Benq 40x/40x/24x CD-RW 16x/8x/4x DVD-RW Drive (DW1625-0C4)

List Price: $99.99

Customer Reviews:

BenQ and LightScribe don't mix... yet. [Posted on 2005-05-15]
The specs on this drive for CD-burning speeds are great, for DVD-burning they are average. I bought this drive specifically for the LightScribe technology, and also because BenQ was thoughtful enough to produce the two common colors, beige and black.

All the reviews online I could find regarding this drive were favorable. However, I was more concerned with the LightScribe technology which seemed pretty evenly compared across the board of the four most common drives utilizing the technology: HP, BenQ, LaCie, and Philips. This BenQ drive ships with Nero 6 software to utilize LightScribe (in addition to downloading a LightScribe patch from Nero's website). Unfortunately, many unsucessful attempts to burn a label on Verbatim CD-Rs left me frustrated and with a bunch of corrupted discs (furthmore, even iTunes failed to burn successfully to these CD-Rs).

At this point, being current on all updates and firmware, I called BenQ tech support and was told that there are random bugs with their technology in this drive and that the worst cases show up with the use of CDs as opposed to DVDs. I was told that they were working on a firmware upgrade at this point, but that release is unknown.

I'm returning this drive and going with HP since I suspect that they have done more thorough testing since they were the mind behind LightScribe technology... with hopes that they won't release a 'buggy' product to consumers just to have cash flow.

Also, the burn time for making a label is 28 minutes using best-quality; so keep your eye on LG's (Germany) soon-to-be-released GSA-4165 DVD LightScribe Burner which boasts to cut that time down to 5 minutes!

Avoid BenQ & Verbatim for now.

Never worked properly for me even after replacement.  [Posted on 2006-11-24]
I bought a Benq DW1625. It worked ok in burning CDs but it never once burned a successful DVD. I took it back for replacement. After a couple of weeks, I fetched the replacement. It came in a plain box (my original box had gone back with the original unit) and was labelled "Refurbished Not For Sale As New". It had scratches on the surface and a sticky patch where presumably a label had been removed.

The replacement unit would produce about one error-free DVD for every three I tried. Now it has started producing read errors on CDs. Life is too short to get it replaced again - tomorrow it is going in the bin.

I shall not buy anything with "Benq" on the label again.

Click here for more details and discount information...