Sony knows that the hoards of netbook users out there don’t have built-in optical drives. That often means that when they travel with their netbook, they also need to travel with an optical drive. What you don’t want to be traveling with are thick and fat optical drives that take up lots of space.

Sony has unveiled the new DRX-S70U-W CD/DVD player. The player burns to DVD+/-R media at full 8x speeds. The device can also burn to DVD dual layer media as well as plain CDs and CD-RW discs. Sony bundles the drive with Nero DVD/CD software and connects to the computer via USB.

While Sony doesn't specify, I would presume that the burner is powered solely by the USB port considering the size of the drive. The new burner is set to hit the market at the end of October through authorized dealers, resellers, and online shopping sites.