Earlier this year, I reviewed Lite-On's internal BD-ROM drive, the DH-4O1S. While not the fastest or most feature packed drive to come through the 'Labs, it offered Blu-ray Disc playback at an affordable price. The DX-4O1S delivers much of the same, but this time, in a stylish, external package. Using the bundled software, this read-only drive played all of the Blu-ray movies I had on hand, including those protected by BD+. The DX-4O1S also did fairly well in our transfer rate tests, reading BD-ROM's as well as BD-R and BD-RE media at 4x.
Lite-On's external drive was also relatively quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, the DX-4O1S was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 12x and had some very good seek times. It also read DVD±R discs at 12x but slowed to 8x when reading DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media. Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the DX-4O1S either. However, with a maximum read speed of only 32x, it definitely won't win any speed contests.
In the end, it usually comes down to price. The DX-4O1S is currently the most affordable external Blu-ray drive on the market. Prices vary depending on the seller, but the DX-4O1S can be picked up for less than $160 on Pricegrabber.
| Lite-On DX-4O1S USB 2.0 4x BD-ROM |
|
| Features: Installation: Performance: |
9 9 8 |
| Overall: | 9 |
Highs:
- Reads BD-ROM's and BD-R/RE media at 4x
- Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 12x
- Reads DVD±R media at 12x
- Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
- Reads DVD-RAM media at 5x
- 8MB buffer
- Low seek times
- Can do write quality testing with BD media
- Includes software from CyberLink
- Nice looking design with blue LED
- Easy to install thanks to USB 2.0 interface
- Affordably priced
Lows:
- Reads CD's at only 32x
