This external DVD drive has clearly had Sony's style wand waved at it - the simplistic silver design and mirrored panel on front give it a real touch of class.

The drive will sit flat or, using the supplied plastic holder, stand vertically. A single button on the top actives the eject mechanism.

The Sony DRX-810UL will hook up to your PC via USB or Firewire (or I.Link as Sony likes to call it) and, when sat upright, won't take up too much desk space.

As expected, it can cope with writing to both formats of single and dual-layer DVDs - the latter allowing you to cram 8.5GB of data onto a single disc.

Writing speeds sits at eight-speed for DVD+R dual-layer and half that for the rival format.

Unlike NEC's latest drives (read a review of the NEC ND-4551A here), this Sony model won't accept DVD-Ram media of any description. It also lacks support for Labelflash or Lightscribe label burning.

Software comes in the form of a collection of Nero titles - this includes Nero Burning Rom, Vision Express and Showtime.

If you've got space inside your PC, we'd recommend going for an internal model - they're cheaper and don't require a separate power supply.

That said, you can use an external drive on a notebook PC and also carry it to multiple locations should you need to. And with a drive this good looking, you're going to want to show it off.