Next-gen W7J

Will we seeing the next generation of w7j or a totally new replacement 13.3" line any time soon? Upgrades being Merom processor, DVI port, HDMI port, perhaps HD-DVD drives (if they are going to be entering the market)

 

Probably not in the immediate future.

 

I think the w7j was just recently released so I wouldn't expect a w7x (or whatever letter Asus wants to use after 'j') anytime soon. Aren't HD-DVD drives really expensive and currently not so useful? I think you can only find them in monster 20'' laptops right now.

 

It's been out for a month and supplies of them have been slow as anything.... and of course there is a "next gen" question.

The W3 and W7 should be the last models to get updated to merom, as they were the last models of the year to come out.... I expect everything to be updated before the middle of October.... The first Merom based systems are going to start coming over at the end of August for what will probably a ship date to end users during the first week of September or so...... a month from that point is when all systems *should* be updated, but we should all know that if the end of October rolls around and they're still not all updated, not to be surprised... but they should be because this is an easy swap and all inventory is extremely low, so it shouldn't cause any problems.

In terms of HD-DVD drives and HDMI..... if we have HD-DVD drives by this time next year in all systems, I'd be surprised.... the W2 will be the first model to get one and I think that's still probably 7-8 months away.... The drives are $1000 right now, so considering the cost of a normal top end 8x super multi dvd burner is no more than $300 at this time... adding $700 to the cost of a notebook is quite a bit, especially if that notebook is $1500....... when it's $2500 like the W2, it doesn't seem like that big of a jump.

 

Then again, from what I understand, the Merom processors are drop in compatible with the chipset the W7J/F is using. Wouldn't even need to change the box or the instructions.

Meh, who knows.

 

... right, but the fact is that at launch every country wants them and Asus needs to produce them...... and the factory produces certain models during certain weeks...... and then, although this doesn't seem to be a problem at this juncture, anyone with stock of a current model wouldn't order the new ones just yet because they would like to get rid of those first.... The US office of Asus is known for being super conservative, so it's anybody's guess...