The MRX-525GE is a Multi-Format DVD Recorder, which supports writing of specific 16X DVD±R media at 18X. It's not the first external drive being able to record at such speeds though, as Sony and Samsung have already released their 18X-compatible external drives.

The bundled software, Nero 7 Essentials, handles all the DVD- and CD-related tasks. Among the included modules are the Nero Vision video editor; Nero ShowTime, for playing back DVDs and other movie files; Nero BackItUp, for saving data to multiple CDs or DVDs; and Nero Express, for creating data, music, and video discs.

As far as defective CD media correction is concerned, the Memorex drive showed us very good results. The drive managed to correct the majority of the defects on our test discs and scored quite high, compared to competitive drives. The good behaviour continued with the defective DVD discs. The reading speed of those discs, however, was rather slow compared to other drives' tests with the same media.

The drive produced average overall writing quality with DVD±R media, with only one disc not being readable after burning. However, looking at the DVD±RW media, the performance of the drive was not so good, as it could not erase some media and also all of the burned discs had uncorrectable errors. In addition, one DVD+RW disc was not readable at all. Also, all the DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media that was burned with the Memorex drive showed some speed fluctuations during the reading process, which were caused by digital errors. The drive had hard times reading the first layer of the DVD-R DL media, while the situation was worst with DVD+R DL media, especially in the second layer. All these issues could be solved through firmware.

The situation is different with CD-R burning, where the writing quality was high with most of the CD-R brands we tested.

The reading speed, in general, was average. Exceptions to this are the Pressed PTP DL DVD-ROM reading and the DVD Ripping, where the speeds were lower than the other drives. But the majority of users care more about the reading accuracy and not speed?

The MRX-525G's performance was a mixed bag, though. It left us with an overall impression that it has the potential to be a good performer, possibly with some extra tweaking through a new firmware. Its "extreme" behavior unveiled some exceptional results in some tests but also some failures in others. Let's wait for a new firmware update before we come to an absolute conclusion.

The Memorex MRX-525GE is priced online at US$99.99. Memorex also offers an internal ATAPI version of the drive, which will cost you approximately US$40 less.