ViewSonic ultraportable swaps out optical drive with extended battery

ViewSonic’s 13.3-inch ViewBook Pro (VNB131) promises up to 8-hour battery life with the standard 6-cell battery but you can also swap out the built-in optical drive with an included 3-cell battery slice for an extra four hours of juice. That’s a nice touch for anyone who’s on the go a lot but still needs to be able to work with disc-based media from time to time.

The notebook’s specs include the following:

  • Ultra low voltage SU7300 Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
  • Windows 7 Home Premium
  • 13.3-inch LED-backlit screen at 1280×800 resolution
  • 320GB hard drive
  • 2GB RAM
  • Removable DVD burner that can be replaced with an included 3-cell battery
  • Two USB ports, card reader, HDMI/VGA output, 1.3-megapixel webcam
  • Aluminum enclosure measures an inch thick, body weight of 3.61 pounds

It’s available now for $949 from ViewSonic.

Viewsonic VNB131 [ViewSonic.com]