ASUS Rolls Out External Optical Drives

Touting them as the “fastest, most chic optical drives around,” ASUS has released the SBC-06D1S-U and SDR-08B1-U slim external optical disk drives. These units are tailored to “[discern] users keen on award-winning design, meticulous craftsmanship, enhanced multimedia capabilities and environmentally-savvy operation.” They are designed to enable optimum read and write capabilities, a performance that, combined with their stylish design, has already earned the product line they are part of a fair share of critical acclaim.

The new devices aim to combine aesthetics and technology in a single product, enabling high read and write speeds for supported media while boasting design features that give them style and versatility. The ASUS SBC-06D1S-U, for instance, is a slim-type external Blu-ray device that can not only achieve a performance six times better than standard Blu-ray readers (according to the company), but can also scribe data easily thanks to an easy-to-use drag and burn interface. The burner even features the ASUS BluTuner, “allowing for five levels of display brightness while reading Blu-ray discs or reading and writing DVD and CD media.”

The ASUS SDR-08D1-U DVD unit offers user advanced portability and functionality, such as enhanced multimedia entertainment combined with high-power efficiency. The drive can save high amounts of power thanks to the E-Green engine, which automatically shuts down the drive after two or more minutes of idleness. This model also boasts the E-Media software routine, for a higher reading and writing performance.

It can be seen that these optical drives possess more than the basic functionality of disc burners. Their usability and “fetching looks” are recognized worldwide and the SBC-06D1S-U “sports the same progressive design philosophy” that has enabled ASUS' line of optical drives to win awards such as the Taiwan Good Design Product Award, the Taiwan Excellence Award and the iF Design Award 2010.

The models operate on the USB 2.0 connection and their specifications (read and write speeds, power, etc.) may be seen in full on the official website. The press release does not mention product prices.