9 / 10
score
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Super AllWrite

Wow, they named a feature after Michael Barrymore, he must be thrilled. This bold marketing claim states that you can use this writer with any media you like, from CD-R, CD+RW, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL, even DVD-RAM. At first glance it gives you the impression that any media will work, however it might be worth noting that really it states any media type should work with this unit, which is perhaps not the same thing as any media from any manufacturer. Some players in the past have struggled with specific blank media from specific manufacturers, but these days are hopefully so far behind us now that it shouldn't be an issue anymore.

Though don't expect that stack of bad DVD-Rs you never could get working properly with your old drive, due to a high fail-rate, to suddenly work miraculously with this one. This is not what it is promising.


Overall

Reviewing drives can be a difficult thing, you can check out the manufacturers claims to a certain degree, and you can check read and write speeds. With the speed of the technology slowing to a crawl, the land of the DVD writer isn't going to change much over the coming years (prove me wrong World, prove me wrong!) and many buying a unit now will expect it to serve them for quite a while. Probably the most common items moved from one PC to another when upgrades are made include your optical drive, there is simply rarely a reason worth changing them for.

That said, you need to consider carefully what you require of your unit. If you want to buy special media and print on the front of your disks once your data has been burned, then a LightScribe or LabelFlash unit might be more appropriate. However if printable labels are more your thing, or writing on them with pen, or you don't mind waiting the (loooong) time it takes to write a LabelTag and the loss of data space doing so encompasses, you could do far worse than buy this unit.

It is after all very nicely priced, and Super AllWrite! Er... groan... sorry... I'll get my coat.

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