A:Answer No. There are a number of reasons why internal optical drives are largely unavailable, though they can still be found, mostly (but not exclusively) in "hardened" laptops that look (and weigh) like bricks and are used in construction, emergency situations, and the military. Or through the refurbished/used/ secondhand market. There are a number of reasons for this:
1. Modern laptops (and desktops) are pushing to be smaller and weigh less, with many companies advertising their computers as “ultra thin” or “easily portable.” Optical drives significantly add weight (about half a pound) and bulk (12 cm. diameter).
2. Even Blu-ray discs top out at 128 GB, far below HDDs, SSDs, or pen/flash drives on a per-centimeter basis.
3. With the advent of fast network connectivity, cloud storage, software distributed via the Internet, and growing use of USB 3 and even USB 4 (with raw link speed of up to 80 Gbps), integrated optical drives have largely become obsolete.
As elsewhere, should you need an optical drive, they are still available, at a modest cost, as external, portable units. If you need a laptop with an integrated optical drive, look elsewhere, as noted.
