Samsung SE-S084 | Reviews | Techie.com.ph
12:52 AM | Wednesday | 05 January 2020

Ah netbooks, those portable PCs that have taken the Philippines and the rest of the world by storm these past few years. To make the them the little mobile workers that they are, one thing has to be sacrificed: the optical drive, something that we take for granted because it comes as standard with most desktops and laptops. This makes external optical drives more relevant today, and a specimen managed to land in our test lab, the Samsung SE-S084 external DVD writer.

The SE-S084 is not something you'd want to hide, what with its glossy exterior (the downside: a fingerprint magnet) and slim build. You can stack 3 of this, and it would be just a bit taller than an ordinary desktop optical drive. It's also quite light, so lugging it around with your netbook won't be much of a problem.

Samsung did away with curved corners and went for a rectangular look, a move that's given the DVD writer a robust and no-nonsense look. As for ports and buttons, the SE-S084 went minimal with only a USB port and an eject button. 

Setup

Just plug in the SE-S084, and you're good to go. The drivers will be installed automatically without the need for any discs.

It requires no external power source, though it makes use of 2 USB ports for its juice.

However, we found out that the supplied USB cable is quite short, and while it's good enough for portables, we bet desktop owners will be frustrated by it. You also need the USB ports side by side, as the 2 USB connectors at end of the already-short cable aren't separated by a wide margin. Still, we say that the absence of the need for an external power source more than makes up for it.

Performance

The Samsung SE-S084 has the following read and write speeds:

• DVD+R DL: 6x, 6x
• DVD-R DL: 8x, 6x
• DVD±R: 8x, 8x
• DVD+RW: 8x, 8x
• DVD-RW: 8x, 6x
• DVD-RAM: 5x, 5x
• DVD-ROM: 8x
• CD-R: 24x, 24x
• CD-RW: 24x, 4x
• CD-ROM: 24x
  

We decided to pit the SE-S084 against 2 DVD burners – from a desktop and a notebook – in a burning speed race. Both sport an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM (quite common these days). The objective is to find out which one burns files on a blank DVD in DATA format using Nero 8.

In all our tests, we found out that regardless of the size of the file (we started with 3.5GB), the SE-S084 performed a tad faster than the laptop disc drive but slower than the desktop's.

While the speeds may vary depending on the rig and specs you have, it's still noteworthy that the SE-S084 can outpace a portable's disc drive, which earns it plus points. Plus we didn't encounter any hiccups. It performed smoothly every time.

As for noise and heat, we were pleased that the SE-S084 is a rather cool and silent operator.

Extras

The Samsung SE-S084 has a few more extras left in its bag. These include a bonus Nero 8 installation disc for sharing purposes and the capability to burn and read the much smaller and uncommon 8mm disc type.

If you're worried that a disc might get stuck inside due to, say, a power outage like the one we experienced with Basyang, don't fret. The SE-S084 has a manual eject feature. 

Verdict

If you can look beyond its oddly short USB cable, you'll see that the Samsung SE-S084 is a good choice for those with netbooks without optical drives. And at just P2,800, it's quite speedy, it looks good, and it feels robust, plus it has a few extras that will add fuel to your burning sprees.

Click here to view the Samsung SE-S084 in the Buyer's Guide.