Nope, this drive is not an NEC, it's definitely a Samsung. The top of the drive casing is the biggest giveaway with OEM re-badges, and the top of this new Sony is identical to the Samsung drives. It matches the lid on my 162 perfectly. It also has a Mediatek chipset like the Samsung's.

See pics here -

Samsung SH-S182 (top) - http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/sams...d/image013.jpg

Sony DRU-830UA (top) - http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/sony...a/image012.jpg

This is most strange, as we all thought Sony was now fully with NEC and the Optiaric drives. Maybe Sony didn't like the nasty spikes? NEC should be ashamed of themselves. Those burners must have the worst write quality out there at the moment. They have trouble burning even the best media without causing huge errors.

Sony have probably turned to Samsung, as the latest Samsung burners are amongst the very best in terms of write quality, though there is still no getting away from the fact that a huge company like Sony should really be making there own drives.