Quality and speed, nothing more, nothing less. The new BenQ DW1640 raises the burning speed to even higher levels than before. Not only can it burn both -R and +R single layered discs at 16x, but it supports 8x +R DL writing speed and 4x -R DL writing speed. If you need more, +RW and -RW writing speeds will also not disappoint you.

When we investigated CD and DVD error correction capabilities, we were amazed by its performance.Very good error correction mechanism, even at high speed reading. The burner dominates over most competitors when it comes to ripping speed, reporting higher speeds than DVD-ROM readers. In this great speed performance, the DAE ripping speed comes to complete the profile, making the drive one of the fastest readers available, even with defective and problem media.

Copy protected games were not that easy to rip, but the drive managed to complete any task, especially with PSX games that reported the fastest performance. Unfortunately, the burner cannot back-up SafeDisc 2.9 and above.

Burning quality was great, but the drive shows a small preference for the +R media format. Even at high burning speeds, the quality scans that we got in most cases were very good. However, the preference for +R media types is prominent with Double Layer media, since the -R DL media was burned successfully but was unreadable. The speed performance for +R DL media was the best we have seen, where the drive burned DL media in under 15 minutes.

- The Good

• Can burn DVD+RW media at 8X, and DVD-RW media at 6X
• DVD-R DL support at 4x, and DVD+R DL support at 8x
• Very good CD and DVD error correction capabilities
• Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)
• Supports audio protected discs
• Good Single Layer DVD writing quality
• Can overburn up to 90min CDs
• Fast DVD-Video ripping speed
• Fast DAE speed
• Can recognize 99mins Audio CDs

- The Bad

• Mount Rainier is not supported
• Cannot recognize 90min Audio CDs
• Cannot create working backups with SafeDisc protected games over v2.90
• Cannot overburn DVD recordable media
• Can only burn Verbatim double layer media at 8X

- Like To be fixed

• Official firmware release to improve burning quality with ReWritable media and DL media
• Official firmware release to improve overspeed burning

Retail Package
Reading
Error Correction
Protected Discs
Writing
Features