The PX-LB950UE's Blu-ray performance specs include swift 12X writing of BD-R, 8X dual-layer BD-R writing, 2X writing of dual- and single-layer rewritable BD, and 8X reading of BD-ROM. DVD write speeds top out at 8X for DVD-R, 6X for DVD-RW, and 12X for DVD-RAM. The drive also writes CD-R/RW at 48X/24X.
The PX-LB950UE ships with the highly competent, but slightly annoying (because of the abounding ads and upgrade notices) CyberLink BD Suite of Blu-ray/DVD/CD applications. PowerDVD 9 takes care of movie playback, PowerDirector 7 helps you create and edit your own movies, and you get a host of other applications for creating video, music, and data discs.
So how does the PX-LB950UE perform? Quite well, as our tests showed. Blu-ray movie playback across the USB 3.0 and eSATA buses was smooth as silk, and writing approximately 22GB to 6X-rated BD-R media took 11 minutes, 19 seconds. That's about 32MB per second, or 2GB per minute, and around 7X--average for a 12X-rated drive. As with faster DVD, BD burns start slow and increase in speed. And as noted up front, the PX-LB950UE truly replicates internal-drive playback: I had a trouble-free, responsive experience while watching Blu-ray movies.
This drive is not cheap, but if you want the best external optical drive going, and one that will actually play a Blu-ray movie with ease, the PX-LB950UE is what you want.