Where's all the slot fed optical drives?

I've noticed a few laptops with slot fed optical drives recently and i think it's a pretty nice feature. What i can't understand though is why more laptops don't have this. I would think that something like this would become standard. Does anyone know about any disadvantages that slot fed drives have? Is there a major price difference or something?

Dell XPS M1330


Apple MacBook Pro


Acer Ferrari 5005WLMi

 

Sorry, didn't realize this had already been talked about

 

I didn't notice these until a mag add 3 days ago so you are not the only one behind the times on this. I saw it on a ultra thin note book, and from the pictures you show I suspect they are used where space is limited. I suspect they cost a little more the transport is more complicated (cost more).

 

Which notebook was that?

 

I think a Toshiba I think it claimed to be the thinnest (or at least standard voltage CPU) it was a 12". Very sweet looking.

 

My Voodoo ENVY U709 has 2 slot loading blu-ray DVD burners

K-TRON

 

I've experienced many more malfunctions over the years with the slot loaders than I have with the tray loaders.

 

the reason why they are not adopted is because

1) you can not use to read/write mini discs
2) you can accidentally insert a second disc into the drive that has an existing disc and this will jam the unit
3) manual eject is not possible

but it does save space and makes the reinforces the overall laptop structure

 

Samsung have a standard slimline slotloader - SN-T082 and there's the SE-T084L which has Lightscribe and reads / writes 8cm discs, but is only available as an external unit. What's interesting is that inside the box is a standard slimline drive with a SN-T082 label but a different firmware.

John

 

I'm sure these slot fed drives will eventually be improved with time and all the small issues resolved. It's not some huge technological hurdle and it makes sense
for companies to focus on this so that laptops can be that much more compact.

 

I'm too old fashioned. I look at slot loading drives and just start thinking about the many ways they could scratch my optical media. I hate slot loading optical drives.

 

Slot-fed-drive-phobia eh, it's nothing to be ashamed of

 

From my experience with slot loaders, while they look more asethetically more pleasing, I noticed they are a bit louder and produce more vibration than the tray ones. They also have a more complex innards than the tray ones.

 

You can manually remove the disk, most slot loading drives have buttons where you can extract the CD from the drive.

K-TRON

 

oh yeah slot loaders definately look and feel more advanced. works well with a desktop, never had problems with it. not sure how well it would perform with a laptop, though i would probably stick to tray.

 

I wanted to replace my slot load cd-rw on my Acer Aspire 2000 with a dvd-rw. Can anyone recommend a good slot load dvd-rw?