Pioneer Announces the Slimmest External BDXL Writer in the World

Pioneer Japan announced the BDR-XU02J, a device it claims to be the slimmest Blu-ray XL writer in the world. It keeps fit thanks to its slot-loading mechanism, instead of a tray-loading one. It measures 133 x 133 x 12 mm (WxDxH), weighing about 250 g. Pioneer includes a stand to let you stack it vertically. The drive uses the USB 2.0 interface, with a single cable handling both power and connectivity. The BDR-XU02J writes single- and double-layer BD-R discs at 6X, triple- and quad-layer ones at 4X, BD-R (LtH) at 6X, BD-RE at 6X, multi-layer BD-RE at 2X, DVDs up to 8X, and CDs up to 24X. It includes DiXiM BD Burner 2013 disc writing software. It is slated for May 2013.