02.03
Since the announcement of Apple’s Macbook Air there’s been a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of the ultra-thin, ultra-lightweight laptop. One of the more persistent complaints is the lack of any built in optical drive.
I’ve always contended that an external USB device would do in a pinch and to prove my point I give you the Infosafe External Slim USB 2.0 DVD +/- RW Dual Layer Drive from Startech.
Weighing in at 12.35 oz [350 g] and needing no power adapter for CD / DVD-ROM use (you will need the supplied adapter for burning CDs and DVDs) you could easily toss this into your laptop bag if you need access to an optical drive while on the go.
And this is no lightweight optical drive, either. Dual Layer means you can burn up to 8.5 gigs of data to a single DVD and at 24X the CD performs quite well with the DVD clocking in at 8X for single layer and 4X for dual.
Just to be clear, you don’t have to buy a new Macbook Air to benefit from this piece of hardware. This drive makes for an easy to install addition to any desktop or laptop computer and can even jump to the rescue as a replacement device for exiting equipment that has failed or is just under-performing.
