I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 13 5000 (configuration 13-5378), which is a 13" Two-In-One running Windows 10. It does not include an optical drive. So I also bought the Dell DW316 External USB Slim DVD R/W Optical Drive 429-AAUX. When I plugged the optical drive into the Inspiron's USB 3.0 jack, the PC automatically found the drive and made it usable.
I immediately tested it for the things I need to do with an optical drive, namely: Playing a manufactured audio CD, Playing a burned audio CDR, Ripping a manufactured audio CD to MP3, Playing a manufactured DVD, Burning an audio CDR, Installing software from a CD-ROM, Copying files to a CDR, and Reading files from a CDR. Note that I did NOT test things I don't need to do, such as: Burning a DVD, Copying files to a DVD-R, and Reading files from a DVD-R.
The unit I received is quiet and seems quick enough, though I didn't measure it. My only complaint is that $32 is too much money. Similar optical drives from Samsung etc. go for $25 or less.
I really have no major complaints about this optical drive. It works right out of the box, and I felt no real need to read any of the instruction manual. I was able to play through my DVDs with no buffer. The one star off is only because with it being so slim, the plastic material makes it seem very breakable. I wouldn't be too concerned if it just fell of my desk or something since it's so light, but I would be if something moderately heavy fell onto it.
Overall, if I had the chance to change my decision to buy this drive, I would still buy it.
For $30, you can't go wrong. You get Dell reliability and you only need a low-power USB2 port to connect and power it; no power cord is needed. I run this drive plus a 4 TB USB hard drive from a USB 3.0 hub attached to the single USB 3.0 port of a Microsoft Surface Pro (the new one) with no problems whatsoever.
I have so far used the unit to rip several hundred CDs, HDCDs, and HRx discs via dbpoweramp with zero operational problems. According to the dbpoweramp program, this also seems to be one of the rare current external CD/DVD drives which will detect C1 errors.
Playing discs playing live from this drive and monitoring the sound via NAD Viso HP50 headphones plugged into the Surface Pro's headphone jack sounds equivalent to the files made from the drive played back from the Surface Pro's solid-state 1 TB internal drive.
At the price, even if it fails after a thousand or so CD rips, it's still a bargain.
It won't play BluRays. It's a fragile little disc/box, so plan to treat it carefully (if traveling, get a padded, zipper pouch to keep it safe). The power chord is 22" long, with an original USB connection into the PC, and a USB 2.0 into the player. In the box, there's the player, some paperwork, a registration card, and an Installation disc, but the paperwork is in characters (non-English) and no instructions. You'll need to download the User Manual that's on the Amazon page > Technical Details (as shown in the picture) for product details and how to load the player app onto your PC. I have Windows 10 on a PC and everything set up quickly: plug in the external DVD player to your computer, put the included "Cyberlink Media Suite 12" disc into the player. In your File Explorer, navigate to & dbl-click the 'DVD player-Cyber link' link, and the ‘Cyberlink’ disc contents pop up on the screen. Dbl-click "setup.exe", and after giving permissions through Terms, etc., it will quickly load the player application into your PC and you're all set].
When you're done playing movies, be sure to unplug the player per your PC's Operating System's requirements.
Overall, the player transfers quality images and sound to the PC without flaw and certainly fills the need (soon I'll be visiting a place that won't have Wifi (to stream movies) and found this to be a cost-effective alternative over tablet-size DVD players which are a lot heavier and clunkier for travel). Streaming games & movies via Internet is making DVD players obsolete, driving their costs down too, so shop for the best deal/high customer ratings, and you’ll get something very useful.
After I’ve used this during my upcoming trip, I’ll post an update if this doesn’t make the grade for the price. But being from Dell, I expect it to do what it’s supposed to do.
Since I’ve read conflicting reviews regarding MacOS compatibility, I thought I’d chime in to say that so far this drive is working on my 2017 iMac with no issues. The quality of this product seems to be better than most of the other USB DVD drive options on Amazon. I bought one of the other options earlier this year and it didn’t last a month. I mostly plan to use this for my workout dvds, but I’ve also watched a couple movies this week and it's working great. I’ll update my review if anything changes.
Feature Product
- Dvdrw (R DL)/ DVD-RAM
- 24x (CD)/ 8x (DVD) read speed
- 24x (CD)/ 8x (DVDR)/ 6x (DVDR DL) write speed
Description
Usb 2.0
Works very well for all my newer thin laptops that don't have a built-in DVD player/recorder.
I get excellent reliable high speed recording and playback.
Lightweight and very thin, not bulky. Very convenient for carrying around.
Works very well on USB port power which does not get overheated while the optical drive is working.
I love the plug and play feature.
This has been a great product. Microsoft made my CD/DVD burner in my desktop inoperable with the last update and has never been able to figure out what the issue was. I finally gave up trying to fix it and purchased this. Its fast, easy to install (comes with the CD) and easy to use. MicroSoft has lost a customer in me however these folks have gained one due to them! I would definitely buy another one or recommend it. By the way, it burns things easily and I don't find mine noisy like some people have stated. I did have to put a rubberized jar opener under it however because it does tend to move on its own when burning due to vibration.
When I bought my laptop in 2014, I paid extra for a built-in optical drive because I thought "who would buy one without it?" I was half-right because I ripped a couple CD's and then the flimsy drive broke. When that drive broke, so did my heart. I didn't know what external disk drives really were or I would have just opted for that to begin with. I thought getting one would just be a pain with wires and such, but I was wrong. All you do is plug it into the USB port and it plays CDs and DVDs, and it burns CDs (and DVDs I believe, though I haven't done that). The USB supplies it with the power it needs. So I have my music on the computer and I can make mix CDs again. Seriously, don't pay extra for the built-in drive because if it breaks, you can't just unplug it and throw it away like you theoretically could with this one. Plus, this was half the price and double the quality.
Caveat - I just used this for the first time, so I can speak to longevity. It seems well-made, however.
It's not terribly fast, but both the convenience of an external DVD without a power cord and the apparent quality of the engineering are excellent. Just what I wanted. It seems like quite a wonderful little device for the price.
My new Lenovo laptop has no internal disk drive, so I needed this to install my old software (i.e., MS Office and Photoshop). This little drive was cheaper than I expected and worked perfectly. No problems with the laptop recognizing the drive. Installed my software. Happy with the purchase and I'm sure I will use this again as fewer and fewer laptops come with internal disk drives.
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