The notebook market is booming, with the current trend shifting away from traditional laptops to very thin ultra-portables and ultra-books.
One of the biggest problems with these incredibly thin computer systems? The uber-sleek profile eliminates an optical drive. While not having an optical drive may be perfectly fine for some, particularly for those in a business environment, sometimes an optical drive is a necessity.
As such, Asus has rolled out a new DVD drive specifically designed to be paired with its line of Zenbook ultrabooks. Dubbed the Asus VariDrive, the device is actually a little bit more than a simple optical drive.
A more accurate description would be an ultrabook dock with a DVD burner inside. The VariDrive also boasts a trio of USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI output, VGA output and gigabit Ethernet.
The dock attaches to the ultrabook with a single USB cable. As expected, the USB ports can be used for a keyboard, external hard drive, mouse, or anything else you might want to connect to your ultrabook.
The dock can be configured in the L-shape seen above, plus it can rotate, allowing it to lay flat on the desk and take up less space.
Unfortunately, we don’t yet know exactly how much the docking station will cost or when it will ship.
