1. The list in brief ↴
2. Best overall
3. Best alternative overall
4. Best performance
5. How we test laptops
6. Why trust Laptop Mag
The best laptops with CD-DVD drives — it's one of the hottest search topics around. While that is a bit of hyperbole, it's true that many people just like you are searching for these laptops in 2024. While there are no brand-new mainstream laptops with CD-DVD drives, I have scoured the internet to find the best options available for you to purchase today.
I want to stress that I highly recommend checking out the best external DVD drives rather than purchasing a laptop with a built-in drive. If you need a new laptop, buy one of the best laptops with an external drive instead. I've even gathered the best external drives on this page for you, which are below.
Yes, I know it's convenient to have a built-in CD-DVD drive—especially if you want to access medical scans or physical media that isn't available digitally. However, these laptops are also far older than we typically recommend, and you are giving up considerable performance and battery life, to name just a couple of features.
They are tough to find, but if you must have a laptop with a built-in CD-DVD drive, I'm here to help you. Here are the best laptops with CD-DVD drives available today.
Rami has reviewed and tested dozens of laptops over the span of 6+ years. He knows that budget shouldn't compromise on quality, and that you deserve the most for your coin. Rami also knows that the best laptops with CD-DVD drives are quite rare, and if you want a more updated laptop, you might be better off going with an external DVD drive.
The Quick List
Best overall
This 15-inch Lenovo sports an Intel Core i5-7200U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. It's one of the most affordable laptops with a CD drive.
Best alternative overall
The Dell Inspiron 15 5000 offers decent performance and plenty of ports, but its cost of around $800 is hard to justify.
Best performance
The rock-solid HP ZBook 17 G5 features military-grade durability and an Intel Xeon processor. That's plenty of power even for an older machine but be prepared to pay over $1,000.
The best laptops with CD-DVD drives you can buy today
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As we've stated, laptops with CD-DVD drives are very few and far between, but here's a short list of those that are currently available.
Best overall
If you're looking for a decent laptop with a CD drive on the cheap so that it will not break your bank, the Lenovo ThinkPad E570 is an excellent choice. One of the best qualities of this laptop is that it is equipped with various ports for all your peripheral needs.
You may also find that you'll love the clickiness of the keyboard -- many laptops in this day and age sacrifice an excellent keyboard in favor of a slim chassis. But with the Lenovo ThinkPad E570, you'll have a comfortable keyboard, a decent stock of ports, and a CD-DVD drive (that's rare today) — all for a decent price.
Best alternative overall
Are you looking for more power? Dell's Inspiron 15 5000 laptop starts at $599 with a Core i5 CPU, and its optical drive comes standard. Upgrade options include a discrete AMD Radeon R7 graphics card for gaming, doubling the memory for multitasking, a 256GB SSD, and a Core i7 processor for more speed.
Read our full Dell Inspiron 15 5000 review.
Best performance
HP knows that sometimes professionals need optical drives, too, so it sells the premium-grade ZBook 17 G5. That's right, the ZBook 17 G5 isn't just a plain old laptop with a CD-DVD drive: it's got a Blu-ray CD-DVD drive, even rarer than regular optical drives. This system also features military-grade durability and the blistering speed of an Intel Xeon processor.
Read our full HP ZBook 17 G5 review.
External DVD drives
Do you need an external DVD drive to access all desktop platforms? Check out the ASUS ZenDrive U9M. It's a fantastic option for accessing physical media on laptops without in-built DVD drives.
Power through DVD reading and data burning with the OWC Mercury Pro, a speed demon of the physical medium. It offers impressive performance in a sleek and stylish chassis.
Want a DVD drive to match your premium Apple products? Check out the Apple USB SuperDrive, which offers spritely performance and works perfectly with macOS.
Why Trust Laptop Mag
Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.
We are 100 percent independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.
Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.
One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.
