I have a few external optical drives in my office that I use when I am working on my netbook. The things are a few years old and are not at all thin. The big drives also require power adapters while newer drives can be totally powered by the USB port. Sony has announced a new slim CD/DVD burner today called the DRX-S70U-W that is very thin.

The thin drive can burn DVD+/- R media at up to 8X speeds. The drive can also record to dual layer optical media at up to 6X speeds. Plain ol’ CD-R/RW discs can be burned at a speedy 24x.

LG has a new non-high def DVD burner that should hit the market within days, sporting a very slim and portable design. The LG Slim DVD burner is completely USB powered requiring no additional cables to run, helping you to conveniently burn discs and drain the battery from your notebook when you’re on the go.

The device measures only .84 inches thick and weighs less than a pound making it very portable, housing the ability to burn DVD+R / RW, DVD-R / RW, and DVD-RAM discs as fast as 8x. LG has two models of this slim burner coming out; the GSA-E50N will retail for about $122 and is the standard model. For $136 you can treat yourself to the GSA-E50L which adds LightScribe to the feature set, using the same DVD burning laser to let you burn labels …

Sony unveiled today three next-generation dual format DVD/CD recordable drives for computer users. The most interesting looking of these three drives is the slim, external DRX-S70U.

The Sony DRX-S70U ($130, September) is geared towards those who want a more stylish DVD burner sitting alongside their notebook PC. This burner supports both dual and double layer formats, offering 8X DVD+/-R, 4X DVD+/-R DL, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, 5X DVD-RAM, and 24X CD-R/RW recording speeds. It comes bundled with a full version of Nero 7 and sports a USB 2.0 interface.