Asus is preparing to update its W2 mobile multimedia notebook, equipping the new machine not only with a range of Core 2 Duo mobile microprocessors but also ATI's new Mobility Radeon X1700 chip and an HD DVD drive with HDMI output.

Called the W2P, the new machine builds on the W2J announced by Asus earlier this year. According to the W2P's specifications - seen by Reg Hardware - the 3.3kg, 39.5 x 29 x 3.5cm colossus will sport a WUXGA 1,920 x 1,200 display driven by the ATI GPU, which is connected to 256MB of GDDR 3 video memory. If that's not enough, the W2P can feed an HD TV through is HDMI port. The machine has on-board HDCP support.

The W2P is Windows XP Media Center Edition friendly, containing an hybrid analogue and digital TV tuner. The Dolby-certified sound system is routed through the chassis' four main speakers and a sub-woofer.

The machine will be offered with a range of 'Merom' Core 2 Duo processors - both 4MB L2 and 2MB L2 versions - and Core Duo chips. Whatever the CPU, it will be backed up with up to 2GB of dual-channel DDR 2 SDRAM. Centrino-branded, the W2P will have 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, and Asus has added Bluetooth 2.0.

Pricing and availability are not yet known. ®

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