Gateway Crams Optical Drive Inside Ultraportable EC14D Notebook

One thing that bothers me about many ultraportable notebooks and netbooks is that they tend to cut the optical drive to save weight and reduce costs. The problem is that there are still times when an optical drive is really needed by many of us. Gateway has unveiled a new ultraportable called the EC14D that packs an optical drive into a small package.

The notebook has an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 HD resolution screen and uses an Intel Pentium SU4100 ULV processor. The machine has 4GB of RAM, 320GB of storage and the optical drive is an 8X super multi drive. The machine has a memory card reader and three USB ports as well.

Other features include 802.11b/g/n WiFi, an integrated webcam, multi touch track pad with gesture support, and HDMI out. Power comes from a standard 6-cell 5600mAh battery. The EC14D will ship later this month for $629.99.