Freecom FS-1

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. Data tests
3. CloneCD reading tests
4. DAE tests
5. Recording tests
6. Writing quality tests
7. Conclusion

Freecom FS-1 Slimline CD-RW - Page 7

Conclusion

Positive (+)	Negative (-)
- 16/10/24 USB 2.0 external drive - Good CD-R reading performance - Very good writing quality -"JustLink" anti-buffer underrun technology - Very good error correction capabilities - Can rip Key2Audio protected audioCDs - Supports reading/writing of SubChannel Data - Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)	- 16x Z-CLV writing times lower than competition - Overburning not supported - Low DAE speed (7.2x) - Does not support RAW DAO - Low CloneCD reading performance - Cannot backup SD2 protected CDs

Freecom FS-1 is a very good solution for all those users who need a reliable portable recorder for office usage. At first sight, the drive will impress with its small dimensions, the lightweight, the plug-n-play ability via USB 1.1/2.0 interface and the 16x writing, 10x rewriting and 24x reading speeds. However, the main advantage of the drive is the DAE quality and the high error correction abilities. Freecom FS-1 ripped the "bad condition media" with a very low error rate, practically 0%, and also the CD Check audio disc test showed that the drive offers increased error correction capabilities. Other strong features of the drive are the quality CD-R writing, the ability to handle key2audio protected audio CDs and the CD-text support.

Freecom FS-1 is not the best solution for the CloneCD users since the drive is slow and cannot backup SafeDisc v.2 protected CDs. Also the Z-CLV writing strategy at 16x results to a reasonable cost in the writing times, and the lack of the overburning feature could be unhandy in some cases. Also the DAE quality offered seems to have a cost in the DAE speed.

The European retail package is priced at Euro 299 and online orders are available on Freecom website.