No Optical Drive? Why Don't Laptops Have CD/DVD Players?

Why Modern Laptops Leave Out Optical Disc Drives: A Technology Transition

You‘ll be hard pressed to find DVD or Blu-Ray players built into new mainstream laptop models released over the last 5-7 years. But it wasn‘t always this way. Not long ago nearly every laptop still came equipped with some form of optical disc reader. Whether a legacy CD-ROM, a DVD +/-RW drive, or a slimline slot-loading model, putting optical drives inside was the standard. When did this change so fundamentally? And what alterations in computing technology and user needs enabled laptops to mostly do away with the unsightly disc tray openings? This guide takes a deeper look at the key factors that combined to make integrated optical drives obsolete for many laptop manufacturers.

The Once Indispensable Optical Disc

It‘s difficult for some to remember a world before high speed residential broadband, 64GB MicroSD cards costing $10, and entire music libraries stored in the cloud. But until around 2010, optical discs in their various forms remained essential components in most deskbound and mobile computing. After floppy disks demonstrated their storage limitations and fragility, the far denser and ruggedized CD-ROM and CD-R became the standard software and data transfer medium through the 1990s. Their nearly 700MB capacity dwarfed 1.44MB floppies. By early 2000s DVDformats increased this to 4.7GB for enough video and full application storage. Optical successfully served core needs for reliable offline access to programs, personal files, entertainment content, and operating system restore tools for over a decade at reasonable manufacturing costs.

Transition Sparks – Faster Internet and Large Flash Storage

Yet recognizable technology landmarks were already seeding changes behind the scenes before 2010. 50Mbps+ home and business internet services gained sizable penetration enabling reasonable file downloads. USB flash drives exceeded optical disc capacities like 512GB MicroSDXC cards. External hard drives passed 2TB levels through modest enclosures. Dedicated online backup services attracted subscriptions. And smartphones acclimated younger users increasingly towards direct mobile access for apps, video and music.

Why Jordan Shouldn‘t Miss Optical Disc Drives

Let‘s personify the average modern laptop user as a late 20 something named Jordan who relies daily on their slim premium Ultrabook for work needs and personal entertainment. Having entered the professional workforce in the mid 2010s, Jordan‘s computing habits matured completely anchored in downloaded or cloud-streamed content. Owning perhaps only a few CDs and DVDs from teenage years, optical media interested less versus accumulating a 500GB Spotify cloud playlist and 50GB Dropbox account of important files.

For Jordan and other laptop consumers with similar backgrounds, the gradual disappearance of optical disc drives from their devices is a non-issue. But older users with decades of archived family photos, tax documents, ripping entire dusty CD music collections offer use cases still potentially requiring optical readers. Should Jordan care that their sleek new Ultrabooks and MacBooks lack visible disc trays given cloud migration? Consider the key benefits for Jordan‘s needs.

Reliability and Speed

Optical drives intrinsically house more breakable moving parts – motors, belts, lasers and spinning platters than portable solid state storage utilizing flash memory. Dropping an external SSD worries Jordan far less than scratching favorite albums or family movie DVDs. And benchmark tests prove the fastest external SSDs now outpace even Blu-Ray disc maximum throughputs. Downloading a 50GB game directly to external SSD takes just minutes rather than needing hours long disc rips. Jordan benefits immediately from the robustness and responsiveness of modern flash solutions.

No Capacity Limits

Blank writable Blu-Ray Discs store up to 128GB theoretically but real maximums still peak below 50GB at impractical costs. Contrast with $20 256GB USB thumb drives outstripping equivalent of 5 standard discs. Plus Jordan can simply addmore incremental flash drives seamlessly working across laptops and devices rather than juggling fixed optical media. External SSD capacities now reach 16TB. Enough room for entire movie collections or vital medical/tax records through decades. Keeping inexpensive flash drives backed up in fireproof boxes protects irreplacable data against any preceived cloud privacy risks too.

Environmental and Economic Realities

While Jordan may not ponder environmental angles actively, eliminating optical drives does lower plastic disc waste. And the reality is producinginjection molded laptop chassis with dedicated internal optical bays costs manufacturers more than relying on simple external USB peripherals. Direct cost savings lets Jordan‘s favorite laptop brand focus spending on better core processing and memory too. Ultrabooks especially mustscrutinize every cubic millimeter and gram shavedtowards achieving competitive thinness and weight metrics. Losing optical fundamentally assists such product goals allowing narrowed bezels or a larger battery capacity within same frame. Jordan sees this in impressively performing slimmer devices pushed yearly.

The Optical Disc‘s Decline

Reviewing market data dispels any notions that vanishing optical drives in laptops result from isolated decisions. Their decline shares undeniable correlation with optical media‘s shrinkingrelevance to computing overall.

Sources: Forrester Research, DisplaySearch, Statista

In just six years, worldwide optical drive shipments collapsed nearly 80% as tablets and laptop categories emphasized portability and cloud ecosystems. Consequently, under 30% of all new laptops now sell default-configured with integrated optical drives. Among the trendsetting ultrabook segment prizing slim form factors, this number drops near zero. Major OEMs in 2023 like Dell, HP and Lenovo reserve optical drives to certain gaming or mobile workstation models targeting narrow niche use cases.

Jordan represents the typical mainstream laptop consumer who now embraces the benefits of external solid state memory solutions. Enough conveniences exist managing older optical disc possessions to justify leaving drives out of thinner and lighter mobile computing designs prioritizing mobility. For Jordan‘s daily needs, access to WiFi downloads, high capacity flash storage and bandwidth-rich cloud apps renders built-in optical data readers mere relics.