Panasonic UJ-230 Slim Blu-ray Burner SATA (Tray Load) Drive.

Here is how to select a compatible Blu-ray burner to replace the existing optical drive in your laptop computer. The most common situation is you have a laptop with a DVD drive and you want to install a Blu-ray drive in its place. (All Blu-ray drives can also handle DVDs and CDs, so you aren't losing any functionality by making this replacement.) Selecting a compatible replacement drive turns out to be slightly complicated. Here are some tips I've discovered after replacing optical drives on many different laptops:1. Download and read the owner's manual for the laptop to find out how to remove and replace the existing optical drive.2. I believe that all reasonably-modern laptops can accept and use an internal Blu-ray optical drive, even though they may have originally shipped with an internal DVD drive. Windows will automatically load an appropriate driver for it (or you can find one), and although I'm not a Mac guy, I assume something similarly easy and automatic happens on Macs.3. Decide whether you want just a Blu-ray PLAYER drive, or a Blu-ray BURNER drive (which, of course, can also play), so you order a drive that meets your needs.4. Decide whether you want a BDXL Blu-ray drive. These have all the features of normal Blu-ray drives, but can also handle 3D, triple-layer, and quad-layer Blu-ray media. You will probably find that the price of a BDXL drive is fairly reasonable. Might be worth getting a BDXL drive to "future-proof" your laptop and allow you to playback and burn all types of Blu-ray media, not just the original single-layer and dual-layer Blu-ray media.5. Your mileage may vary, but whenever I want to buy a Blu-ray optical drive, I always buy one whose model number starts with "UJ" (it will be "UJnnn" or "UJ-nnn" - the hyphen is optional - where the "nnn" is three digits). These drives are made by Panasonic (aka Matsushita or Matshita). They are probably the most popular optical drives on the market. They seem to have most types of Blu-ray optical drive you could want, you just need to pick the right one that will work in your laptop (see below). An aside: One would think that somewhere on the Internet there would be a list of all the "UJnnn" drives and what their various features are (thickness, tray/slot loading, BDXL or not, eject button or not, location of eject button). I have looked and looked and never found such a list on the Internet, even on Panasonic's own web site. Instead, I just stumble around on Amazon and elsewhere looking for a "UJnnn" drive that has the specifications I need for the laptop I'm working on. See below for specifications that you need to consider.6. The replacement drive needs to have the same thickness as your current drive, which can be 12.7mm (1/2 inch) or 9.5mm (3/8 inch).7. The replacement drive should be the same style (tray or slot loading) as the current drive. "Tray loading" means that you press the eject button and a little tray pops out that you put the disc into. "Slot loading" means you just slide the disc into the slot and the drive "sucks it in."8. All tray-loading drives, and some slot-loading drives, have eject buttons on them. If your current drive has an eject button, make note of whether the eject button is toward the left side of the drive or toward the right side, and order a replacement that has an eject button on the same side. The exact positions of an "eject button on the left" or "eject button on the right" seem to be standardized, but you do need to use a replacement drive that has the eject button on the same side as your current one (left or right). And again, if your original drive is slot loading you may find that it doesn't have an eject button at all, in which case you can use a replacement drive with or without an eject button, and if it has an eject button, it doesn't matter whether it's on the left or right, because it won't be used on your particular laptop if your original drive did not have an eject button to start with.9. Just order a "bare" replacement drive. You don't need a bezel or any connection hardware. You are going to use the bezel and other pieces from your existing drive and transfer them to your new drive.10. The "bezel" is the piece of plastic that is on the "front" of the drive that the user sees. It has the slot or door for the disc, it has the eject button (if any), and it has a place for the LED light to shine through. All bezels are different! I don't think I've ever seen two bezels alike on two different models of laptops. The bezels are specially designed to fit the shape of the particular laptop. That's why you need to transfer the bezel from your old drive to your new drive.11. It's sometimes a little tricky to figure out how to remove the bezel, and the user manual for your laptop might not be very clear on this point. Here are a few tips: If it's a slot loading drive, it probably won't have a bezel at all. If it's a tray-loading drive, it's usually much easier to remove the bezel if the tray is open. To open the tray, unbend a paperclip and stick the end of the paperclip into the tiny hole on the bezel that is right beneath the tray. The tray will pop open. Once you have the tray open, very carefully find the places where the bezel clips onto the drive, and gently pull and prod the bezel off. The bezel is delicate and it's easy to break the little clips off it, at which point you are kind of hosed. Be gentle.I hope this info helps someone. I've spent MANY hours figuring this stuff out, and I've purchased an incompatible optical drive more than once. I wish someone had mentioned this stuff to me, so I wanted pass it along. And get yourself a Blu-ray drive for your laptop. Definitely worth it. Hardly anyone buys movies in DVD format anymore...Blu-ray is the way to go.

This is a SLIM blu ray optical drive for laptops, which means it will be incompatible (or a pain in the ass) for drives that use regular sized players. The blu ray player is a smidge slow but there is no lag or mid-movie load times. I was really surprised the blu rays I have played so well, so this is def worth your $75 for your laptop. I'm a big computer techie and I must emphasize that this blu ray player is really great (not at all as good as I expected it to be, but much better, as I know of plenty full sized blu ray players that cost twice as much and fail to load, play, break down in a month, or even had awful mid-movie buffering!)However, even though this is a blu ray burner, player, and DVD burner and player, if it's your desire to watch blu ray movies then you must (sadly) purchase the full Cyberlink PowerDVD program (I think it's at version 11 or 12) in order to play all blu rays, which will cost as high as $80 when not on sale. Even then, not all blu rays are guarenteed to play since the blu ray software is proprietary. Cyberlink is the best as most blu rays work, but not all. Keep this in mind when purchasing, as it ****will frustrate you.**** There are other, cheaper programs, however they work even less and may not even be worth the money. And cyberlink is not at all possible to download online for free, so you will have to spend the $80 for the latest version of Cyberlink (which will need to be re-bought as new versions come out in order to keep playing the newest blu rays, I know it's sooo expensive).Watching blu rays on computers is barely possible without spending a ton of dough sadly, since Sony's blu ray technology is not bought out or sold to other companies at all (similar to ipods except even stricter).Hope this helps

I can't speak about what others went through as I have no knowledge of it; but I question some things. More so in this case as the drive I got was untouched new in the package.The real review:1) The drive is a "Matshita" drive, with a Panasonic brand on it. Those drives have good reviews, and that is where you dig for firmware (no sense in exact model here as it could be different for your drive).2) Size - The drive DOES fit the newest XPS computer; that is rated at the smaller 9.7(?) drive. I'm not sure if it would fit a "thin" machine.3) "Faceplate" - (it was there, not sure what happened to others) in Any Case, the faceplate is a "Standard Form Factor" - in other words I pulled the old formed faceplate off the old drive, and put it on the new drive and it looks completely stock (no B logo, but who cares?).No software, so you will have to download one of the many free Blu Ray players out there - it works like expected.Don't let the comment about the faceplate stop you from buying this drive.

This unit would not work on my system, and I had to return it.In all fairness tho, I have used Panasonic MANY times in the past,with no issues, It could be my laptop.

Nowhere in the description does it say this drive does NOT include the front bezel. The drive may work fine, but I won't be finding out as it's going back for a return. No point in putting it into a nice new HTPC when you have a busted looking drive with no bezel. Really not happy with the lack of info in this description Amazon!

This was one of the most expensive blue ray slot load drives that I have ever bought. It works perfectly and was in the condition IK was told which was new. Will do business again, Thank You!!!

Nowhere in the description did it say that the benzyl was not included. If I wanted a Bluray drive without a benzyl I could have bought one cheaper that this from Amazon!