I’m pretty sure I’ve made a pretty big deal about optical drives in every single one of my computer reviews, what I have not done is explain my complete view on them. While my use of computers is very different than most users, I think I will be able to cover pretty much every user. Now I’m strictly speaking about laptops here (eh maybe no stricktly, there are some border line machines like the Mac Mini), optical drives in desktops are another matter.
When I was younger the only reason I wanted a computer was to game. Now I was into some pretty intense stuff, you know, Tony Hawk 1 and Mechwarrior 3, those were the days. Anyway, clearly having an optical drive for me was an absolute must. My brother, needed an optical drive so he could rip (today apple has convinced us import is the right term) CDs into Windows Media player. At the time both of these tasks had to be accomplished with an optical drive. My dad had an external CD drive for his IBM (they’ve always gotten it right) just for installing new programs or updates to office and things like that.
Now flash forward to now. I can’t speak for gamers, though I’m pretty sure most games require constant use of a CD drive. So yes, gaming laptops should continue to include optical drives. But other types of people, think about the last time you used a CD. Watching movie’s via DVD has pretty much been replaced by the iTunes store, amazon, and online netflix. Applications such as Microsoft Office usually come preinstalled, and offer versions online available for download (requiring purchasing a login key of course). All of the program’s I use are downloadable with the purchase of product key, so personally I would not mind if Apple ditched the optical drive on their next Mac. I use CS2(photoshop, dreamweaver, indesign), Aperture(pro version of iPhoto), and Microsoft Office.
The other thing to think about is how often do you actually use your optical drive away from home or the office-shutup gamers, I’m not talking about you right now. The Lenovo X201 has it right in that the actual laptop has no optical drive, but the docking station does. This way you have the best of both worlds, compactness on the go and practicality at home (or the office). Not a docking station guy (or girl)-well I’m not either-external optical drives are extremely cheap now.
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