Laptop Mag was first to get their hands on the Gateway EC14D07U and reviewed it.

The EC14D07U is very similar to other netbooks like the 1410 from Gateway’s parent company, Acer.  The difference being the addition of an internal DVD burner.

Here are their final words:

The Gateway EC14D07u provides a good balance of performance and battery life while providing an added perk with its integrated DVD drive. However, this ultraportable costs $80 more than the optical drive-less EC1430u, which offers the same processor and similar endurance. And even though it’s slower and has a more cramped touchpad, the $399 Acer Aspire 1410 is the best value in this category (assuming you’re willing to live with a smaller 160GB hard drive). However, if you like the idea of watching (or burning) DVDs on the go or at home, this ultraportable may be worth the premium.

They make a great point.  You could an 11.6″ netbook for as low as $279.  You could get an HDMI netbook for as little as $399.  If you wanted to, you could pay an extra $50 to get an external DVD burner and just be done with it.  The downside is that if you need your DVD burner with you all the time but don’t want to carry around the weight of a standard notebook you don’t have many options.  The $629 street price isn’t cheap but this kind of netbook isn’t geared toward the usual netbook buyer.  If there a netbook geared toward the professional business user this would be it.

[Source:  Laptop Mag]

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