Eee PC with dedicated graphics?

Could this be what you will see on an Eee PC soon?

At a showcase of some of its latest products today, ASUS let us in on a little tidbit--an Eee PC Netbook with discrete graphics may be coming our way before the year is up. So far, all iterations of the Eee PC Netbooks make use of integrated Intel graphics. That's good enough for the casual gamer playing a game of Bejeweled or two, but certainly insufficient if you want to run a first-person-shooter or immersive racing game.

The ASUS spokesperson said that this is not the 10.2-inch N10 with Nvidia 9300M graphics, which has already been announced, but something in the Eee PC lineup of products. Though he could not be more specific about what other specs it will feature, we figure that the only way to differentiate a gamer-worthy Eee PC from the N10 will be the use of an SSD rather than a hard drive and perhaps a lower price.

We have mixed feelings about this. While the idea of an inexpensive Netbook capable of playing games is great, why does ASUS have to use the budget-friendly Eee PC brand for so many products? Also, why launch the N10 if something like that is in the works? We'll have to wait and see if the company really brings us this new Eee PC by the end of the year.