Looking for a cheaper SuperDrive alternative? This right here is all you need. It’s the Samsung SE-218CB/RSBS USB Ultra Portable External DVD Writer, and it’s the best external DVD drive for Mac and Windows. Why is it the best? Well it’s affordable, portable, recordable, and supportable. Let me explain.

It’s affordable because it’s less than $30 with free shipping on Amazon.

It’s portable because it’s slim (only 5.83″ x 0.55″ x 5.67″) and it’s USB-powered meaning it doesn’t require a separate power cable.

It’s recordable because it can burn all kinds of discs such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-R dual layer just to name a few.

It’s supportable because it works right out of the box with Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Windows 8 (even works with older versions of Windows too). It comes with a USB cable, which is really all you need to get started. Just plug it in and it’s ready to go.

It does have some pretty fast read/write speeds too, with an average of 3MB per second read speed. I also like the way it looks. It has a sleek back design, and it’s pretty lightweight. So if you’re looking for one of the best external DVD drives for less than half the cost of a SuperDrive, then this is a great choice.

By Andy Slye