Mitsumi CR-485FTE (54/32/54) review @ CDRLabs.com

April 28, 2003

Our friends from
CDRLabs.com have taken a look at the first (and only?) writer that
supports 54x writing (and reading speeds), the Mitsumi
CR-485FTE. Besides these amazingly high read and write speeds the drive also
supports 32x re-writing:

The
CR-485FTE is the world's first 54/32/54 CD-RW. No, that's not a typo. The
CR-485FTE reads and writes at 54x and rewrites at an amazing 32x.
Mitsumi's new writer isn't just about speed either. The drive also offers
features like ExacLink buffer underrun protection and Mitsumi's own AEGIS
WRITING technology to ensure the best writing quality
possible.

Part of the
Conclusion:

With the CR-485FTE Mitsumi has launched themselves
into the lead with one of the fastest CD-RW drives currently available.
I'll be honest though. If you were expecting the world's first 54/32/54
CD-RW drive to blow away the current crop of 52x writers, you might be a
little disappointed. In most cases, the CR-485FTE's was only marginally
faster than most of the 52x writers we've looked
at.

The question for many is whether or
not it's worth upgrading from a 52x writer to the CR-485FTE. When it comes
to writing speeds, the difference in performance is very small. If you own
a drive like the Lite-On LTR-52246S or Samsung SW-252B, you're not going
to be saving a lot of time by stepping up to the Mitsumi. As it was, the
CR-485FTE's writing times were within a second or two of Lite-On's 52x
writer. Mitsumi's new writer also had some very high media requirements.
While the drive's AEGIS WRITE technology did deliver some very good
writing quality, it also prevented us from writing to most of our test
media at 54x.

As a reader the Mitsumi CR-485FTE was a little
disappointing but due to the drive's low price (around $ 47) it gets CDRLabs'
Best Buy Award. If you're interested in reading the complete review you can
check it out here.

Source: CDRLabs.com