ASUS SBW-06C1S-U Portable 6x Blu-ray Disc Writer

Like most drive manufacturers, ASUS has begun to focus on the growing Blu-ray Disc market. The company recently introduced its first external slim Blu-ray Disc writer, the SBW-06C1S-U. The stylish and compact drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 4x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. The SBW-06C1S-U is also backwards compatible with all major CD and DVD formats and is designed to be powered completely off a computer's USB bus. Without the need for an AC power source, you can watch a Blu-ray movie or burn a disc wherever you go.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what ASUS's new portable Blu-ray Disc writer has to offer. Over the next few pages we'll take a look at the SBW-06C1S-U's features and then put it through its paces to see how it performs. Is the SBW-06C1S-U the best choice for the person on the go? Keep reading to find out.

What's in the box?:

• ASUS SBW-06C1S-U Portable 6x Blu-ray Disc Writer
• Quick Installation Guide
• Software CD
• Vertical Drive Stand
• USB Y Cable

Physical Features:

The drive ASUS sent us for this review was manufactured in August of 2010 and had firmware C101. At the time of this review, this is the only firmware available for the SBW-06C1S-U.

The ASUS SBW-06C1S-U is one of the smallest Blu-ray Disc writers to come through the 'Labs. Measuring 157 x 142 x 21 mm, it's not much larger than a couple of jewel cases stacked on top of one another. The drive is also constructed of a lightweight, black plastic. The glossy finish looks nice, but it scratches easily and finger prints and smudges have a tendency to stand out.

Along with a small "ASUS" logo, the top of the SBW-06C1S-U has a large "X" shaped design which lights up a bright blue when the drive is powered on. The brightness of this light can be adjusted or turned off altogether using the included BluTuner utility.

On the bottom of the drive you can see four small rubber feet as well as a rubber rectangle. The rectangle covers the open space where the stand attaches to the drive.

The LED and eject button are located along the front of the SBW-06C1S-U.  This LED lights up orange when both reading and writing.

Along the rear, you can see the SBW-06C1S-U's USB 2.0 interface. This connector not only transfers data but provides power for the drive. To ensure that the SBW-06C1S-U gets the power it needs, ASUS includes a special USB cable that plugs into two ports on your computer.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from ASUS's website and the manual that came with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that ASUS's new Blu-ray Disc writer is identified as an "ASUS SBW-06C1S-U."

Nero also shows that the SBW-06C1S-U has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 6016KB buffer which is about 2MB smaller than what is listed in the drive's specs. This buffer is also backed up by ASUS's FlextraLink technology. According to Nero, the SBW-06C1S-U can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 92:57 with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media. 

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the SBW-06C1S-U is a "two sheep" burner. This means that ASUS's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control. Among other things, this program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. Opti Drive Control had no problems detecting the SBW-06C1S-U's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the SBW-06C1S-U is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While Opti Drive Control gives us a quick glance at the SBW-06C1S-U's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that ASUS's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats.

The SBW-06C1S-U doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, using software like Nero, you can set the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM." This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.

For the SBW-06C1S-U's software bundle, ASUS has turned to CyberLink. The CD that comes with the drive contains a stripped down version of the CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Suite which includes Power2Go, PowerBackup, InstantBurn and PowerDVD.

CyberLink Power2Go 6 - Power2Go is the main disc burning program included with the SBW-06C1S-U. With this software, users can create various types of CD's, DVD's and BD's or make backups of existing discs. Power2Go also offers enhanced security features, allowing you to password protect and encrypt the names of files on your discs.

While small in size, ASUS's new Blu-ray Disc writer delivers a good number of features. Along with a great looking design, the SBW-06C1S-U offers some of the fastest BD reading and writing speeds available on a portable unit. The drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 4x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and a maximum BD read speed of 6x. The SBW-06C1S-U is also backwards compatible with all major CD and DVD formats and includes features like a 6MB buffer, FlextraLink buffer underrun protection and a USB 2.0 interface that provides power for the drive. Unfortunately, it lacks bitsetting support for single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media. Even then, the ASUS SBW-06C1S-U scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

ASUS's new portable Blu-ray Disc writer was very easy to install. Thanks to its USB 2.0 interface, the entire installation process took only a matter of minutes. With no jumpers to worry about, it was as simple as connecting the USB cable. Once connected to our test computer, it took a few seconds for plug and play to install the necessary drivers. After making sure that the drive was recognized correctly in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the SBW-06C1S-U comes with a CD full of software from CyberLink. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

Clicking the button in the upper left will bring up another menu where you can read about the various applications included in the suite. Otherwise, you can start the setup process by clicking the "Install Now" button.

After selecting your preferred language and entering your customer information, you'll be presented with a number of installation options. From here, you can choose to install InstantBurn, Power2Go, PowerBackup or PowerDVD. Simply select the components you want and click next a few times. Once the files are copied over, you can start start watching movies and burn your own discs.

The Documentation:

As with ASUS's other optical drives, the SBW-06C1S-U doesn't offer much in the way of documentation. The closest thing to a manual is the drive's "Quick Installation Guide." This small, fold out guide is broken up into 33 different languages with everything but English getting less than half a page worth of instructions. As you can imagine, the instructions are very brief. Thankfully, ASUS has provided a few small diagrams showing how to hook the drive up to your computer and attach the included stand. If you're looking for things like the SBW-06C1S-U's specs or system requirements, you'll have to check the back of the box or visit ASUS's website. You won't find that information in the guide.

For ease of installation, the SBW-06C1S-U is hard to beat. Thanks to its bus-powered, USB 2.0 interface, it's as simple as plugging in a single cable. On the other hand, the documentation ASUS has provided is brief and doesn't have a lot of drive specific information. However, it should be enough to get the drive installed and working correctly. With this in mind, I give the installation an 8 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For Blu-ray Disc writers, the performance tests are normally broken down into six sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write, BD read and BD write. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.7.16 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

BD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the BD benchmarks, CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

BD Write Tests: To test the BD write speeds, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature is used to burn an entire BD-R/RE disc. Times are recorded.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

ASUS's new portable Blu-ray Disc writer performed fairly well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at about 10.9x on the inside of the CD and was able to reach 22.9x on the outside of the disc. As you can see, this resulted in a good overall CD Winbench score.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

 

The SBW-06C1S-U didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While rated at 24x, ASUS's new portable drive came up short of this number in our tests. Looking at the other scores, its seek times were also a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

 

The SBW-06C1S-U was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this speed boost, the drive was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of 24.03x.

Unfortunately, ASUS's portable Blu-ray Disc writer had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. While the SBW-06C1S-U was able to recognize the disc correctly, it would not read beyond the 95 minute mark. 

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

 

The SBW-06C1S-U also reads CD-RW media at 24x. As you can see, the drive came close to reaching this speed in our tests.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the ASUS SBW-06C1S-U supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

 

For a portable drive, the SBW-06C1S-U did fairly well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 10.25x and reached a maximum speed of 23.69x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The SBW-06C1S-U was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. This time around, it reached a maximum DAE speed of 23.41x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

ASUS's portable Blu-ray Disc writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 16.89x. While the drive was able to go through the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the SBW-06C1S-U was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

For this test I randomly generated 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

The SBW-06C1S-U has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x. To reach this speed, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive uses a total of five "zones." The SBW-06C1S-U starts writing at 8x and quickly jumps to 12x at the 5 minute mark. When it reaches the 21 minute mark, the drive changes to 16x and then to 20x at the 43 minute mark. The drive writes at this speed until about the 67 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 24x and stays there until the end of the session.

To test the drive's writing times,  I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

The SBW-06C1S-U took less than six and a half minutes to write an entire 701MB CD. While most of the internal writers we've looked at lately can do this in half the time, this is fairly good for a portable drive.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52327S (firmware QS09) and read the discs at 32x. 

The SBW-06C1S-U's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors. More importantly, there were no C2 errors at all. 

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using Drag-to-Disc from Roxio. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The SBW-06C1S-U also uses Z-CLV when rewriting at 16x. The drive starts writing at 8x and jumps to 12x at about the 5 minute mark. The SBW-06C1S-U writes at this speed until about the 21 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 16x and stays there until the end of the session.

ASUS's portable DVD writer did fairly well in our rewriting tests. The drive took 4:11 to write 400MB with Nero and 4:15 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc. Erasing wasn't a problem for the SBW-06C1S-U either. In our tests, it took 28 seconds to do a quick erase and 6:14 to fully erase the disc.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.

 

The SBW-06C1S-U performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.32x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.07x. Unfortunately, like in our CD read tests, the drive's seek times were a bit high.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 8x DVD-R and 6x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R
 

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
ASUS SBW-06C1S-U	6.05x	3.33x	8.08x	153ms	171ms	270ms	7%	16%	28%	53%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
ASUS SBW-06C1S-U	6.06x	3.32x	8.10x	153ms	171ms	269ms	10%	16%	28%	53%

 
Verbatim DVD-R DL 

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
ASUS SBW-06C1S-U	4.56x	2.53x	6.07x	158ms	174ms	274ms	10%	14%	n/a	n/a

The SBW-06C1S-U had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive was able to read DVD-R and DVD-RW media at 8x, but slowed to 6x when reading DVD-R DL discs.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
 

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
ASUS SBW-06C1S-U	4.11x	2.98x	5.01x	211ms	356ms	432ms	11%	18%	31%	n/a

ASUS's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 3x and then jumps to 5x at about the 1.9GB mark. 

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 8x DVD+R and 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R
 

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
ASUS SBW-06C1S-U	6.05x	3.32x	8.09x	156ms	175ms	274ms	7%	15%	28%	53%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
ASUS SBW-06C1S-U	6.07x	3.34x	8.11x	154ms	174ms	273ms	9%	15%	27%	52%

Verbatim DVD+R DL 

The SBW-06C1S-U's performance was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. The drive read DVD+R and DVD+RW media at 8x and DVD+R DL discs at 6x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

 

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
ASUS SBW-06C1S-U	5.98x	3.28x	7.99x	149ms	167ms	267ms	9%	15%	27%	72%

The SBW-06C1S-U didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 3.28x and reached a maximum read speed of 7.99x. ASUS's new drive was also relatively quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 6x.

To see how well the SBW-06C1S-U worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using the bundled version of PowerDVD. The drive had no problems playing back these movies and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

To test the DVD writing performance of ASUS's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x, the SBW-06C1S-U uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that ASUS's new drive starts writing at about 3.38x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The SBW-06C1S-U also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases, the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

The SBW-06C1S-U performed as expected in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the internal DVD writers we've looked at recently, it turned in some respectable times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the SBW-06C1S-U, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter. 

The SBW-06C1S-U's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were fairly good for the most part.

To test the SBW-06C1S-U's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 9.0. Verbatim 6x DVD-RW, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the SBW-06C1S-U, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The SBW-06C1S-U performed as expected when writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive took 29:54 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 32:25 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 2.4x DVD-R DL media. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the results weren't nearly as good with Verbatim's 8x DVD-R DL media. When tested with CD Speed, the PI rate was fairly high throughout the first layer of the disc.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - BD-ROM:

To test the SBW-06C1S-U's BD-ROM reading performance, I used the Blu-ray Disc version of The Fifth Element. This single layer disc is about 23GB in size.

 

The SBW-06C1S-U performed relatively well when reading single layer BD-ROM discs. In our tests, it started reading at 2.52x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 6.00x.

ASUS's portable Blu-ray writer had no problems playing back The Fifth Element and The Simpsons Movie using the bundled version of PowerDVD. Just keep in mind that if your monitor is connected to your video card using DVI or HDMI, both need to be HDCP compliant to play AACS protected titles. If not, you can still play them by switching the connection to VGA or using software like Slysoft's AnyDVD HD.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - BD-R and BD-RE:

Next we'll look at the drive's BD-R and BD-RE reading performance. For this I created a few data discs using single layer BD-R and BD-RE media from Memorex and TDK and then ran our BD read tests with CD Speed.

TDK BD-R DL

The SBW-06C1S-U had no problems reading BD-RE and BD-R DL media. In both cases, it reached a maximum transfer speed of 4x. Unfortunately, ASUS's new drive failed to read BD-R media at 6x. In our tests, the SBW-06C1S-U's transfer speed peaked at about 5.8x and then tapered off to 5.63x.

BD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16:

To test the BD writing performance of ASUS's new drive I used BD-R, BD-R DL and BD-RE media from TDK and Verbatim. To get the writing times, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature was used. I also ran the discs through CD Speed's transfer rate test to make sure that the SBW-06C1S-U could read them back.

While ASUS claims that the SBW-06C1S-U can write to BD-R media at 6x, it never reached that speed in our tests. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive started writing at 2.59x but instead of reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc, it peaked at about 4.8x. I ran this test a number of times, using different media on various computers and never came close to reaching 6x.

Needless to say, the SBW-06C1S-U did not perform as well as it should have when writing to BD-R media at 6x. With its writing speed limited to 4.8x, it took more than 23 minutes to burn an entire 25GB disc.

Aside from the problems writing to BD-R media at 6x, the SBW-06C1S-U completed our Blu-ray writing tests without any problems. The drive wrote to the rest of our test media at its rated speeds and, aside from its transfer speeds tapering off near the end, it had no problems reading the discs back. 

Performance Revisited:

When it comes down to it, the performance of ASUS's new portable Blu-ray Disc writer was hit and miss. The SBW-06C1S-U performed as expected when writing to BD-RE and BD-R DL media, but failed to read or write to BD-R discs at 6x. On the other hand, the drive did reasonably well in our CD and DVD read tests. It read CD's at speeds as high at 24x and single layer DVD's at 8x. Writing CD's and DVD's wasn't a problem for the SBW-06C1S-U either. For a portable drive, it turned in some respectable times and the writing quality was good for the most part. With all of these things considered, the ASUS SBW-06C1S-U gets a 6 out of 10 for its performance.

At first glance, the ASUS SBW-06C1S-U seems to have it all. This compact and versatile Blu-ray Disc writer offers good looks, impressive specs and a number of useful features, including the ability to power itself off a computer's USB bus. Of course, none of this really means much if the drive doesn't have the performance to back it up and unfortunately, in this case, the SBW-06C1S-U came up short in a few key areas.

According to ASUS, the SBW-06C1S-U can write to BD-R media at 6x. No matter what I tried, the drive reached a maximum writing speed of only 4.8x in our tests. As a result, it took more than 23 minutes to burn an entire 25GB disc. Thankfully, the SBW-06C1S-U had no problems writing to BD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive was able to burn a full 50GB BD-R DL disc in a little more than 61 minutes. The SBW-06C1S-U wasn't as fast when writing to BD-RE media. However, its performance was on par with the other Blu-ray Disc writers I've tested.

Using the bundled PowerDVD software, the SBW-06C1S-U played all of the Blu-ray movies I had on hand, including those protected by BD+ and with BD-Live enabled features. In our transfer rate tests though, the drive's performance was mixed. The SBW-06C1S-U was able to read single layer BD-ROM's at 6x and both BD-RE and BD-R DL at 4x but came up short of its rated speeds when reading BD-R discs. 

ASUS's new drive also has the ability to read and write to all standard DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. The SBW-06C1S-U performed relatively well when writing to DVD±R discs, taking less than 12 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. The drive also turned in some respectable times when writing to other types of media. However, the writing quality could have been better with Verbatim's DVD-R DL discs. When it came to reading DVD's, the SBW-06C1S-U was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's as well as DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 8x.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the SBW-06C1S-U either. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive read data CD's at speeds as high as 24x and ripped audio CD's at 23x. As a writer, the SBW-06C1S-U performed as expected. The drive was relatively quick when writing to CD-R media and its writing quality was quite good.

ASUS's portable Blu-ray Disc writer also has its share of features. Along with a vertical stand design, the SBW-06C1S-U sports a glossy black finish and an external blue light. A truly portable solution, the drive is also powered completely off a computer's USB bus. Without the need for an AC power source, you can watch a Blu-ray movie or burn a disc wherever you go. To prevent buffer underruns, the SBW-06C1S-U has a 6MB buffer that is backed up by ASUS's FlextraLink technology. The drive also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL discs. To top it all off, ASUS has included a great software bundle from CyberLink.

The ASUS SBW-06C1S-U is available now and can be purchased from Amazon or the retailers listed on Pricegrabber for less than $190.

Highs:

• Writes to BD-R and BD-R LTH media at 6x
• Writes to BD-R DL media at 4x
• Writes to BD-RE and BD-RE DL media at 2x
• Writes to DVD±R media at 8x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD±R DL media at 4x
• Reads single layer BD-ROM's at 6x
• Reads BD-R media at 6x
• Reads BD-RE and BD-R DL media at 4x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
• Reads DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 8x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 6x
• Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Features 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW writing speeds
• 6MB buffer
• Good DVD±R and CD-R writing quality
• Features ASUS's FlextraLink technology
• Very compact and lightweight design
• Powered off the USB bus
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL media
• Includes vertical drive stand

Lows:

• Failed to read and write to BD-R media at 6x
• Questionable writing quality with some DVD-R DL media
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media
• High seek times
• Overburns to only 92:57