Accessories for MacBook Air: External USB SuperDrive

By Michael Rose

More additional gear to carry for the lightest laptop you can buy — Apple's external SuperDrive DVD writer, with a USB 2.0 connector and all the capabilities of a normal laptop optical drive. It's a $99 slot-loading 8x SuperDrive, full specs:

DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW (gesundheit!)

  • Writes DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs at up to 4x speed
  • Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
  • Writes DVD-RW discs at up to 6x speed and DVD+RW discs at up to 8x speed
  • Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
  • Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
  • Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed
  • Reads CDs at up to 24x speed

It's USB-powered and, I'd expect, a legit boot disk source. While you won't need a DVD drive for installing software, it'll definitely be handy for watching movies (the ones you don't rent).

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