Although this is just a preview and no conclusions should be taken for granted, we could post our first impressions for this new burner.

First of all, NEC uses a new chipset for this new burner. Although the burner itself cannot burn -R double layer media, the new D6364 chipset supports -R DL writing at 2X and 4X. Talk from NEC refers to a new firmware release that will add -R DL writing, but it will not be available until March. It is good to know that users can simply apply firmware upgrades to add -R DL feature.

NEC has already built a good and trusted reputation with DVD burners through their former models, and even if some of them were not good readers, they were very good burners. The ND-3520A has very good DVD error correction capabilities and has proven to be a fast reader.

The drive performed very well with DVD+R and DVD+RW media so far, but some further improvements could be made with DVD-R writing quality. However, we cannot see the full picture without further investigating writing quality.

*Updated - The complete review is available here.