Readers question: CD / DVD reader for the MacBook Pro

Samsung SE208GB RSWD

Question: Hello Sir Apfelot, I come from an Apple family and plan to buy a laptop. My decision was made for the [Macbook Pro Retina 13 inch-> macbook-pro-retina] - which model has not yet been decided. One question has not yet been clarified: What kind of USB drive (for DVD / CD) for watching films (not for burning) can you buy? Does it have to be the expensive device from Apple or does it have to be accepted?

Answer: Of course you do NOT have to use the expensive CD/DVD burner from Apple. There are some cheap DVD burners, which of course also play DVDs and CDs and are also Mac-compatible and tested. Here I wrote about it: “The alternative to the Apple Superdrive".

Samsung SE208GB RSWD
The Samsung SE208GB RSWD DVD burner offers a good price-performance ratio and works even without a driver installation on the Mac (Photo: Amazon).

You also ask above for a device that you only want to use as a player. A device that ONLY reads and does not burn is (I think) no longer available ... but at the low price that the DVD burner costs, you can hardly save anything. For this reason, I would rather recommend you a burner right away.

This DVD burner from Samsung is currently with very many positive reviews and also recommended by Mac users:

Samsung SE208GB RSWD
The Samsung DVD burner does not have an extra power supply and works with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0.

It should be noted, however, that the Samsung burner is unproblematic on Macs that have USB 3 ports. With some computers that only have USB 2.0, the connection may drop unexpectedly because the device 0,5 Ampere required, for which a USB 2.0 interface is actually not designed. If you want to be on the safe side, you hang it on one USB 3 hubthat has an external power supply. Then there is definitely enough power available for operation.

Anyone who is at loggerheads with Samsung and prefers another manufacturer can also use this one ASUS look at the burner. It also runs without any extra drivers under Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X:

1,91 EUR
Asus SDRW-08D2S-U Lite
4.382 reviews
Asus SDRW-08D2S-U Lite
ASUS SlimeLine DVD burner that runs on both Mac OS X and Windows. Messages about interruptions due to a power overload can not be found here in the customer reviews.
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The page contains affiliate links / images: Amazon.de

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