Lite-On eNAU708 Portable 8x DVD Writer

Model: Lite-On eNAU708 Portable 8x DVD Writer
Manufacturer: Lite-On IT
Provided By: Lite-On IT America

Lite-On IT got its start in 1995 when its parent company, Lite-On Technology, gathered a group of scientists and engineers to start an optical storage research and manufacturing business. Lite-On Technology quickly established itself as Taiwan’s largest CD-ROM drive manufacturer and by 1999 the business had spun off into a separate company, Lite-On IT. Since then, Lite-On IT has continued to grow. By working closely with companies like BenQ and Philips, they've expanded into the consumer and automotive electronics markets, becoming the world's second largest ODD manufacturer.

With the growing popularity of ultrabooks and tablets, Lite-On has set its sights on the portable optical drive market. Over the last few years, the company has introduced a number of external slim DVD writers. One of the latest additions to this line is the eNAU708. This stylish and compact drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 6x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. The eNAU708 is also USB powered and features support for Lite-On's various SMART technologies. To top it all off, the drive comes with Nero Essentials as well as Lite-On's own MyDisk Suite which includes applications for the PC, iPad and iPhone.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what the eNAU708 has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect from Lite-On's external slim DVD writer, we'll take a look at some of  the drive's features and then put it through its paces to see how it performs. Is the eNAU708 the best choice for the person on the go? Keep reading as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Lite-On eNAU708 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• External Drive Quick Installation Guide
• Nero Software CD
• MyDisk Suite CD
• MyDisk Suite Quick Installation Guide
• USB Y Cable

Physical Features:

The drive Lite-On sent us for this review was manufactured in November of 2011 and had firmware 8L41. At the time of this review, this is the only firmware available for the eNAU708. 

The Lite-On eNAU708 is one of the smallest DVD writers on the market today. Measuring 141 x 18.6 x 132.8 mm, it's not much larger than a couple of jewel cases stacked on top of one another. 

The body of the eNAU708  is constructed out of lightweight, black plastic. The top of the drive has a glossy finish that looks nice, but finger prints and smudges have a tendency to stand out. The bottom and sides of the eNAU708 have a normal matte finish. There are also four small rubber feet on the bottom to keep it from sliding around when placed on a flat surface.

The LED and eject button are located along the front of the eNAU708. This LED lights up green when both reading and writing. You can also see a few logos showing support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.

Along the rear, you can see the eNAU708's USB 2.0 interface. This connector not only transfers data but provides power for the drive.

Like many portable drives, the eNAU708 comes with a USB Y cable, which lets you draw power from two USB ports instead of just one. I'm not really sure what Lite-On was thinking when they designed the one for the eNAU708, but they chose some very odd lengths. Despite the fact that there are nearly 20 inches of cable between the two Type A connectors, there are only 8 inches of cable between the first Type A connector and the mini-USB connector. As a result, the drive needs to be placed very close to the computer.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from Lite-On's website and the manual that came with the drive.

The eNAU708 features what Lite-On calls SmartWrite technology. Previously known as HyperTuning, SmartWrite automatically creates writing strategies for unknown, or unsupported, DVD±R and DVD±R DL media. Simply enable SmartWrite, insert your disc and burn. The new writing strategy is then created on-the-fly.

SmartWrite also works with supported media. When enabled, the drive will ignore the writing strategy stored in the firmware and instead create a new one. This is very useful if you are trying to record a disc that uses another company's MID code (I.E. fake TYG02 code discs).

OverSpeed:

The eNAU708 supports Lite-On's OverSpeed function. When enabled, the drive will try to write to your DVD±R media at a speed higher than what would normally be supported. To do this, OverSpeed relies heavily on SmartWrite. When a disc is written at a higher than normal speed, SmartWrite will automatically create a new writing strategy for it.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Lite-On's new DVD writer is identified as a "Slimtype eNAU708 5."

Nero also shows that the eNAU708 has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 1536KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by SMART-BURN buffer underrun protection as well. According to Nero, the eNAU708 can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media. 
 

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the eNAU708 is a "two sheep" burner and is capable of backing titles protected by SafeDisc 2.90. Like most drives, it did not pass the "three sheep" test.

Here is a screen shot from Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control. Among other things, this program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. Opti Drive Control had no problems detecting the eNAU708's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the eNAU708 is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. While there isn't an RPC-1 firmware available for the drive, there is a utility available that can make the drive region free.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the eNAU708's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities.  By looking at the screenshot above you can see that Lite-On's new drive supports LightScribe technology and can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media.

The eNAU708 also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using Nero, CD Speed or Lite-On's BookType Utility, you can set the book type for DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media. By doing so, your recorded discs will identify themselves as "DVD-ROM." This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.

Lite-On has once again turned to Nero for their software bundle. The CD that comes with the eNAU708 contains a stripped down version of the Nero 9 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero Vision, Nero CoverDesigner and Nero ShowTime. It also contains a trial version of Nero Linux for those with Linux-based netbooks.

Nero Express - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.

Nero Vision - Nero Vision is Nero's video authoring application. Thanks to a user friendly interface, Nero Vision makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.

Nero Vision also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows. 

Nero CoverDesigner - Nero CoverDesigner is a powerful application for creating custom cover elements such as booklets, inlays and labels. Nero CoverDesigner supports cover elements for a wide range of disc types, such as CD jewel cases, DVD cases, multi-boxes, maxi CDs, slim packs, business cards and more. Nero CoverDesigner also supports LightScribe and Labelflash recorders, which you can use to print labels directly on compatible media.

Nero ShowTime - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG, AVI or Nero Digital files you might have on your hard drive.

The eNAU708 comes with a second CD containing Lite-On's own MyDisk Suite. This suite includes applications such as DiskIndex, DiskCollection, DiskCase and DiskMobile.

DiskMobile - DiskMobile allows users to wirelessly transfer iPhone and iPad images to the eNAU708 using a unique internet address. Once transferred, the drive will burn the transferred images onto a disc for safe-keeping and sharing. Additionally, DiskMobile can be used to back up photos against theft or loss of iPhone or iPad and free up storage space on those devices.

DiskCase - DiskCase is an innovative iPad application offering users the option to design disc covers that are ready to use once printed onto a single sheet of paper. You can design an original case cover or utilize built-in templates to display a strikingly unique disc.

DiskIndex - DiskIndex burns discs with easy-to-navigate and customized auto-run menus that automatically load when a disc is inserted into a PC. Previously when sharing files, recipients had to tediously search through the long list of files to locate the desired data, photo, or video files. With DiskIndex, when the disc is inserted into a PC, a custom menu appears allowing the user to easily find and view files.

DiskCollection - DiskCollection is a burning software with a built-in data management solution allowing users to effectively create a personal disc database. Featuring a drag-and-drop interface, disc cover printing, disc classification and automatic content indexing, DiskCollection makes file and disc management more efficient in a few easy steps.

While small in size, the Lite-On's new external slim DVD writer delivers an impressive number of features. Along with a great looking design, the eNAU708 offers some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available on a portable unit. The drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 6x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. The eNAU708 also features support for bitsetting as well as many of the technologies we've come to expect from Lite-On, including more advanced ones like SmartWrite and OverSpeed. Last but not least, the drive ships with Nero Essentials as well as Lite-On's own MyDisk Suite. With all this, it's easy to see why the Lite-On eNAU708 gets a solid 9 out of 10 for its features.

Lite-On's new portable DVD writer was very easy to install. Thanks to its USB 2.0 interface, the entire installation process took only a matter of minutes.  With no jumpers to worry about, it was as simple as connecting the USB cable. Once connected to our test computer, it took only a matter of seconds for plug and play to install the necessary drivers. After making sure that the drive was recognized correctly in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the eNAU708 comes with two CD's full of software. The first of these contains a number of different applications from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc. 

As you can see, this menu is pretty straight forward. To install the writing software, you will want to click on the "Nero 9 Essentials" button. After that, you will be taken to the Nero installation menu. 

By default the setup program will install the entire Nero 9 Essentials suite onto your computer. If you don't want to install everything, select the custom installation. From here you can choose the components you want.

Installing Nero Linux is also pretty straight forward. The disc contains packages for both RPM and Debian-based Linux distributions and can be installed using the commands shown below.

The second CD contains Lite-On's own MyDisk Suite and, like Nero, it is very easy to install.  If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the installation wizard will automatically launch and the window pictured below will appear. From here, its as simple as selecting the installation folder, clicking next a few times and waiting for the installer to copy the files over to your computer.

The Documentation:

The bulk of the eNAU708's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. Similar to the ones included with Lite-On's other drives, the "User's Manual" covers a number of topics. It starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new portable DVD writer. The first section goes over the drive's supported formats, recording modes, and system requirements. The manual also spends a few pages going over the locations and the functions of the buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive.

From here, the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the eNAU708. The instructions are pretty brief since there really isn't much to do other than plug in the USB cable and turn the computer on. Nevertheless, Lite-On has provided a few diagrams showing how the drive should be hooked up. The manual continues on by going over the basic operation of the eNAU708. Along with information on how to use and maintain the drive, there is a short troubleshooting section containing a list of common problems as well as their solutions.

Lite-On's portable DVD writer also comes with a "Quick Installation Guide." This fold out guide takes the user step by step through the installation process. While a little short on words, there are plenty of diagrams showing what to do. For most people, the "Quick Start Guide" will be all they'll need to get the eNAU708 up and running.

For ease of installation, the eNAU708 is hard to beat. Thanks to its bus-powered, USB 2.0 interface, it's as simple as plugging in a single cable. If you do run into trouble, the documentation Lite-On has provided is more than sufficient. However, I still would have liked to have seen a little more drive specific information. With this in mind, I give the installation an 8 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is  used to test read speeds, access times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then CyberLink's InstantBurn is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, access times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then CyberLink's InstantBurn is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

 

The eNAU708 performed fairly well when reading pressed CD's. The drive started reading at 10.56x and quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 23.98x. Unfortunately, its access times were a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The eNAU708 was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this speed boost, the drive was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of 24.56x. It also had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The eNAU708 read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 26.44x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

 

The eNAU708 also reads CD-RW media at 24x. As you can see, it had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the Lite-On eNAU708 supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

 

For a portable drive, the eNAU708 did very well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 10.54x and reached a maximum speed of 24.20x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The eNAU708 was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. This time around, it reached a maximum DAE speed of 23.92x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Lite-On's portable DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 17.21x. While the drive was able to go through the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the eNAU708 was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data, but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0 and InstantBurn 5:

For this test I randomly generated 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

The eNAU708 has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Taiyo Yuden's 52x media, the drive started writing at about 10.85x and accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of 24.07x at the end of the session. This gave Lite-On's new drive an average writing speed of about 18.50x.

To test the drive's writing times,  I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

The eNAU708 took a little more than five minutes to write an entire 701MB CD. While most of the internal writers we've looked at lately can do this in half the time, this is pretty good for a portable drive.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Nero CD Speed. This utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors as well as the jitter level on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52327S and read the discs at 32x. 

HP 52x (CMC)

MBI 52x

Taiyo Yuden 52x

The eNAU708's writing quality was very good. By looking at the screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors. More importantly, there were no C2 errors at all. 

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using InstantBurn from CyberLink. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the eNAU708 uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive uses a total of four "zones." The eNAU708 starts writing at 10x and jumps to 16x at about the 20 minute mark. When the drive reaches the 42 minute mark, it changes to 20x and then to 24x at the 64 minute mark.

Lite-On's portable DVD writer did fairly well in our rewriting tests.  The drive took 4:12 to write 400MB with Nero and 3:53 to do the same with InstantBurn.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.

 

The eNAU708 performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.40x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.24x. Unfortunately, like in our CD read tests, the drive's access times were a little high.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 8x DVD-R and 6x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Lite-On eNAU708	6.17x	3.34x	8.25x	136ms	163ms	253ms	9%	17%	30%	59%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Lite-On eNAU708	6.18x	3.41x	8.27x	136ms	163ms	261ms	9%	17%	30%	59%

Verbatim DVD-R DL
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Lite-On eNAU708	6.02x	3.29x	8.02x	139ms	160ms	261ms	10%	18%	98%	n/a

The eNAU708 had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In all three cases, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Lite-On eNAU708	4.63x	2.97x	5.00x	164ms	173ms	274ms	15%	18%	32%	n/a

Lite-On's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at about 3x and then accelerates, reaching 5x at about the 1.7GB mark. 

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 8x DVD+R and 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Lite-On eNAU708	6.17x	3.33x	8.26x	136ms	163ms	253ms	9%	16%	30%	59%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Lite-On eNAU708	6.19x	3.43x	8.28x	142ms	165ms	263ms	9%	17%	30%	59%

Verbatim DVD+R DL

The eNAU708's performance was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. Once again, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Lite-On eNAU708	6.10x	3.37x	8.16x	145ms	156ms	271ms	20%	17%	30%	59%

The eNAU708 didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of 8x when reading both single and dual layer discs.

To see how well the eNAU708 worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using CyberLink's PowerDVD software. The drive had no problems playing back these movies and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0 and InstantBurn 5:

To test the DVD writing performance of Lite-On's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

The eNAU708 uses P-CAV, or Partial CAV, when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Lite-On's new drive starts writing at about 3.48x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the 4GB mark.

The eNAU708 also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases, the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

The eNAU708 performed as expected in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the internal DVD writers we've looked at recently, it turned in some respectable times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the eNAU708, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Using CD Speed we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner), PIF (Parity Inner Fail) and Jitter rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On iHAS424 and read the discs at 8x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? When testing with the iHAS424, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter. 

The eNAU708's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were fairly good for the most part.

To test the eNAU708's packet writing performance I used InstantBurn 5. Verbatim 6x DVD-RW, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the eNAU708, I used DVD+R DL media from Verbatim and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The eNAU708 performed as expected when writing to DVD+R DL media. In our tests, the drive took 24:10 to write 8001MB of data to Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The eNAU708's writing quality was pretty good with the DVD+R DL media from Memorex. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits and there weren't any readability problems. The results were also fairly good for the most part with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. However, the PI rate was a bit high near the end of the disc.

Performance Revisited:

Lite-On's new portable DVD writer performed as expected throughout most of our tests. When writing DVD's, the eNAU708 turned in some relatively good times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD+R DL media. The drive was also fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, the eNAU708 was able to read data and video DVD-ROM's as well as most recordable media at 8x. 

The eNAU708 also did fairly well in our CD read tests. While its access times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive read both data and audio CD's at speeds as high as 24x. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the eNAU708 either. For a portable drive, it turned in some respectable writing times and the writing quality was quite good. With all of these things considered, the Lite-On eNAU708 gets a solid 8 out of 10 for its performance.

The eNAU708 is a good example of what we've come to expect from Lite-On's portable optical drives. Along with a great looking design, this compact and lightweight DVD writer offers a long list of features as well as some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available on a portable unit.

The eNAU708 performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media. In our tests, the drive took about 11 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. It also turned in some respectable times when writing to other types of media. However, the writing quality could have been better with some DVD+R DL discs. When it came to reading DVD's, the eNAU708 was able to read data and video DVD-ROM's as well as most recordable media at 8x.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the eNAU708 either. While its access times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive read pressed and recordable CD media at speeds as high as 24x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 24x. As a writer, the eNAU708 performed as expected. The drive was relatively quick when writing to CD-R and CD-RW media and its writing quality was quite good.

When it comes to features, Lite-On's new portable DVD writer definitely delivers. A truly portable drive, the eNAU708 is powered completely off a computer's USB bus. Without the need for an AC power source, you can burn and play DVD's wherever you go. The drive also includes support for Lite-On's SMART technologies and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media. To top it all off, Lite-On includes Nero Essentials as well as their own MyDisk Suite which includes applications for the PC, iPad and iPhone.

The Lite-On eNAU708 is available now and can be purchased from Amazon or the retailers listedon PriceGrabber for as little as $40.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD±R media at 8x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD±R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
• Reads DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Features 24x CD-R and CD-RW writing speeds
• Good CD-R and DVD±R writing quality
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Compact and lightweight design
• Supports SMART-BURN, SMART-X, SmartWrite and OverSpeed technologies
• Powered off the USB bus
• Includes Windows and Linux software from Nero
• Includes MyDisc Suite with applications for the PC, iPad and iPhone
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD+R DL media
• Poorly designed USB cable
• High access times
• Only a 1.5MB buffer