Samsung releases world's thinnest optical drive for use with Ultrabooks

[Shawn Knight]

Samsung has announced a new external optical drive billed as the world’s thinnest DVD writer at only 14mm in height. The drive is 18 percent thinner and 8 percent lighter than traditional DVD writers and was built to accompany Intel’s Ultrabooks, which as you know, ship without an optical drive.

The SE-218BB optical drive connects via a single USB port that supplies communication and power between the two devices using Samsung’s Smart Technology. The drive is compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows 7 (and we presume Windows 8 in the near future) and Mac. In addition to Ultrabook usage, Samsung tells us that the drive can be paired with supporting Android 3.1 Honeycomb or later tablets to watch DVDs on the go.

The optical drive uses a standard array of technology that’s been around for ages, such as buffer underrun prevention. When burning a CD, the drive requires a constant stream of data to be written. If there is an interruption in the data flow, a buffer underrun error will occur. With this technology, the drive is able to store incoming data in a buffer to help prevent such errors.

The drive is capable of varying read and write speeds depending on the type of media used: 24X CD-ROM, 24X CD-RW, 8X DVD±R recording, 5X DVD-RAM recording, 6X DVD+R Dual Layer recording, 6X DVD-R Dual Layer recording, 8X DVD+RW recording and 6X DVD-RW recording.

Samsung further highlights that this drive is eco-friendly as it uses lead-free soldering that removes harmful materials. Interested parties can pick up the SE-218BB now for $59.99.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/48347-samsung-releases-worlds-thinnest-optical-drive-for-use-with-ultrabooks.html

 

[Guest]

Come on, just let optical drive go. I don't really care if a floppy drive is hair thin after 2003.

 

[Trillionsin]

Come on, just let optical drive go. I don't really care if a floppy drive is hair thin after 2003.

As a matter of fact. I have a program that is very convenient to use with a floppy drive, bootable disk.
Having a floppy drive, and one thats pretty thin, and USB is pretty convenient.

However, with an optical drive... well...

Will this optical drive have two cables? or would it be powered over USB, and if it is, will it be capable of burning blu-ray discs? Of course I did skim through the article, so I know the answer...

I'd probably be willing to pay somewhere around $100 - $130 for a drive like this with blu-ray capabilities, (current technology) But I will not be willing to pay even $45 dollars for this device, no matter how thin it is.

 

[Nima304]

What's the point of this if it's external? Any other external DVD-RW drive will work just fine.

 

[Guest]

@^ If it's thinner, it's less bunk to carry around I suppose, especially along with a slim computer.

I still think optical media has a long life left ahead of it, simply because of how inexpensive it is. I mail stuff on DVDs all the time and no other physical medium comes close to the versatility. Props to Sammy for the slim writer.

 

[Guest]

getting an ultra book for college soon, might even get this incase i ever need to reinstall the OS,
making windows bootable from a USB just seem to much hassle

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

getting an ultra book for college soon, might even get this incase i ever need to reinstall the OS,
making windows bootable from a USB just seem to much hassle

It's actually ridiculously easy for Windows 7 (just as simple as burning a disc). Check out Microsoft's Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. I've read it works for Windows 8 too, but I haven't tried so I can't confirm for certain. Maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[mattfrompa]

getting an ultra book for college soon, might even get this incase i ever need to reinstall the OS,
making windows bootable from a USB just seem to much hassle

Microsoft actually has an official, free tool for creating bootable usb drives. It very simple to use too. And before you buy an ultrabook, I'd recommend comparing the value of it to a standard (I'd say business grade) laptop. In my opinion you pay way too much for it to be thin, and you can probably get a more powerful processor. or don't...either way, congrats and make your time in college count.

 

[Guest]

cool thanks, I'm actually waiting for the ivy's to come out!
an ultra book lasts what? about 9 hours? that should last at least the day for a college student, right?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Depends entirely on the machine. Sandy Bridge ultrabooks are quoted at 5-9 hours, with real world autonomy varying between usage scenarios and system settings. I get about 7 hours on the Folio 13 (which HP claims lasts 9 hours) with constant browsing, emailing and IMing. I imagine I could stretch that out a little more by disabling the keyboard backlighting, dimming the display and enabling Windows' power saver mode. Anyway, yes, an ultrabook that cites 7-9 hours should last the full school day, assuming you aren't using it non-stop.

 

[Guest]

People still use disc drives? I removed mine from my laptop to add a second hard drive, now using an ssd as my primary.

 

[yRaz]

I rarely use my optical drive, but I find it EXTREMELY CONVENIENT when I need to use it.

 

[avoidz]

Optical drives are still very useful. Good for making quick multiple backups of data (that won't fail like SSDs or flash memory or mechanical HDDs). I have hundreds of CDs and DVDs with years of programs and information. Movies still come on DVDs and Blu-rays. The optical drive isn't going anywhere just yet.

 

[gwailo247]

I rarely use my optical drive, but I find it EXTREMELY CONVENIENT when I need to use it.

Yep. I have found that for personal use, these days I'm usually going to use a USB stick to move data around. But I have also found that if anyone else is going to give me any kind of information in a physical media, its going to be a burned CD or DVD.

 

[Guest]

I have an external dvd drive for when I do need one, however I use it maybe once or twice a year at most.