Lots of “world’s…” entries today. Samsung has launched the world’s first 18x rewritable DVD drive that now makes Samsung the company with the fastest DVD drive on the market. Overall, it presents a 5 percent increase in speed performance over its 16x predecessors, which isn’t too much to get excited over. Combine this with Samsung’s Super-WriteMaster technology, the drive supports DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM standards while recording. Of course, all three standards have their limitations as to how many you can rerecord per disc.

Samsung’s 18x drive also has a superior design that protects the unit from unintentional dust deposits and noise reduction features, both of which are welcomed additions as far as I’m concerned.

Samsung’s SH-S182D will start shipping in June for $69.99.