The summer is finally upon us, and you can expet many netbook manufacturers to refresh their netbook offerings. Asus is no different. Asus Eee PC 1004dn is the next generation Asus netbook that improves upon previous Eee PCs in various areas. For starters, Asus Eee will finally get the faster N280 CPU. The hard drive capacity has also been improved to 120 GB.

The finger reader added to Asus Eee PC 1004dn should give you peace of mind if you are worried about others accessing your sensitive netbook data. The Eee keyboard is very easy to type on, so you won’t have any trouble blogging on this netbook. Best of all, you do get a DVD writer with this netbook. Now I am not sure having a DVD write is necessary, but it’s good to have the option.

Asus Eee PC 1004dn is a next generation netbook that addresses some of the fundamental issues with the current netbooks (security, storage, media). It will cost you somewhere in the $600s, but it does have many features to justify that price tag.

Your take: would you spend $600 on 1004dn Eee?

Asus Eee PC 1004dn Cases: if you are lucky enough to get one of these netbooks, you may want to consider the following 1004dn accessories:

• ASUS Eee PC 1004DN 10.1″ Netbook Faux Suede Protective Sleeve
• ASUS Eee PC 1004DN 10.1″ Netbook Vertical Multi Pocket Messenger Bag
• ASUS Eee PC 1004DN Netbook CaseCrown Double Memory Foam Thin Netbook Case With Front Pocket
  

Credit Flickr

When do you realize someone is going for the fences? When you see them do something completely illogical. That’s exactly what can be said about Asus’ Eee PC 1004DN. Asus has some of the best netbooks on the market, but it’s latest “premium” netbook is anything but a netbook. Eee PC 1004DN comes with a DVD drive and weighs about 4 pounds, and like those shiny HP laptops it comes with a fingerprint reader.

It is great that Asus is trying to bring DVD to its netbooks, but I am not sure this is the way to do it. A netbook is a super portable device that is designed to be simple, yet powerful. The goal is to create and consume data on the Internet. While there will be demand for 1004DN, DVD is the past and adding it to netbooks is a move in the wrong direction. You can always use the name “netbook” to sell more laptops but stop pretending that you are reaching out to the netbook fans. Thankfully, Asus still has some of the best netbooks on the market. But let’s hope their experiments stays just that..