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LiteOn eSAU208 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £50
inc VAT

LiteOn’s eSAU208 is a portable USB DVD writer, and is available in either black and white or red and black.

Although it comes with a power adaptor, the device worked fine with our laptop’s USB ports using the included two-plug USB cable. LightScribe discs can be written only if the power adaptor is plugged in.

The eSAU208 wrote a LightScribe disc in 25 minutes, which is what we’d expect. It wrote dual-layer DVDs at around 4X, matching its claimed speeds for this kind of media. It was the same speed for single-layer DVDs, which is short of its 8x claimed speed for single-layer discs. We’ve seen faster portable drives, such as LG’s GSA-E50N (Labs, Shopper 240), which reached 5X.

A copy of Nero Recode is bundled with the eSAU208, which lets you squeeze a two-layer DVD movie on to a single-layer disc. LiteOn’s eSAU208 is a good portable DVD writer, but LG’s GSA-E50N is still our favourite portable burner thanks to its slightly faster single-layer writing speeds and the ability to password-protect discs.

Details

Rating ****
Type external DVD writer
Interface USB Hi-Speed
Buffer 2MB
Size 22x146x156mm
Weight 332g
Power consumption active N/A

Quoted Read

CD-ROM 24X
DVD-ROM 24X
DVD-ROM dual layer 24X
BD-ROM N/A

Quoted Write

CD-R 24X
CD-RW 24X
DVD+R 8X
DVD+RW 8X
DVD-R 8X
DVD-RW 6X
DVD+R DL 4X
DVD-R DL 4X
DVD-RAM 5X
BD-R N/A
BD-R DL N/A
BD-RE N/A
BD-RE DL N/A

Extras

Video playback software Ahead Nero Vision 4 Essentials
DVD/CD burning software Ahead Nero Express 7 Essentials
Blank media included none
Other standard accessories twin USB cable

Buying Information

Price £50
Supplier http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk
Details www.liteonit.eu