Now screening: Netbooks too often are like a range of cars. The varying bodywork makes them look deceptively different from each other, but turn the key and you find that where they count, under the hood, the differences are all but nonexistent. Maybe the engineers at Kohjinsha are into motorcycles. Their newly released EX netbook maintains the company's reputation for going down the road less traveled. The EX has an 11.6-inch 1,366 × 768 resolution LED backlit screen, which is a tad larger than the netbook average. Moreover, it's possible to rotate the screen independently of the keyboard thanks to a swivel mount. The screen is also touch sensitive, making it function more like a tablet computer than a standard netbook. Apart from possessing a beefier than typical screen, the EX also breaks from the netbook mold because it has an optical drive, in this case a DVD-RW. As usual for Kohjinsha, the EX is beautiful sporting a refined silver and black color scheme.

Looking under the hood, the EX betrays its netbook heritage. It contains the usual suspects of an Intel Atom N270 1.6-gigahertz processor, a 160-gigabyte hard drive and a Windows XP operating system. However, Kohjinsha is more generous with the memory, packing in 2 gigabytes of RAM. The netbook also has Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth and a fingerprint reader. It weighs 1.7 kg and its battery life is about 4 1/2 hours. One final feature is a pair of built-in Webcams, but the benefits of having two are unclear.

The EX is pricier than the average netbook at ¥69,800, or ¥59,800 if you opt for the more anemic 1 gigabyte of memory. But the advantages of a bigger, more versatile screen and included optical drive are worth it. jp.kohjinsha.com/