Sony DVDRW DRX-S70U-W

Review Pages

1. About the Sony DRX-S70U-W
2. CD/DVD reading tests
3. Reading of defected CDs
4. Reading of defected DVDs
5. Writing quality testing platform - The IQB Omni CD DVD Analyzer by Quantized
6. CD-R writing tests - Taiyo Yuden CD-R @ 24x
7. CD-R writing tests - CMC Magnetics CD-R @ 24x
8. CD-RW writing tests - Verbatim CD-RW @ 24x
9. DVD-R writing tests - CMC MAG AE1 @ 8x
10. DVD-R writing tests - CMC MAG AM3 @ 8x
11. DVD-R writing tests - MBI 01RG40 @ 8x
12. DVD-R writing tests - MCC 03RG20 @ 8x
13. DVD-R writing tests - TYG03 @ 8x
14. DVD+R writing tests - DAXON AZ3 @ 8x
15. DVD+R writing tests - MBIPG101 R05 @ 8x
16. DVD+R writing tests - PRODISC R04 @ 8x
17. DVD+R writing tests - RICOHJPN R03 @ 8x
18. DVD+R writing tests - YUDEN T03 @ 8x
19. DVD-RW writing tests - MKM 01RW6X01 @ 6x
20. DVD+RW writing tests - MKM A03 000 @ 8x
21. DVD-R DL writing tests - MKM 03RD30 @ 6x
22. DVD+R DL writing tests - MKM 003 @ 6x
23. DVD-RAM writing tests - MXL16 @ 5x
24. Summary of writing quality tests, Overburning, Bit setting
25. Final words

Sony's DRX-S70U-W is a as handy external multi-format DVD SuperMulti recorder. At a glance, the drive is definitely stylish, with a smooth and clear design. It is also lightweight, allowing you to easily carry it with you and use it with your laptop or netbook - which lack of an optical drive most of the times.

The drive burns on DVD+/-R as well as DVD+RW at 8X, DVD+/-R dual layer with DVD-RW at 6X, DVD-RAM at 5X as well as CD-R/RW at 24X. It makes use of USB 2.0 interface and it's being packaged with Nero DVD/CD burning application. Let's move on to the summing of the test results.

First of all, the drive proved to be a good reader, performing all tasks with speeds according to specifications, and being able to complete them successfully. We would like to see a faster DAE as well as a more capable reading with scratched audio CDs, but don't forget that we have to do with a slim-type external drive here. On the weak side, we should add the lack of the overburning feature, which could be annoying some times when you cannot burn your slightly oversized compilation on a DVD. We would also like to see support for bit setting.

On the other hand, the drive did it well in the reading tests with scratched /defected DVD discs.

Next on are the writing tests that we performed. The CD and DVD discs were burned at of 24x and 8X respectively and the results were great. With almost all the DVD and CD discs, the writing quality was very high and both the PISum8 and POF error rates were excellent. Of course, the fact that the drive burns DVDs at just 8x helped it produce quality burns. An exception here is the result with the DVD-R DL disc, which was unreadable.

With the boost in sales of Netbooks over last year or so many people are finding that the lack of optical drive is a bit of a hindrance. The Sony DRX-S70U-W is available for less than €60 and makes a perfect match next to your new netbook.

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