Japanese Buffalo today announced the release of the BR-X1216U3, an external 12x Blu-ray burner that can be connected to your new USB 3.0 compatible notebook. The BR-X1216U3 can burn selected BD-R SL and DL media at a maximun speed of 12x and BD-R LTH at 6x, when connected trhough the USB 3.0 port (5Gbps). If you don't have a USB 3.0 PC or notebook, you can alternatively use your USB 2.0 port but then the burning speeds will be limited at 7x for BD-Rs.

Other features inlcude 8x burning with DVD+R DL/+RW, 24x for CD-RW, 40 x for CD-R, 6x for DVD-RW, 12x for DVD-R DL, 16 X for DVD±R, 5x for DVD-RAM and 2x for BD-RE SL/DL.

The BR-X1216U3 will be sold in Japan around the end of December at 39100 Yen (&euro295).