14 DAY TRIAL // I-O Data may have already revealed its newest hard disk drives, but that is not all it came up with, as its product lineup also welcomed a new Blu-ray writer of the external variety, one that handles even the newest and most capacious disk formats.
Nowadays, Blu-ray is more or less universally acknowledged as the medium of choice for the distribution of high-quality multimedia, including 3D movies, as well as PS3 games and other such things.
This is because of the total storage capacity, capacity that actually got far larger when the BDXL standard was invented.
For those that don't know, BDXL disks come in two versions, of 100 GB and 128 GB, thanks to being made of multiple layers.
This specification is still somewhat new, however, so the number of drives with support for them is limited, to say the least.
It so happens that a BDXL-ready Blu-ray device is exactly what I-O Data created, in addition to a 1 TB hard disk drive that we covered here. It is dubbed BRP-U6XE and can scribe such disks at 4x (triple/quad-layer BD-R).
Of course, it can write on all other formats of Blu-ray, as well as DVDs and CDs, though the speeds aren't, perhaps, what they could have been, since the USB 2.0 is used for connection to host computers. USB 3.0 would have been faster, but possibly too expensive for some people's tastes.
For those who want the exact list, CD-RW disks are written at 16x, CD-R at 24x, DVD-RAM at 5x, DVD-R/+R and DVD+RW at 8x, DVD-RW and dual-layer DVD-R/+R at 6x and single/dual-layer BD-R at 6x.
As for the design, the newcomer measures 137 x 154 x 20 mm and is colored black.
I-O Data will start shipping the newcomer in early October (2011), for the price of $233, which is the loose equivalent of 173 Euro. The product package includes the Nero Express Exxentials and Corel's WinDVD BD3D software tools.