It's quite a well-known fact that, in order to keep the netbooks' form factors as slim and portable as possible, the manufacturers of such devices have eliminated pretty much everything in excess, including here (or, better said, starting with) the optical unit. For this reason, users who want to access data on a CD or DVD will have to do so by attaching an external unit to one of their ultraportable's USB ports.

Nevertheless, it seems that, from now own, they'll be able to do a lot more than that. And that's because the I-O DATA company has just rolled out its DVRP-U8XLE2 external USB DVD burner, a device that's marketed by the manufacturer as being able to write discs at the highest possible speed even when connected to a netbook.

Before going into speed-related details, let's talk a little about this thing's size. Hence, the DVRP-U8XLE2 will certainly represent a very good accessory for any netbook, simply because it measures around 138 x 143x 21mm and weighs approximately 380 grams. Yeah, you're reading it right, it's 21 mm, which makes it almost the same size of a CD case, for example.

However, the compact size and alleged compatibility with netbooks (regardless of the manufacturer, since I-O DATA lists several models from HP, Acer, Asus and Averatec) actually represent the main selling points this device has to offer. And that's because the write speeds are not exactly what one would call “out of this world,” since we're only talking about 8X speeds for single-layer DVD-R discs and 6X for dual-layer discs.

The DVRP-U8XLE2 external USB DVD burner from I-O DATA is a rather pricey product, since it retails for somewhere around 95 US dollars. Sadly, it's available solely in Japan for the time being, but if it really manages to work as advertised, then it might become a hit in other parts of the world as well.

 
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