LG Super Multi Blue BE06-LU10
Very fast, very capacious
Review The LG Super Multi Blue BE06-LU10 external DVD writer's headline figure is its 6x Blu-ray writing speed. The rest of the specification also catches the eye: 2x BD-RE, 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing.
LG's Super Multi Blue BE06-LU10: stylish, kind of...
You need to read the packaging of the drive to get those figures as the LG website claims that the drive has DVD-RW and DVD+RW 16x write speeds. That seems unlikely, but the only way to be sure was to look at the drive inside the USB caddy.
After some swift work with a screwdriver, we were able to see that the drive inside the casing is the same GGW-H20L drive that we reviewed a while back, so the correct specification is:
| Maximum Write Speeds | Maximum Read Speeds |
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You can buy the GGW-H20L for less than £150, while the BE06-LU10 sells for around £185 which means you’re paying a premium of £35 for the case and USB sub-system. Externally, the housing is a smart box that has a shiny white plastic top with shiny black sides. This cosmetic skin covers the GGW-H20L drive and also conceals an adaptor that plugs on the back of the drive. The GGW-H20L is a conventional SATA drive so the adaptor converts the SATA connection to USB and also feeds power from a small external power block to the back of the drive. A ribbon cable leads from the adapter to the front of the caddy where it powers the blue activity LED and the eject button.
This is one aspect of the BE06-LU10 that we strongly dislike. The shiny chrome button looks great but it's a soft-touch control that takes a moment to respond. The button is flush in the casing and doesn’t move when you press it so you can never be sure that you have put your finger in the correct position. Press too long and too hard, and there's every chance that the LG will interpret it as a double press so that the trays starts to open and then slams shut again. We found it easier to right click the drive in Windows Explorer but, honestly, it's amazing that something so simple could turn out so wrong.
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COMMENTS
I think I'll hang on
I think I'll hang on and stick with DVDs for now. As much as I'd love to get a Blu-Ray burner I can't warrant spending £150 or so on a drive and £7 per disc at the moment (okay, technically my first CD-RW drive cost £150 with CD-R media at £1 a disc, and my first DVD-RAM was also £150, didn't do + media and again media was about 75p a pop) but I'm going to hang on until the prices come down to something more like under £80 for the writer and under £2 a disc.
I can certainly see the point of archiving though especially if the media prices come down a bit.
Can't help but think though the score should have been a bit higher, maybe more 75/80%?
Rob
Stupid review
How can you rate it based on an assumption that there is no market. There is a market, however niche it is, it is still a market.
"We didn't test the external drive with BD-R media as we don’t have any to hand and the £7-per-25GB-disc cost put us off the idea of buying a pack. BD-RE media is, at £12 per disc, far better value as it's reusable, but both types of Blu-ray media are only available with a burning speed of 2x while the GGW-H20L is capable of BD-R 6x and BD-RE 2x."
What a load of bollocks. So you review a BD writer but do not actually evaluate its task at burning BD discs because you are too cheap to buy the media. Do not subject this horrible review to your readers then!
Weak review
Definitely not up to your usual good standard here. I can't see how the final score should include "Reviewer's bias because it's a good device but he has no use for it". Solid state storage is better for shuttling files around (regardless of content) but not for archiving, or god forbid using in a blu-ray player.
That's not just a ridiculous degree of bias, it's a ridiculous type of bias to creep into a final rating anyway.
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