These days many laptops are shipped without a built-in optical drive. And in my opinion, that’s a good thing since our video and musical entertainment is now streamed to us instantly over the web.
Not having to include an optical drive means the computer manufacturers can sell their laptops for less while also reducing the laptop’s over-all weight.
That being said, many folks still have program installation files, music and movies on CDs and DVDs. If you’re one of them, you know that not having an optical drive at all is simply not an option for you.
But there’s an easy and convenient way to have an optical drive on hand when you need one while still enjoying the advantages of not having one installed in your laptop. Just plug an inexpensive external USB optical drive into any open USB port, use it to play or burn CDs or DVDs as needed, then place it on a shelf out of the way until you need it again!
I recently found myself needing to install some disc-based software onto a new laptop that doesn’t have an internal optical drive. I checked the great selection of USB optical drives on Amazon and found one that is quite affordable, yet had tons of positive user reviews. I ordered one of them, and after it arrived a couple of days later I plugged it in and put it to use.
The Samsung SE-208DB/TSBS USB External DVD+/-RW 8X Optical Drive (#ad) costs about what you’d pay for a nice dinner, yet it is thin, light and compact. I also found it to be very well-built and easy to use. I simply plugged the included USB cable into an open USB 3.0 port on the new laptop, and Windows 10 recognized it immediately.
Thanks to the speed of USB 3.0, the drive appeared to read and write about as fast as a typical internal DVD-RW drive. It also worked flawlessly with an aging HP desktop PC running Windows Vista, but it was noticeably slower due to the much slower USB 2.0 connection.
I used this drive to install several programs from DVDs, then I listened to a few CDs and watched a DVD movie. As a final test, I burned 3 gigabytes worth of photos and video clips to a blank DVD. Everything worked very smoothly on the computer that’s equipped with USB 3.0 ports, but as expected, the DVD video was very choppy on the older PC with USB 2.0 connections.
Bottom line: All in all, I really like this drive. I honestly don’t think you’ll find a better one for the money. If you occasionally need an optical drive but your laptop came without one, this external USB drive from Samsung is a fantastic solution.
Click here (#ad) to read more about the Samsung SE-208DB/TSBS USB External DVD+/-RW 8X Optical Drive on Amazon.
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