It's been a while now since an optical drive was a standard feature on new laptops. Those who don't want to sacrifice any USB ports for the sake of an external CD drive they don't use very often will like that both the Nolyth Burner and Wintale 5 in 1 have two ports for connecting other devices, effectively making them USB hubs. The Verbatim Slimline also has a very lightweight build, at just 8 ounces, and it offers the ability to write and read Blu-rays and M-discs, which the ZenDrive doesn't. If you want to password protect your CDs, you can turn to the Asus ZenDrive, which comes with both Type-A and Type-C connectors, works with nearly every type of operating system, and has a slim and lightweight build. Though it comes in black rather than silver, it has a USB Type-C connector, allowing for faster data transfer speeds, and it is considerably more affordable too. Unless you are a diehard Apple fan, we believe the Guamar Black00 would be a better choice for those who want something with a metal housing and who don't need Blu-ray compatibility.

That being said, it definitely lags when considering the value for the money spent, especially when considering it only supports USB Type-A connections, which means it doesn't offer the best data transfer speeds. When selecting the drives for our list, we took many features into account, such as the ability to read and write Blu-ray, what type of USB plugs they had, cost, and overall aesthetics and durability.Īs you would probably guess from any device manufactured by Apple, the Apple Superdrive excels in the aesthetics category, with a brushed aluminum shell that should perfect match their computers.

They are also useful for installing old software you may have lying around, or playing a favorite game you only have on a CD. Whether you want to transfer your favorite DVDs to your laptop, or, perhaps conversely, are trying to transfer your movie collection to your device's hard drive or the cloud, one of the external drives on this list can help. While some may view CD and DVD drives as antiquated technology at this point, and there is no doubt it is heading that way, many still use them for a variety of reasons.

Best external cd drive for imac