11 good ultrabooks with optical drives (DVD/Blu-Ray)

While most ultrabooks don't include optical drives, whether they're CD, DVD, or Blu-ray units, there are a few options that still offer this feature. So if you are looking for an ultrabook with an optical drive, this article will come in handy.

But first, let's see why most of the Ultrabooks available today no longer offer this feature.

Ultrabooks, by definition, need to be very slim, typically just under 21mm or less. But they also have to be fast and offer enough battery life for our daily tasks. All of this combined means that manufacturers have had to maximize the limited space in the chassis of these machines, and since they could not compromise on performance and batteries, they have had to ditch optical drives, among other things.

For many, that might not be such a big deal, since these days, with most content and services using the internet and cloud services, you rarely have to resort to CDs or DVDs. But for those of you who still need ultrabooks with optical drives, here are the devices to check out.

Ultrabooks with optical drives are a rare breed, but you can still find plenty of them in stores

13-inch or smaller Ultrabooks with optical units

Right now Tthere are NO Ultrabooks with 13.3-inch screens or smaller that also offer an integrated optical drive. There just isn't room for it in the small cases, and manufacturers decided to make the computers slimmer and use the space for other things.

However, there are a handful of business ultraportables that offer optical units, but they will either be very expensive or slightly thicker and heavier than an ultrabook. The Sony Vaio S13, the Sony Vaio Z, some Toshiba Porteges, the HP Elitebook 2570p and some business notebooks from Dell and Fujitsu meet these requirements.

However, if you really need a compact Ultrabook and the optical drive, You can easily buy an external DVD or Bluray device that you can connect to your laptop via USB. These things range in price from $30 to $100 and are slim and light so you can just toss them in your bag and plug them in only when needed. In this post, you'll find a selection of my favorite external optical drives, along with their special features and places to find them discounted.

14 and 15 inch Ultrabooks with DVD or Bluray drives

There is quite a wide range of 14 and 15 inch ultrabooks available in stores now as you can see from this other post. and Some of them also offer optical drives.

You'll generally find that it's mostly the budget and mainstream ultrabooks these days that offer this feature, though, as the top-of-the-line products are once again ditching it in favor of a bigger battery, stronger hardware, or a slimmer body. So if you want a premium machine, you must go for these optical DVD units.

Anyway, here are the Ultrabooks that offer either a DVD or Blu-ray drive these days. Of course, both can also read CDs without any problems:

• Asus S46 / S56 – an inexpensive series, available as a 14-inch (S46) or as a 15.6-inch (S56); Details on prices can be found here;
• Asus VivoBook S550 - this is a 15.6-inch ultrabook with CD/DVD drive and touchscreen, also on the budget side - details here;
• Acer Aspire M5 - a 14 or 15 inch gaming ultrabook with powerful hardware and a fair price, as you can see here;
• Acer Aspire V5 - another range of affordable machines, this time also available with touchscreen;
• Dell Inspiron 14z and 15z - another mainstream line of dual-layer DVD+/-R drives. The 15z is also offered with a touchscreen;
• Dell XPS 15 2012 - the premium device, but not really an Ultrabook. The 2013 version no longer has an optical drive,
• HP TouchSmart 17 – a large 17-inch desktop replacement with powerful hardware and a slim profile;
• Lenovo IdeaPad U510 – a decent budget ultrabook with an optical engine, a solid body, many hardware configurations and even dedicated graphics. Just a little chunkier and heavier than your average ultrabook;
• Samsung series 3 and 5 - Some of Samsung's 14- and 15.6-inch Series 3 and Series 5 Ultrabooks offer a DVD unit and dedicated graphics cards;
• Sony Vaio T14 / T15 – The Sony Vaio Ultrabooks are also available in two versions, with 14 and 15 inch screens. The 15-inch model can also be paired with a BluRay drive, and the two are offered with or without a touchscreen as the Vaio Touch lines. More details here;
• Sony Vaio fit 14/15 - Affordable mainstream ultrabooks with touchscreens and Intel Ivy Bridge hardware.

Wrap up

The best you can do right now is get a 14-inch ultrabook with a DVD/Bluray drive, like the Vaio T series

Ok, that's it for this post. As you've seen, if you really need a compact Ultrabook with an optical drive, the best thing to do today is to go for a 14-incher. And even then, the slickest don't offer this feature.

However, there are a number of decent everyday Ultrabooks available on the market today that have optical drives that will be useful for those looking for a multimedia laptop or school computer. And I regularly update the list above as new devices come out.

Still, I'm pretty sure Ultrabooks with DVD or even Bluray drives won't be around for much longer. And I can't say that I will regret it. To be honest, I'd rather buy a laptop with more ports or a larger battery than an optical unit, if only because I no longer use CDs and DVDs. And even if I did, I could easily buy one of those affordable external drives.

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