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Fujitsu's New Laptop in Japan Includes Optical Drive Abandoned Elsewhere (tomshardware.com)

(Thursday October 23, 2025 @11:21AM (msmash) from the burn-baby-burn dept.)


Fujitsu has released a new laptop in Japan [1]with a built-in Blu-ray drive . The FMV Note A A77-K3 includes a BDXL-compatible optical drive that can read and burn discs. Most laptop manufacturers globally stopped including optical drives in the second half of the 2010s. The Japanese market has refused to follow that trend.

Shops in Tokyo's Akihabara district recently experienced a spike in demand for optical drives and systems capable of reading Blu-ray discs, Tom's Hardware reports. Fujitsu sells two additional models in the FMV Note A line using Intel thirteenth-generation chips. Those systems include DVD drives instead of Blu-ray capability. Some other Japanese manufacturers also released optical-drive-equipped laptops earlier in 2025.



[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/fujitsu-defies-convention-with-optical-drives-in-new-amd-ryzen-laptop-blu-ray-disk-drive-clings-onto-life-in-japanese-market


Bring back the floppy disk (Score:2)

by backslashdot ( 95548 )

The floppy was a lot more convenient than USB and it locked in securely.

Re: Bring back the floppy disk (Score:2)

by oneiros27 ( 46144 )

To store what?

A single document?

1.44MB isn't going to get you very far these days

Re: (Score:2)

by backslashdot ( 95548 )

Conciseness = value.

Re: (Score:2)

by PDXNerd ( 654900 )

My floppy only had 360KB, you insensitive clod!

When Windows 10 ended support (Score:2)

by rsilvergun ( 571051 )

There was a huge spike in demand for optical drives in Japan. It's bizarre because you can just install off a USB stick and it's much faster but I guess that's just not what they are used to.

I recently bought a Blu-ray drive for my computer and have to mine died and it was a pain in the neck because so many companies have stopped making them. I'm not entirely sure anyone is still making internal Blu-ray drives.

I know the 4K ones are going away because the DRM is so miserable that the company that ma

Re: (Score:2)

by PDXNerd ( 654900 )

There are sooo many external USB bluray drives to choose from, and literally the first item I searched for was a 4k bluray player (with software included). Some even have [1]built in USB hubs [media-amazon.com] if that's your thing. A quick search for internal drives finds plenty from Asus, Hitachi, and Liteon - do you have some weird specific thing you are looking for that limits your options??

[1] https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/615ksjekEfL._AC_SL1469_.jpg

There's such better use of that space in a laptop (Score:2)

by XaXXon ( 202882 )

I'd much rather have anything else that's not an optical drive in that volume. Mostly battery but even just some usb ports would be better.

Optical drives being gone is a feature not a problem.

Not a bad idea... (Score:2)

by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 )

Hopefully the drives are BDXL. Even now, if one has small datasets or collections of documents, being able to have WORM media easily accessible isn't a bad thing. Every so often, copy stuff to the disk, finalize the media, toss it onto a case or container. This is probably the most reliable way to store data, long term.

Wish this spike in demand would get Sony and the other big names to start looking at advancing optical. Even a 1TB BDXL disk would be very useful for backups. Something along the lines o

Available outside Japan (Score:1)

by arcadeveteran70 ( 1429377 )

I hope they make these available to the US.

Re: (Score:2)

by OrangeTide ( 124937 )

You could order it from Japan and pay shipping, 15% tariff, and a ~$20 customs fee.

BDXL for semi-archival backups (Score:2)

by cruff ( 171569 )

I use a BDXL to backup my ripped music as a fall back to backups on RAID. Probably should update the backup set to make sure my drive is still functional.

I don't mind losing my optical drive (Score:2)

by OrangeTide ( 124937 )

But they didn't replace it with more USB ports. My current (work) laptop is especially annoying with 4 USB-C ports. It wasn't too hard to swap my keyboard's cable with a usb-c to usb-c cable, but my wired mouse isn't the same. So I ended up getting a wireless with nano transceiver.

Why a wired keyboard? Because I'm literally less than 3 feet from my computer when I am using a keyboard. Why would I transmit my passwords, credit card, and bank account numbers over wireless?

The Worst Musical Trio
There are few bad musicians who have a chance to give a recital at
a famous concert hall while still learning the rudiments of their
instrument. This happened about thirty years ago to the son of a Rumanian
gentleman who was owed a personal favour by Georges Enesco, the celebrated
violinist. Enesco agreed to give lessons to the son who was quite
unhampered by great musical talent.
Three years later the boy's father insisted that he give a public
concert. "His aunt said that nobody plays the violin better than he does.
A cousin heard him the other day and screamed with enthusiasm." Although
Enesco feared the consequences, he arranged a recital at the Salle Gaveau
in Paris. However, nobody bought a ticket since the soloist was unknown.
"Then you must accompany him on the piano," said the boy's father,
"and it will be a sell out."
Reluctantly, Enesco agreed and it was. On the night an excited
audience gathered. Before the concert began Enesco became nervous and
asked for someone to turn his pages.
In the audience was Alfred Cortot, the brilliant pianist, who
volunteered and made his way to the stage.
The soloist was of uniformly low standard and next morning the
music critic of Le Figaro wrote: "There was a strange concert at the Salle
Gaveau last night. The man whom we adore when he plays the violin played
the piano. Another whom we adore when he plays the piano turned the pages.
But the man who should have turned the pages played the violin."
-- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"