Few computers have built-in optical drives, so external drives are the alternative for reading, writing, and playing disc media. These Blu-ray drives are not the same as Blu-ray players: while they can play Blu-ray movies on your computer, they are also designed to write to and read other types of data stored on Blu-ray discs.

The OWC Mercury Pro is our favorite external Blu-ray drive based on raw speed. Our product tester noted that its read speeds were more than twice as fast as most others he tested, which is a huge jump in performance. He tried out the 16x write speeds with equally impressive results, burning a 13GB image library to a Blu-ray disc in under 20 minutes from start to finish.

If you plan on reading or burning a lot of Blu-rays, the Mercury Pro is the best we’ve tried. However, James also noted that it’s no replacement for a dedicated Blu-ray player. While video looks great on the connected laptop, that quality is only apparent when you connect the laptop to a TV.

At 8.6 x 6.6 x 2.3 inches and nearly 4 pounds, this somewhat bulky device is too heavy to be portable. The aluminum construction looks great and feels durable, but it's best left at home.