The Buffalo BR-X816U2-EU is quite a mouthful, so for now, I’ll call it the “Buffalo Blu Ray drive”, until more products from the Buffalo stable (Punintended) create the need for me to refer to their … “given names”.

This black Buffalo beauty, expected to be out by end-November, connects through a  nifty USB connection and doesn’t need a separate power supply, so its easy to install and carry around.

With portable hard drives not being very reliable, and DVDs looking too small to suit your backup needs, the 25 GB per Blu Ray layer is a relief, and the Buffalo Blu Ray drive makes it a lot more easier to use the Blu. It gives you a  decent 5.6x to 8x while writing, and because its external and portable, it can move from PC to PC, backing up gigabytes.

And just in case you were looking for a Blu Ray player type, this $320 machine can play Blu Rays and upscale DVDs too. Looks like everyone wants to make DVDs look better now. *Sniff* I knew I should’ve waited.