The Ricoh MP5120 justifies the many years of press releases and delays that led to critics forming a prematurely negative impression of the emerging DVD+RW writing standard.

Compared to the Pioneer DVD-R/-RW drive, we found an enormous speed advantage in both CD and DVD write tests. For those performing a lot of re-writable burning, the 10-minute format speed will dramatically increase productivity over the 50-minute format time for the DVD-RAM and DVD-R/-RW drives. Considering the specified 2.4x write speed over the Pioneer's 1x, the speed boost of the MP5120A is not surprising, but for $400 less than the Pioneer offering, it gives you good bang for your buck. After testing it back-to-back with the Pioneer drive, our conclusions are weighted towards the MP5120A as the recommended drive for those who want compatibility and performance with excellent value. The writable DVD industry is still in its formative stages, and which format - if any - will become our recommended format of choice depends on the direction of the market.While the Labs team has not formed a definitive conclusion about DVD+RW, these results have left a favourable impression.