This portable, external CD/DVD drive comes with a 2.5-inch SATA and an SD Card slot for just $26 — Save 10% on a modern essential for keeping physical media alive

Portable USB DVD writer with SATA dock deal — (Image credit: Amazon offer)

As the AI boom consumes everything tangible around us, it's even more important to keep physical media alive. Since our current tech isn't equipped to interface with these relics, an external disc drive is a great investment to access your collection. Alronly makes a great CD/DVD player that also comes with a 2.5-inch SATA and SD Card slot, along with standard USB ports, for just $26.99 on Amazon.

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This drive is absolutely packed with features for the price. It can read and write CDs at a blazing-fast 24X, or at 8X speeds for DVD. It also acts as a USB hub and a SATA-to-USB adapter. You can use the 2.5-inch SATA slot for either a hard drive or an SSD. It provides easy-to-reach access to a full-size SD card slot, microSD slot, 2x USB-A ports, and USB-C — both of those are promised to be USB 3.0 with 5 Gbps speeds.

Alrony says this USB attached device is compatible with Windows XP, 7, 8, and 10, as well as a wide gamut of Linux and MacOS computers. It's a true plug-and-play device that doesn't require downloading any drivers, making it very suitable for older family members that consider you tech support. Just don’t expect to use it with your iOS, Android, or ChromeOS device; they are specifically stated to be incompatible.

The include cable for data/power has both a USB-A and USB-C connector. Meanwhile, the drive also includes another USB-C port for dedicated power, which may be useful in case your chosen system’s data port is not up to scratch in power delivery terms. The device is also quite sleek, measuring just 0.9 inches thick and weighing only 0.75 pounds with an all-black aesthetic that would fit basically anywhere.

While CDs and DVDs don't hold a candle to Blu-Ray, the best physical media standard we have today, they still hold an important place in history. Even if you don't have any special memories stored in old discs, you can use this external drive to put new ones on there. For just $26.99, this is a great tool to have by your desktop that can still be put to good use when it's not reading or writing to optical media.

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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.