467
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #40,886 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
Sleek, portable, but not overly expensive nor adjustable
This external cd drive works very well, has a very sleek and convenient form factor that makes it very portable and easy to store when not in use. It's also rather fast- as it uses USB 3- and doesn't skip when the drive is jossled or on a slightly uneven surface.
When I first got it I was a little confused as to how to plug it in before I turned it upsidedown and found that the cord was convienently stowed in a compartment on the bottom of the body of the drive. It was a little bit confusing to figure out how to pull it out and put it back away when I was done with the cord/drive but I figured it out. The trick is that there is a small piece of plastic in the place where the usb goes- and you need to make sure to put it in the right way and to slot it in first before putting in the rest of the cord.
While this storage and formfactor makes the external drive very portable, sleek, and storable it- however- makes it very difficult to find a good place to place it while in use. As the cable is increadibly short that does not give many options for locations you can put it while it's plugged into your computer. Especially if your using a tower computer- like you see my my picture here- there just really isn't any good place to place it other than ontop of the tower which makes it not very good if you have fans on the top of your computer. And also, another thing that I found issue with the drive was that the usb plug itself was very snug when I was plugging it in and especially as I was taking it out.
I imagine that the connection will break sooner than most devices and, unfortunately, the form factor and convienence factors will be null as the drive won't even work anymore and you won't be able to aquire a replacement cable for the drive. However, if you don't unplug and plug it back in again alot/don't overly use it then it'll likely be fine. Just be aware and use precaution and always unplug it with the main part of the USB to avoid damaging the connection with that main part and the wire.
TL:DR
Pros;
*Convenient
*Portable
*Sleek pleasing form factor
*All one device without any extraneous cables
*Quick to use (no extra drivers or downloads of anything- a simple plug in and use)
*Doesn't need to be completely flat to work
*Dvd inside doesn't really get effected by anything but extreme disturbances
Cons;
*Very very short cable(see pictures)
*A little confusing to figure out where the cord is and how to put it back away at first(I don't really count this one but I'm including it in my cons in case that's a factor for you)
*Stiff usb plug in so be careful when unplugging/it's a little annoying to plug in
*All one device- so if the cord gets disconnected from the usb plug you can't replace it only get a new one.
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I recommend buying this product
December 2020 · Electronics · verified purchase