Thinking that an optical drive is essential for any notebook, and thus even a netbook, Gateway had decided to make a 11.6-inch EC Series EC14D that features a DVD drive but still retains all the key features of a netbook.

Due to the size of the slim optical drive, the new Gateway EC14D is far from thin at 3cm (1.18inches) but then again that's what you get when you try to squeeze an optical drive into a 11.6-inch netbook case. The full dimensions of the EC14D are 292x211.5x30mm (WxDxH).

The new EC14D is equipped with Intel's dual-core SU4100 CPU clocked at 1.3GHz, 4GB of memory, GMA 4500MHD graphics, 320GB drive and of course an 8x DVD writer. The 11.6-inch LED-backlit display has a 1366x768 and judging by the pictures this one might not be glossy (hopefully?).

The rest of the features include three USB ports, HDMI and VGA outputs, multi-gesture touchpad, card reader, gigabit LAN, 802.11n WiFi and a built-it webcam.

The new Gateway EC14D should be available pretty soon at a suggested price tag of US $629.99