Pioneer's new BDR-XD04J contains a mind-numbing array of disc burning and playback options that should cover you for the next several years.
Perhaps the biggest highlight is support for BDXL BD-R discs, which means you can burn those fancy triple-layer 100GB and quad-layer 128GB Blu-ray discs in a tiny package. This is supposed to be the world's smallest BDXL-compatible portable drive.
Maximum burn speeds for Blu-ray discs are as follows: 6x BD-R/-R DL (TL, QL at 4x), 2x BD-RE/-RE DL, and 2x BD-RE XL/TL.
DVD disc burn speeds include 8x DVD-R, 6x DVD-R DL, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, and 5x DVD-RAM. There are also 24x burning speeds available for CD-R/RW discs.
The USB 2.0 compatible drive weighs 8.46 ounces, and is about 5.2 inches wide with a depth of about half an inch. It's nice to see that the drive can be powered through USB, and also can be used as a USB boot drive for computers that support such functionality.
We will undoubtedly see more of this "little engine that could" when it debuts next month at CES. It has a suggested price of 18,000 yen ($230).