New external drives from the Pocket Writer line

Mobility enthusiasts have all the reasons to rejoice as BenQ announced the new line of Pocket Writer optical drives.

Scheduled for September, the products from this line are designed to play and burn both 4.7 inch discs and 3.2 inch ones.

Jennifer Ho, BenQ's storage division representative, has announced the three models of this series: PW100 compatible with CDs, PW200 for DVDs, and PW300 which will be compatible with Blu-ray discs.


All of them will support USB On The Go technology, also known as USB host mode, which allows data transfer
between the drive and other USB devices without having to use a computer. The devices will also read a wide range of memory cards: Compact Flash, Secure Digital (SD), MiniSD, MultiMediaCard (MMC), and Memory Stick. As if this wasn't enough, PW200 will also be Bluetooth connectable.

The commercial availability will start in September with the launching of PW100 which will be priced at $179. The next model to be launched will be PW200 in February 2006, having a price tag of $249. Currently, there aren't any details about PW300.