Date: January 15th, 2003
Article by: Nathan Glentworth
(Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Samsung
Canada
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COMPANY PROFILE
Head Office Corporate Information
Samsung delivers management reform through New Management to maintain
high international competitiveness. SAMSUNG is dedicated to contributing
to mankind's quality of life. The year 2000 will be declared as the First
year of Samsung Digital Management to speed up the digitization of all
areas of management with an ultimate objective to become a leader in the
digital age of the 21st century. Samsung has continuously improved its
financial structure by increasing profits, reducing costs, and enhancing
brand image. SAMSUNG's stability and development potential are universally
recognized.
Canadian Corporate Information
After only a decade of growth since first entering the Canadian market
in 1987, Samsung Canada, headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, has emerged
as the market leader. We are growing in Canada by about 20% per year and
continue to build a strong presence in every market we enter. Operating
as part of Samsung's Americas group, our Canadian operations gain considerable
competitive advantage from Samsung's local Americas R&D, manufacturing,
and technical support. Samsung Electronics in Canada focuses on consumer
electronics and information systems products. Consumer electronics began
in Canada in 1987, followed by IS in 1992. The information sales division
has grown 61% since 1992. Samsung has introduced a wide range of IS products
into the Canadian market, which include hard disk drives, CD-ROM drives,
printers, fax machines and monitors enforcing its leading market position
and fast year-over-year growth with a strong local presence and reseller
network to serve Canadian consumers from coast to coast. Samsung is building
a strong presence in Canada as it has all over the world.
PRODUCT INTRODUCTION
A growing trend in computing is efficiency. Faster computers and their
contained peripherals are being decreased in size while being increased
in power, speed and functionality. Take a look at the mini-systems that
are being created that are about as big as your everyday toaster. These
tiny computers usually come equipped with one 5 1/4" drive bay for
an optical drive of some sort. Until about a couple years ago, you had
the choice between a CD burner or a DVD-ROM drive. To some people, this
would be a hard decision seeing that most people like to watch DVD's and
like to burn there favorite music from time to time. And if there was
a combo drive on the market at the time, the units themselves were very
expensive and gained functionality lost performance across the board.
Well, those days are no more. What I will be reviewing today is an excellent
combo unit made by Samsung. From what I am told by the Samsung company
officials, this combo drive is selling like hotcakes and you will see
why further on in the review.
PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS
Just what does Samsung say about their introduction to the DVD/CD-R combo
market.
- x40 (CD read),x16 (DVD read),x32 (write),x12 (re-w)
- 8MB Buffer Memory (key feature)
- Prevents Buffer Under Run Error
- Reduces noise and vibration with DVA (Dynamic Vibration Absorber)
- Supports Mt. Rainier
- Supports DVD-R/RW formats read
- All in one form factor for less drive bay clutter
