Amazon cut the price on the Asus ZenDrive external DVD burner to $37.88, down from its regular $44.99 listing, when TechRadar reported the promotion on Thursday. The $7.11 markdown amounts to a 16 percent discount on an accessory designed to keep older physical media relevant.
Built-in disc drives disappeared from mainstream laptops years ago. Apple ditched optical drives across the Mac lineup long before modern ultraportables followed suit, leaving stacks of archive discs, older software media, and family video albums stranded on physical plastic. Portable drives like the ZenDrive exist to fill that hardware gap without forcing a PC upgrade.
Cables, speeds, and disc protection
The ZenDrive measures 13mm thick, making it slim enough to slip into a backpack sleeve next to an ultrabook. Asus packages both standard USB 2.0 and USB Type-C cables in the box. That means you can plug it straight into modern MacBooks or Windows machines without hunting down a dongle.
Performance runs at standard external optical limits. Discs read and write at up to 8x speeds for DVDs and up to 24x for standard CDs. It also supports M-DISC media, a format aimed at archival storage that promises longer data retention than conventional writable discs for family pictures and sensitive files.
On the software side, the unit bundles Nero BackItUp and supports Disc Encryption II. The encryption feature adds password safeguards along with hidden-file settings for sensitive burns. Both Windows and macOS environments are supported out of the box.
What the discount actually means
A sub-$40 price point makes the ZenDrive an easy pickup for occasional disc reading, though it falls short of an all-time low. The accessory sold for around $30 back in 2021, according to TechRadar, but recent pricing has held closer to full retail.
The drive also has clear hardware limitations. It reads and writes standard DVDs and CDs, but it lacks Blu-ray support entirely. Buyers looking to rip high-definition movie collections or move terabytes of bulk data will still need dedicated Blu-ray hardware or high-capacity solid-state storage instead.
For standard CD libraries and disc backups, the drive remains available through Amazon at the discounted rate.
DDFiled by The Deals Desk
Price drops and sales on tech worth buying, with the price, the retailer and the time it was reported. Prices move; every deal says when it was seen.
More from this desk →
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.