Sony DRX-S90U Portable 8x DVD Writer

Model: Sony DRX-S90U Portable 8x DVD Writer
Manufacturer: Sony Electronics
Provided By: Sony Optiarc America

When it comes to consumer electronics, there are few names as well known as Sony. For more than 50 years, this Japanese company has lead the way, producing innovative products for the audio, video and computer markets. Sony is no stranger to the optical storage industry either. From the development of the first compact disc standards to the introduction of the first dual format DVD writer, Sony has played a major role in much of the technology used today.

With the growing popularity of ultraportable notebook and netbook computers, Sony has set its sights on the portable optical drive market. This fall, the company introduced its latest slim portable DVD writer, the DRX-S90U. This sleek and lightweight 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 DRX-S90U is also designed to be powered completely off a computer's USB bus and includes features like 24x CD reading and writing speeds, Power-Burn buffer underrun protection and a software bundle from Nero.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what the DRX-S90U has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect from Sony's slim portable 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 DRX-S90U the best choice for the person on the go? Read on as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Sony DRX-S90U Portable 8x DVD Writer
• Operating Instructions
• Sony Nero 10 Software Disc Rev. 1.0
• Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive Sony sent us for this review was manufactured in June of 2011 and had firmware 1.D0. For this review I used firmware versions 1.D0 and 1.D1.

The Sony DRX-S90U is one of the smallest DVD writers to come through the 'Labs. Measuring 136.5 x 19 x 152 mm and weighing in at a mere 320g, the drive is not much larger than a couple of jewel cases stacked on top of one another. The DRX-S90U is also constructed out of a lightweight, black plastic. The plastic has a matte finish which does a pretty good job of  resisting fingerprints and scratches.

On the top of the DRX-S90U you can see a large "Sony" logo as well as a few showing support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.

The LED and eject button are located along the front of the DRX-S90U. This LED lights up orange when both reading and writing. 

The DRX-S90U is is the first dual bus powered optical drive to be USB logo certified. The drive's two USB cables comply with the USB standard, using 500mA per port, and can be stored in an integrated cable duct when not in use. The DRX-S90U is also very energy efficient, using a mere 8.2 mW when a computer is in sleep mode. My only complaint here is that one cable is dedicated to data and the other to power and both must be used. With other portable drives, the second USB connector is optional and is only needed if a computer cannot provide enough power through a single USB port.

Technical Specs:

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

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Sony's new DVD writer is identified as an "SONY DVD RW DRX-S90U."

Nero also shows that the DRX-S90U has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Sony's Power-Burn buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the DRX-S90U can also write CD-Text and overburn. Unfortunately, like some of Sony's desktop DVD writers, it wasn't able to recognize our 99 minute CompUSA discs at all.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the DRX-S90U 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 DRX-S90U's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the DRX-S90U 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. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While Opti Drive Control gives us a quick glance at the DRX-S90U'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 while Sony's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support technologies like LightScribe or Labelflash.

The DRX-S90U doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, using software like Nero, you can set the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM." This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.

For the DRX-S90U's software bundle, Sony has turned to Nero. The CD that comes with the drive contains a stripped down version of the Nero 10 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero MediaHub, and Nero CoverDesigner.

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. Designed 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 MediaHub - Nero MediaHub lets you conveniently play back your music files, plus manage and create playlists. It lets you easily create cinema-style videos and photo slide shows with integrated movie themes, plus conveniently manage your multimedia projects. You can play back your photos and videos right on your PC with all the convenience of a built-in DVD player.

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.

While small in size, Sony's new portable DVD writer isn't short on features. Along with a great looking design, the DRX-S90U 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 DRX-S90U also includes features like Power-Burn buffer underrun protection and built-in dual USB cables that provide power for the drive. Unfortunately, it lacks bitsetting support for single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media. Even then, the Sony DRX-S90U scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Sony'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 two USB cables. 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 DRX-S90U comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc. As you can see, the software and documentation is available in a number of different languages. 

After selecting your preferred language, you'll be given a short list of options. From here you can choose to install the bundled software, check out the manual or visit Sony's user support web page.

By default the setup program will install the entire Nero 10 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.

Documentation:

Most of the DRX-S90U's documentation is located in the "Operating Instructions." While a bit short on words, this small, fold out guide contains information on the drive's specifications, system requirements and package contents as well as a few diagrams showing how to hook it up to your computer. The "User's Guide" on the software CD contains a lot of the same information. However, it covers a few additional topics including the basic operation and physical features of the DRX-S90U.

Like the other Sony drives we've reviewed, the DRX-S90U was very easy to install. I had no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working. If you need help for some reason, the documentation Sony has provided is more than sufficient. With this in mind, the DRX-S90U scores a solid 9 out of 10 for the installation portion of this review.

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. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 and CD Speed are used to test transfer speeds, access times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating and is used in combination with CD DAE to see how well a drive reads scratched and dirty discs.

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 Roxio's Drag-to-Disc 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 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 Roxio's Drag-to-Disc 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 Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Sony's new portable DVD writer performed fairly well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at about 10.5x on the inside of the CD and was able to reach 22.7x on the outside of the disc. As you can see, this resulted in a very good overall CD Winbench score.

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 DRX-S90U performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. The drive started reading at 18.93x and quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 25.10x. 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 DRX-S90U 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 25.70x.

Sony's portable DVD writer had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. If the session on the CD was larger than 90 minutes in size, the DRX-S90U would not recognize the disc correctly. The drive also slowed considerably when reading the disc back. As you can see, it reached a maximum transfer speed of only 10.85x.

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 DRX-S90U 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 Sony DRX-S90U supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.

 

For a portable drive, the DRX-S90U did very well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 11.04x and reached a maximum speed of 25.25x.

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 DRX-S90U was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. This time around, it reached a maximum DAE speed of 24.97x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Sony's portable DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 18.02x. 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 DRX-S90U 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 Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

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 DRX-S90U 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 11.41x and reached a maximum speed of 25.68x at the end of the session. This gave the DRX-S90U an average writing speed of about 19.13x.

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 DRX-S90U took less than five and a half 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 Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52327S (firmware QS09) and read the discs at 32x. 

HP 52x (CMC)

Moser Baer 52x

Taiyo Yuden 52x

The DRX-S90U's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe 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 Drag-to-Disc from Roxio. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the DRX-S90U 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 five "zones." The DRX-S90U starts writing at 8x and quickly jumps to 12x at the 6 minute mark. When it reaches the 23 minute mark, the drive changes to 16x and then to 20x at the 46 minute mark. The DRX-S90U writes at this speed until about the 74 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 24x and stays there until the end of the session.

Sony's portable DVD writer did fairly well in our rewriting tests. The drive took 4:13 to write 400MB with Nero and 4:45 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc. Erasing wasn't a problem for the DRX-S90U either. In our tests, it took 25 seconds to do a quick erase and 6:10 to fully erase the disc.

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 DRX-S90U performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.31x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.05x. Unfortunately, like in our CD read tests, the drive's access times were a bit 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
Sony DRX-S90U	6.04x	3.32x	8.07x	136ms	176ms	275ms	7%	14%	28%	53%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Sony DRX-S90U	6.03x	3.32x	8.07x	138ms	178ms	278ms	7%	14%	29%	53%

Verbatim DVD-R DL
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Sony DRX-S90U	6.06x	3.36x	8.07x	157ms	184ms	279ms	6%	15%	n/a	n/a

The DRX-S90U 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
Sony DRX-S90U	4.62x	2.97x	5.00x	221ms	320ms	393ms	7%	15%	26%	n/a

Sony'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
Sony DRX-S90U	6.03x	3.32x	8.07ms	141ms	185ms	281ms	7%	14%	25%	52%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Sony DRX-S90U	6.05x	3.33x	8.09x	175ms	212ms	316ms	7%	15%	27%	49%

Verbatim DVD+R DL

The DRX-S90U'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
Sony DRX-S90U	5.96x	3.27x	7.97x	138ms	165ms	262ms	12%	13%	n/a	n/a

The DRX-S90U 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 DRX-S90U worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using Nero Showtime. 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 Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

To test the DVD writing performance of Sony'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.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x, the DRX-S90U uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Sony's new drive starts writing at about 3.38x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The DRX-S90U 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 DRX-S90U 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 DRX-S90U, 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? Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. 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 with the DW1640. 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 DRX-S90U'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 DRX-S90U's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 9.0. 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 DRX-S90U, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The DRX-S90U performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 6x writing speed, the drive took 26:12 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 30:11 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits and there were no readability problems.

Performance Revisited:

Sony's new portable DVD writer performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. When writing DVD's, the DRX-S90U 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 DRX-S90U was able to read data and video DVD-ROM's as well as most recordable media at 8x. 

The DRX-S90U 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 25x. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the DRX-S90U either. The drive turned in some respectable writing times and the writing quality was quite good. With all of these things considered, the Sony DRX-S90U gets a solid 8 out of 10 for its performance.

When I reviewed the DRX-S77U, I was left with mixed feelings. While the drive offered good looks, impressive specs and a number of useful features, its power requirements limited where it could be used. With the DRX-S90U, Sony has addressed many of the DRX-S77U's shortcomings. Along with a number of performance improvements, their new drive has the ability to power itself off a computer's USB bus.

The DRX-S90U performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media, taking less than 12 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. The drive also turned in some respectable times when writing to other types of media and its writing quality was pretty good, even with DVD±R DL discs. When it came to reading DVD's, the DRX-S90U 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 DRX-S90U either. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive read pressed and recordable CD media at speeds as high as 25x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 25x. As a writer, the DRX-S90U performed as expected. The drive was relatively quick when writing to CD-R and CD-RW media and its writing quality was quite good.

Sony's new portable DVD writer also has its share of features. A truly portable drive, the DRX-S90U 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 DRX-S90U also features support for Sony's Power-Burn technology and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R DL media. To top it off, Sony has included a great software bundle from Nero.

The Sony DRX-S90U is available now and can be purchased from Amazon or the retailers listed on Pricegrabber for less than $30.

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 DVD and CD writing quality
• Compact and lightweight design
• Features Sony's Power-Burn technology
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL media
• Built-in USB cable holder
• Powered off the USB bus
• Includes software from Nero
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Both USB cables must be used
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media
• Problems recognizing discs larger than 90 minutes
• High access times
• Only a 1MB buffer