Asustek Computer, a large maker of notebooks and computer components, is preparing to unveil its new laptop that will feature HD DVD optical drive. The company has also developed a Blu-ray disc drive for computers, which emphasizes that the manufacturer supports both formats during the format war.

The new Asus W2P-series laptop is based on Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor, Intel 945-series core-logic, up to 2GB of PC2-5300 (DDR2 533MHz) memory and is equipped with Mobility Radeon X1700 graphics processor. Besides, the new laptop has built-in TV-tuner, HDMI port, DolbyDigital comliant audio and so on. The machine weighs 3.3 kilograms, which is not a lot for a multimedia center laptop, however, its dimensions – 395mm x 290mm x 35mm – will hardly allow to use it like a mobile computer.

At Computex Taipei 2006 Asus demonstrated its internal 5.25” Blu-ray disk drive that can record and rewrite single-layer and dual-layer Blu-ray R/RW at 2x speed, single-layer or dual-layer DVD±R/RW as well as CD types of media. Asustek did not provide the model name for its new optical drive, which may be an indicator that the product was at a relatively early stage of development.

Asus W2P is not the first notebook to have an HD DVD drive built-in: earlier Acer and Toshiba unveiled their products of this kind as well.

Pricing of Asus W2P is unknown.