Laptop manufacturer Fujitsu recently launched its FMV Note A WA3-K3, a laptop that is available only in Japan. It’s not the most expensive laptop, retailing at around US$800 (~RM3,368), while the top-tier model comes equipped with a Blu-ray drive. Yeap, apparently, that’s still a thing.
Supposedly, folks in Japan are more than willing to pay the extra US$70 (~RM294) for what is essentially a piece of multimedia history. The reason behind that? Optical media is still the preferred medium for the company, surpassing the current trend of digital media.
This trend is reflected in an earlier report, where shops in Akihabara reportedly started running out of PC Blu-ray drives. Earlier reports on the phenomenon point to the recent retirement of Windows 10, which has led to a surge in Japanese folks wanting to keep their physical media collection accessible. That said, it is unclear if the driver in the Fujitsu laptop supports 100GB BDXL disks or just the standard Blu-ray disks.
Getting back to the laptop, the Fujitsu WA3-K3 is, again, far from the most powerful device. Japanese customers get a choice between Intel’s Raptor Lake-U or AMD Ryzen 7000 Series APUs. The display measures at 16 inches, and is an FHD+ WUXGA LCD panel. Other specifications include storage ranging from 256GB to 2TB, while memory can go from 8GB to 64GB.
To further facilitate the allure, the WA3-K3 also ships with a physical media remote that includes, of all things, a trackpad, for easier PC navigation. Additionally, Fujitsu is also offering customers who purchase the Blu-ray equipped model with an external FHD monitor, ranging from 21-inches to 28-inches.
(Source: Fujitsu, Tom’s Hardware, Techspot)
