INTRODUCTION

     Shooting short video clips and taking pictures is something many people do on a daily basis (mainly with their smartphones) so with Christmas just around the corner it's a safe bet that the largest percentage of the global population will spend quite a bit of time doing the same but in a much larger scale. So since we will probably be doing the exact same thing we did our best to find a device that would make our lives easier when sharing our Christmas media collection with both family and friends. Well to our surprise in the end it didn't take that long to find such a device and to be more accurate it was actually delivered to us out of the blue (luck was on our side). So just as the title clearly states we spend the better part of last week testing the latest PlexEasy PX-650US Versatile DVD/CD Burner by Plextor.

   PLEXTOR is a world-leading developer of award-winning solid state drives, and other high-performance digital storage devices for professionals, consumers, and enterprises. The PLEXTOR brand of storage and multimedia products is owned by Shinano Kenshi of Japan. Since the introduction of our very first CD-ROM back in 1989, PLEXTOR has had an obsessive approach to quality and performance. As we grew, PLEXTOR’s legendary optical drives became the performance benchmark against which all others in the industry were measured. Today that legend lives on, not only in our new generation of Blu-ray drives but in our multi-award winning solid-state drives. As additional users discover the benefits of our high-performance SSDs, our engineers continue to insist that every PLEXTOR product be designed to deliver maximum reliability and true performance. PLEXTOR answered the customers’ needs for the replacement of aging hard-drive technology with higher speed storage with the debut of its first SSD in 2009. In response to demand for our acclaimed SSDs, PLEXTOR is undertaking an aggressive expansion program and operating in more markets worldwide. This brings us closer to the users, which allows us to better meet their requirements. For example, we were one of the first to develop drives supporting SATA 6.0Gb/s, providing the performance needed for data- intensive applications.

   My first encounter with Plextor was in the late 90's when i started using their CD Recorders (mostly SCSI ones) which at the time really had no competition from any other brand out there not only in terms of build quality and performance but also due to the impressive warranty given to their products (replacement drive at your doorstep within 2 working days). Since then Plextor has had quite a few bumps along the way (manufacturing unrivalled drives and pairing them with impressive support equals to an extremely heavy cost) and so they eventually stopped manufacturing their own optical drives (they now use LiteOn ones). However that also made it possible for them to venture into other fields such as external HDDs, Media Players, SSDs and innovative peripherals such as the PlexEasy PX-650US. So let's take a closer look and see just how much innovative and easy it really is to use the PX-650US Versatile DVD/CD re-writable burner by Plextor.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The box in which the PX-650US gets shipped in is quite well made and so at the top there's a living room in the background, a large product picture over that and several smaller pictures right beneath both showcasing the various devices you can use the product with.

The package contents, hardware specifications, a connectivity diagram and a list of compatible devices are present at the left side.

At the front we see a product picture along with several other pictures showcasing the compatible devices.

The various functions of the PlexEasy PX-650US are showcased over at the right side of the box.

A brief product description printed in 16 languages is placed at the rear.

The drive is safely placed between two pieces of Styrofoam while the rest of the bundle is placed beneath it and under a piece of cardboard.

The bundle contains pretty much what you'd expect from such a device including a quickstart guide, warranty service paper, OSD string definition paper, USB cable, USB power cable and an AC power adapter with UK/EU tips.

THE PLEXEASY PX-650US

The PlexEasy PX-650US is just a tad larger than your average external DVD/CD burner (have i mentioned how hard it is to take shots of white devices with a white background?) and so it measures 21mm in height, 182mm in length and 142mm in width while weighing a total of 385g.

A long LCD (VFW) screen is placed at the top end of the unit right next to 3 buttons used to navigate through the available menus.

At the front of the optical drive tray we see the eject button, activity LED and the emergency eject hole.

The tray only opens when the device is plugged into a power source.

All of the connectors are placed on the right side of the PX-650US. So here we see the SD/MMC card slot, USB 2.0 port, on/off button and the DC power in.

You can see the unit’s serial number, barcode, certifications and manufacture date on a small sticker placed at the bottom.

We tested the PX-650US using a direct USB connection with a Toshiba Camileo FullHD camcorder and the SD 64GB Card from our Panasonic Lumix 14MP camera.

USING THE PX-650US

The top LCD screen takes you through the various steps required in order to backup your media collection.

It took roughly 3 minutes for the PX-650US to copy 235MB from the SD Card and close the CD and roughly 7 minutes to copy 650MB from the camcorder and close another CD.

Through the function menu you can set the PX-650US to clone DVD/CD discs, backup media from the DVD/CD/SD Card to the USB drive and finally RIP audio discs to the USB Drive.

Under the tools menu you can format the SD Card and attached USB drive, erase an CD-RW, update the drives firmware and change the copy source.

CONCLUSION

   Although the PX-650US is classified as an external 8xDVD/CD re-writable burner it's the versatile part that really separates it from similar devices since Plextor has given it two very special features. So not only you can back up your media files directly from your camcorder/camera/SD-MMC Card/USB Flash drive but also you can copy entire CDs and DVDs just with a push of a single button. Now i can't say I’m really fond of carrying extra devices with me (that means extra space which i don't really have) but for special occasions such as the Christmas holidays during which you will most certainly need to share pictures and video clips with your family and friends the PX-650US could really come in handy (and it's not that larger than a normal external DVD/CD drive). The only slight drawback i can think of is the 8x write speed which takes almost 8 minutes to record an 700MB CD but when i think about the old days and 4x writers it's not really that bad, besides the device wasn't designed for backing up crucial data with a tight schedule to begin with and most portable DVD/CD writers are also 8x.

   As we write these lines the Plextor PlexEasy PX-650US Versatile DVD/CD Burner retails for USD99.99 inside the USA (TigerDirect) and at around 90Euros inside the EU and so it's roughly 20-30% more expensive than most regular portable 8x DVD/CD burners out in the market. However at least for us the extra functionality of the PlexEasy PX-650US is well worth the extra bucks (you get what you pay for) unless of course you really have no need for it in which case you should probably look for something more basic. However if you think you can make use of all the things the PX-650US has to offer then you should really go for it. Innovation coupled with a large range of features, fast burning (for a portable DVD/CD burner) and a good build quality are more than enough for us to give the PlexEasy PX-650US by Plextor our Golden Award. 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Innovation (Functionality)
- CD to CD/SD/USB
- SD to CD/USB
- AC/USB Powered
- LCD Screen
- Write Speed (8X)

CONS

- Price (For Some)