processing power is delivered by Intel's 1.4GHz Core 2 ULV CPU and graphics are handled by an ATI HD 4330 graphics card powering the WXGA display at a maximum resolution of 1366x768.

The X600 comes with a six-cell battery, a 320GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM as standard, and also sports a 1.4 megapixel webcam and two USB 2.0 ports. Add HDMI out, 802.11bgn WiFi, Bluetooth and a choice of black or silver livery and you have the full picture.

We reckon this is not quite slick enough to be utterly desireable, and a wee bit underpowered at the price point, but it fills a nice middle ground niche between the budget-busting Apple and Sony offerings and smaller netbooks like the Eee PC. µ