Samsung SE-S204N

Samsung is well known for producing some interesting devices and electronics.  So it should be no surprise that they have a wide range of devices available on the market.
The SE-S204N is quite a standard external 20x DVD-RW drive with the LightScribe feature.
The following media types are supported:
  • DVD-RAM
  • DVD+R
  • DVD+R DL
  • DVD+RW
  • DVD-R
  • DVD-R DL
  • DVD-RW
  • Light Scribe DVD±R and Light Scribe CD-R
  • DVD-ROM
  • DVD-Video
  • CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-ROM/XA, CD-Audio,
  • Video-CD, Photo CD, CD-I (FMV), CD-Extra, CD-TEXT
As you can see, a large number of different CD and DVD formats are supported.  The maximum speed supported by the drive is 20x.
The drive has many features that are now standard on most DVD drives, like buffer under-run protection and LightScribe.  However, this drive has a few extra features that allow it to work better as a standalone unit.  Most of these relate to how the disc is kept at the right angle even when the drive is on its side and vibrating.  However, I will no go into details here.

Physical Layout

The unit is about the size of a regular internal drive.  It is black with gray accents.  A large Samsung label is plastered on the top along with the Writemaster brand.  The front bezel has a LightScribe logo and the standard DVD Multi drive sticker as well.
Since the driver is covered with protective transparent film, it helps to not remove it in order to avoid scratching the top surface.
The drive can be mounted both vertically (with the included stand) or horizontally.  While mounting the drive horizontally may seem like the best idea, the stand makes it hard to do in practice.  The stand has a very small footprint compared to the drive, and as a result, the weight of the drive causes it to lean in one direction.  Likewise, pushing the door closed may result in the drive tipping over.  So, it is better to mount the drive horizontally if possible.
A word of caution if you decide to mount the drive vertically.  Do not tilt the drive if it is in operation!  It will result in the media making contact with the media tray, and causing the disk to either be damaged or destroyed completely.  I suspect this is due to the Automatic Ball Balancing system used to keep the media spinning at the same angle.

Software

The software included with this drive is the standard Nero Suite that comes bundled with all DVD writers nowadays.  There is also an autoupdate program which notifies you of any new firmware available for the drive.

Performance

The drive itself is a 20X DVD drive.  However, the firmware that it runs has a number of purposely implemented handicaps in order to reduce the noise and vibrations generated by the drive.  This includes limiting the read speed of single layer DVD discs to 16x.  Likewise, limiting PCAV writing to a lower speed as well.
The above two can be improved by using a firmware patcher available for all MTK chipset based Samsung DVD drives.
Like most DVD drives today, it has a rip lock.  This makes ripping DVDs a challenge or extremely slow.
A summary of the drive speeds can be seen below:
Overall, the performance is quite standard for a 20x DVD drive.
One minor disappointment we had was an issue with reading and writing to older DVD-RW media.  A 3 year old LG drive was able to both read and write to it, while this drive was not.  However, this may have been to ensure the quality of the burn.  Either way, no major problems were experienced with over 6 months of use.

Value

The going price for this whole bundle is around $40 USD.  For an external drive with LightScribe, it is definitely a good bargain.  However, it is only a good price if you need an external DVD drive.  With the emergence of netbooks these days, it is definitely a necessity for most.

Conclusion

While the drive is a good bargain, it does have some issues.  Most of them are noticable if you mount the drive vertically.  Another issues is the size of the drive, with laptop DVD drive sized DVD drives available, this one will definitely take up a good amount of desktop space.

Performance: 7/10
Price: 8/10
Software: 9/10
Features: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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