Nathan Davis model 3500A, reporting for duty.
It's equipped with laser modulation that boosts the accuracy of written data and 'Active Optimised Power Control' which monitors and reacts to the writing power and reflection of the media so as to achieve the perfect write. While supporting a big mass of write features, it doesn't support Mount Rainier.
Bar the official firmware releases, we usually won't play around with the 'grey-area' flash updates in reviews, as this creates an unfair rift between the way the product was made to perform and how it does with unofficial modifying. As such, the firmware it was packed with, version 2.16 was the latest officially available and what was tested with.
The media we used for testing the DL capabilities was a Verbatim DVD+R DL verified disc rated at 2.4x. Nero CD-DVD Speedrecognised that this drive could burn it at either 2.4x or 4x - and this was certainly the case. In testing, it filled a 7.96GB disc in 26.8 minutes, hovering just over, at 4.16x without a drop, bar a quick dip when changing layers. With this drive, dual layer media is much more bearable to burn.
By the time you read this, the unit's shelf price is bound to be different to the retail price we were given, but this will largely depend on where the market goes. In terms of kick-arse warranty voiding, there's a hacked firmware making the rounds that enables the Bitsetting of single layer discs - making DVD+R media appear as DVD-ROM discs.
Overall, this multi-format drive is amazingly good. It sports the fastest available CD writing speed on DVD burners, the fastest available + and - write speed and the ability to complete a dual layer DVD+R in half the original time. If you're in the market for any optical burner, consider this incredible high-speed beast.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012