Pierre R. Mai's Miscellany

The personal pages of Pierre R. Mai

MacBook Air and the LG GSA-E50L

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While lots of people seem particularly interested in getting the MacBook Air Superdrive to work with non-MBA computers, I fail to understand the large appeal of this, except for aesthetic concerns: There are a number of nice external drives that will work powered by a sufficiently capable (i.e. above-spec) USB port, or a combination of those.

One of those is the LG GSA-E50L, which is only slightly larger (156 x 165 x 21 vs. 139 x 139 x 17 mm) and heavier (380g vs. 320g) than the MBA Superdrive, is a bit faster and cheaper, and offers Lightscribe and DVD-RAM support, for those that care. I’ve purchased one of those, and it works very well with the MBA from its beefed up USB port, and through its Lightscribe support I can label discs on the road without all of the pain of printed labels. Recommended.