Samsung has announced the pending launch of its first Blu-ray combo drive that can burn BD-R media at 8x speed. The drive is called the SH-B083 and it can burn to 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray media.

In addition to burning BD-R and reading BD-Rom discs, the drive can also read CDs at up to 40x and DVDs at up to 16x. Samsung uses its dual layer jumping algorithm to provide a fast average access time of 350ms, which Samsung claims is much faster than other drives on the market.

The drive can also write to CDs and DVDs. Other features include dual lenses for more accurate reading of discs with one used for Blu-ray and the other for CDs and DVDs. Samsung also uses SACT technology to improve Blu-ray reads when discs don't have a uniform thickness to their protective layer. The drive is set for availability in November at undisclosed price.