W
hen we reviewed LG’s GGW-H20L
Blu-ray burner in December 2007
we applauded its superior BD-R
write speeds and ability to also read HD DVD
media. Now that the latter feature is irrelevant,
we welcome LG’s new GBW-H20L. It boasts all
the same DVD and BD read and write specs as
its predecessor, sans the HD DVD reader—and
comes with a healthy price cut.
LG remains the only manufacturer off er-
ing 6x write speeds for BD-R media, and it’s anotable distinction. Even when burning to 2x
media, LG’s drives are far speedier than the 4x
competition at fi lling a BD-R disc with 22.5GB of
data—taking just over 20 minutes (the 4x Lite On
drive we reviewed last month took 48 minutes to
complete that task!).
LG’s BD burner offers a 16x DVD+R
write rating. While it’s shy of the 20x rat-
ing you’ll find on top-end dedicated DVD
drives, we’re satisfied with the real-world
results. When writing 4.38GB of data to a
singled-layer DVD+R disc,
LG’s GBW-H20L took 5:43
(min:sec), compared with
the Lab record time of 5:00
set by Samsung’s SH-S203
DVD drive. Most Blu-ray
burners we’ve reviewed
have capped DVD+R speeds
at 8x or 12x, including the
Lite On drive reviewed last
month, which took 7:09 to
fill a single-layer DVD.
While LG’s previousGGW-H20L wins the majority of our bench-
marks, the GBW-H20L comes well within
spitting distance of that drive. And at $280,
the GBW-H20L is almost $200 less than its
predecessor. We like that.- K A T H E R I N E S T E V E N S O N
LG GBW-H20L
Our favorite Blu-ray drive comes with
less fat and a lower price
VERDICT$280, http://www.lge.com9
Fastest BD-R rating
on the market, speedy
DVD burn times, lowest
price yet.For backup purposes
an external hard
drive is still a more
attractive prospect.GRANOLALG SUPER MULTI BLUE GBW-H20LGRANULOMALG makes next-gen optical
seem like a viable option.DVD Write Speed Average 12.07x 12.09x 8.99x
DVD Read Speed Average 9.10x 9.24x 9.10x
Access Time (Random/Full) 100ms/175ms 99ms/192ms 137ms/213ms
CPU Utilization (8x) 24% 23% 31%
Time to Burn 22.5GB 22:16 21:23 48.00
to BD-R (min:sec)
Time to Burn 22.5GB 39:35 39:38 46:12
to BD-RE (min:sec)Best scores are bolded. All tests were conducted using the bundled software and Verbatim media. Our test bed is a Windows XP SP2 machine using a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700, 2GB of Corsair
DDR2/800 RAM on an EVGA 680 SLI motherboard, one EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS card, a Western Digital 500GB Caviar hard drive, and a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool PSU.
BENCHMARKS
LG LG Lite On
GBW-H20L GGW-H20L DH-4B1SREVIEWS OF THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
IN THE LAB