ASUS ZenDrive V1M External DVD Drive and Writer with Built-in Cable-Storage Design, USB-C Interface, Compatible with Win 11 and macOS, M-DISC Support, SDRW-08V1M-U, 1 Year Warranty

Portable and capable, easy to use and Mac/PC compatible. Reads in admirable speed and accuracy without a need of external power. Retractable USB-C cable is another wonderful features The only thing worth mentioning in concerning area is flimsiness of the tray, but that comes with the territory considering how light and portable this drive is.

I wanted/needed a peripheral DVD/CD player for my Windows 11 laptops in order to rip and/or burn audio CDs. So far I've set this player up with two separate laptops running Win 11 and it's working perfectly. There is no setup wizard, or software you have to load. (The software included on the accompanying CD-ROM is just bloatware and should be avoided.) Another reviewer had a very helpful comment, namely that when you first connect the player via USB-C and absolutely nothing happens, don't worry. It comes to life once you insert a CD. From there, via File -> Open Audio CD, you can choose to play or rip audio. For the rip selection it gives you an option to specify settings for the rip. Really handy. So far the ripping has worked flawlessly with both laptops. I haven't yet attempted to burn any CDs, but I don't have reason to believe it will be an issue considering its performance so far. I'll probably update this review when I do, but so far a full five stars. BTW - the title of this review might leave the reader wondering if the unit works with Windows 10. The answer is I don't know as I no longer have any Windows 10 machines. I've read in the past that Windows 10 was not so compatible with external DVD/CD drives, thus I never bothered trying on those. Your mileage may vary with this unit on Win 10. One last comment. . . The unit is light and seems a little delicate. I'm not knocking it for that. Just don't drop it or bang it around as it's not built like a tank. If you treat it well, it will treat you well. ===================================== Feb 2026 Update. I switched to Linux after Windows 11 imploded with bloatware and privacy concerns. The great news is that this drive works extremely well with Linux Mint. I've probably burned about 20 CDs with this drive on Mint, and all but one were flawless. I had one problem finalizing a disc (using k3b software for all of them) and I'm not sure if it was the software or hardware. Some permission issue. I resolved it and it finally worked on that one too. Point is, every CD that was burned was absolutely perfect - no glitches, skips or other problems during playback. I actually bought a second drive as a backup as this thing is too good to be true. Highly recommended!

Works great, the rubber feet keep it from moving around on the desk. If you have your desktop computer under the desk, be sure to also purchase a USB-C extension cable. This thing is a snap to use, the software is easy to install, however when you notice the icon that cannot seem to be removed, make sure the program does not load on boot. To turn it off, click the arrow on the start bar to turn it off and make the icon go away.

Totally recommend! Digitally copied hundreds of cds. No issues.

As other reviewers noted, disks won’t show up on Mac out of the box. I have an M1 MacBook Pro. But as long as you have a Windows computer, the manufacturer has a firmware update on their site for this model. Update takes 10 seconds. Then it worked perfectly on my Mac. I only plan to use this drive to read data, not write, so I can only speak to that — but so far flawless.

Worked fine as plug and play with my MacBook Pro, but this thing is NOISY as heck. I know there's not much casing around it to absorb noise, and it's not built into a laptop or desktop, but for listening to music it's almost unuseable. If I'm playing a CD it will have to spin up again every time I stop or make any significant changes to the play position. I guess they assume you'll just rip your media and play it from a file instead. I guess we'll see how it works as an MDISC writer, which was the other purpose I had for it. For now, I can't really recommend it if you actually want to use it to listen to CDs. DVDs might be ok if you just hit play and don't pause or anything. I'll have to find a box or something I can put it in to absorb the sound.

Laptops don't generally come with CD/DVD drives anymore, but I have quite a few CDs I still use. This plugged and played without any issues whatsoever. I have not had a chance to try burning anything (its been years since I bothered burning a disk) but just to see if it would acknowledge, I fired up several burning programs and each one saw the device and listed its' capabilities, so I have no reason to believe it wouldn't do the job.

Item came in a pathetic cheap envelope which did nothing to protect it. The box was crushed and when you plug it into your laptop, it makes a loud noise and the disc drive tray doesn’t open. Clearly a bunch heavy boxes were stacked on top of this envelope which rendered the item useless. Tried to initiate a return on Amazon and got a disappointing “disclaimer” stating that the seller doesn’t accept returns. This is such a waste of money. DO NOT BUY.

Very good external DVD/CD drive. Very compact, very light (all plastic) and a kinda neat ‘pocket’ to stash the usb-c cord. Few things I’ve noticed after using it for a few days… 1) it is so light you need to hold it down firmly when closing the tray 2) I find it better to use 2 fingers/thumbs to close the tray 3) sometimes gets a bit loud as the media spins Still, I really like it and it works very well.

Excellent product

The device worked for me exactly as I had hoped it worked with my macbook air m4.

Connect with MacBook Pro purchased new in 2021, no drive pop up on screen, the drive can’t be find by multiple ways of searching. On the package it says compatible with Mac and Windows 11. Returned.

Worked reliably for me with some old Mini-DvDs