Pioneer Japan recently sent out a press release, announcing its new portable, clamshell type Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-XD05J2. This USB 3.0 equipped drive measures only 133 × 14.8 x 133 mm and weighs in at a mere 230g. The BDR-XD05J2 is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. It also writes to triple- (100GB) and quad-layer (128GB) BD-R media at 4x and triple-layer (100GB) BD-RE media at 2x.

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The BDR-XD05J2 includes features like Pioneer's PureRead2+ technology and an "advanced silent mode" for when playing movies and audio discs. It also includes a new "intelligent eco mode" which shortens the recording time and reduces the drive's power consumption when in standby mode by about 40%. The BDR-XD05J2 ships with authoring and playback software from CyberLink and is expected to hit stores in late October for about 13,000 Yen ($121US).