Pioneer unveils world's smallest and lightest external Blu-ray burner

When describing the current fleet of BD burners on the market, one word that certainly doesn't come to mind --

sleek. Pioneer is aiming to change all that, though, with the BDR-XD04. What it lacks in a catchy name it makes up

for with a slim and light clamshell design that doesn't make too many sacrifices in the features department. At just

under 8.5 oz and 0.55 inches thick, it puts most of its competitors to shame. Now, it settles for just a 6x write

speed and skips USB 3.0 in favor of the more common (and slower) 2.0, but it is capable of drawing power entirely

from your machines peripheral ports. (Though, you'll have the option of hooking up an AC adapter if you wish.)

And don't worry about format support -- the BDR-XD04 will handle everything from quad-layer 128GB BD-Rs to old-

school CDs with aplomb. The slim new burner will start shipping in the middle of this month for $150 . Full PR is

after the break.

Rudz