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SONY VAIO CR LAPTOPS

Autor Reviews | 16.02.2009 | Category Sony Laptops

Compact and functional, Sony VAIO brings its own brand of street sass to the notebook market combining a new urban feel blended with edgy chic to create a modern and exciting colour collection. Sony VAIO has worked with leading stylists to create the new range and believe it is a sure bet for both an uber-hip and totally portable compact notebook.

The wrap-around trim, lustrous coating and flawless finish make each notebook a true design piece. Special styling features such as smooth rounded borders and flashy lighting effects will make you stand out from the crowd. This notebook is a design first; Sony VAIO has drawn on the latest in notebook technology to create a multiple layer coating that is not only glossy and a fashion must-have but is robust enough to protect the keyboard and LCD screen inside.

Sony Vaio AR Laptops

Autor Reviews | 12.02.2009 | Category Sony Laptops

The VAIO AR Series marks another industry milestone for VAIO in terms of both design and capabilities. With its high-resolution widescreen display, dual-core processor, 200GB hard drive and integrated Blu-ray optical drive, the AR Series is more than just a powerful mobile computer.Whether it’s watching HD movies, editing HD content or using Blu-ray’s amazing 50GB (on double layer BD) (on selected models) capacity for backing up files or recording up to 4 hours of HD video on a single Blu-ray disc.

Thanks to the innovative use of strong but lightweight materials in its construction and attention to ergonomics in its design, the AR Series is easy to use at home or at the office and light enough for working anywhere in-between.

The AR Series features a HDMI output so that you can view HD footage and films on any HD ready TV, plus the latest NVIDIA GeForce Go graphics processor meets even the most serious gamer’s demand, while the built-in hybrid (digital and analogue) TV tuner lets you watch and record all of your favorite shows and take them with you wherever you go.

Sony Vaio BZ Laptops

Autor Reviews | 12.02.2009 | Category Sony Laptops

Everything about the Sony Vaio BZ Series exudes quality and reliability.

From the large 15.4” widescreen X-black LCD with LED technology and large desktop for office applications, multi-tasking and making presentations, to the built-in motion-eye camera and microphone for video conferencing.

A battery care function ensures enhanced longevity, while LED technology in the LCD reduces power consumption. And thanks to the notebook’s sleek, lightweight body, you even save your own energy too.

Sony Vaio SR Laptops

Autor Reviews | 10.02.2009 | Category Sony Laptops

Supreme mobility comes as standard with the new Vaio SR series from Sony, with a thin and light design weighing only 1.85kg with over 5 hours battery life.

Offering powerful performance and an ultra Bright 13.3” LCD display with Sony X-Black LED technology, this mobile business machine is a stylish companion for work combining performance and mobility.

SONY VAIO N LAPTOPS

Autor Reviews | 15.09.2008 | Category Sony Laptops

With powerful specifications these laptops feature the Sony styling which has made Vaio laptops amongst the most desirable. Containing the latest Core Duo technology to provide impressive performance tailored for multimedia applications these laptops are cutting edge media centers.

Sony Vaio BX Laptops

Autor Reviews | 15.09.2008 | Category Sony Laptops

The Vaio BX Series notebook is designed to suit the individual performance and portability requirements of you and your team. Available in sizes ranging from the ultra-mobile and lightweight to the more substantial desktop replacement – all of them designed with mobility in mind.

Integrated Bluetooth and Intel Centrino mobile technology mean all BX Series notebooks feature the Intel Pentium M processor, integrated 802.11 b/g wireless LAN, and the ultra-efficient power and application management for extended battery life when you’re on the go.

The Vaio BX Series is available in either 15.4″ or 17″ versions, with each model designed to suit a different business requirement.

SONY VAIO FW Series

Autor tdomf_2061d | 10.08.2008 | Category Sony Laptops

The VAIO FW is a brand new Centrino 2 platform notebook from Sony, offering a much needed facelift, as well as a 16.4″ widescreen. What sets this apart from other widescreen notebooks is the aspect ratio of the screen lets movie aficionados enjoy a video without ugly bars above and below the screen. Our full review gives you all the details you need to find out if this notebook is right for you.

The fit and finish of the Sony VAIO FW is wonderful, and the overall design is beautiful. The notebook has a streamlined sculpted look, and when opened has a palmrest and keyboard surround that looks like the graceful sloping surface of a car hood. The surface starts out flat, has a small dip, and then gracefully slopes down to the screen hinges. From working day in and day out at a ThinkPad, it is much easier on the eyes to say the least.

Build quality is excellent, with the overall chassis feeling rigid and sturdy. Although thin at the very edges of the palmrest, you can pick the notebook up from the corner with minimal flex from the chassis. Even the super thin screen shows that quite a bit of effort went into making a durable design, as you are able to man-handle and even punch the back of the LCD panel and no ripples or distortion shows on the display.

I have to say that my first impression of the true HD screen format was one of hatred. Another odd format I would have to get used to, and more odd screen designations to remember. I figured it would be just another gimmick … but then I started to enjoy it. Outside of watching movies, the extra-wide wide screen is great for organizing many tasks on the screen, where a normal widescreen display just starts to feel crowded. Two documents side by side, a webpage next to a document, or even a webpage with my IM buddy list far off to the side. Of course it is nice for movies as well.

Moving past the widescreen experience and onto the LCD quality itself, it was rather disappointing on our review model. On anything but full brightness you could see a tunnel effect where the sides and corners were much darker thand the center of the screen. At full brightness it was more even, and was passed by early on. Not counting the tunneling effect, brightness range was more than adequate. I found the most comfortable setting at home to be 50-60% and 70-80% in the office. Anything above that it strained my vision.

Colors appeared to be rich, if not slightly over saturated. Contrasted felt washed out, with black levels seemed to be leaning more towards grey/white. Watching a dark movie at high brightness became very distracting, especially with the unevenbacklight.

Viewing angles were better than what I have seen on some notebooks, with a larger sweet spot before colors started to invert or distort. Vertical range had about 45 degrees down and 35 degrees up before colors started to get funky. Horizontal viewing range was flawless besides a mild orange tint at extreme angles.

The “MacBook Style” keyboard on the Sony FW (yes, Sony did it first, but most people recognize this style of keyboard as a “Mac” keyboard) was delightful to type on once you got the hang of finger placement and distances between keys down. Spacing is just slightly off from a standard keyboard, and without the cupped keys, it can be difficult to type on the keyboard without some practice. That said, compared to other keyboard of similar design (MacBook, MacBook Air) the keyboard on the Sony FW was much nicer to type on.

Key throw distances were about the same as most keyboards, and with each press came a soft click feeling. Support underneath the keyboard was great with little to no flex. It felt as if you could stand on the keyboard without making anything cave inward.

The touchpad surface was great, large enough for wide motions and sensitive for smooth sliding without having to adjust any settings. The touchpad buttons were the only drawback, being at the same height as the palmrest, and just barely off the surface of the touchpad. Finding the key without looking down usually ended with tapping the touchpad instead of the button.

True HD displays are basically what you have in your living room or TV room if you own an HDTV. 720P or 1080P screens are slightly shorter than what you usually find on a computer. For example on a WUXGA notebook has a resolution of 1920×1200, where as a Full HD 1080P screen is 1920×1080. This has to do with the way most movies are recorded, and in the end thinner or no bars at all showing up during a movie. Below I picked 3 Blu-ray titles from my collection, to give you a good idea of what you might expect to see on this screen format.

The speakers on the Sony FW were rather anemic. To enjoy a movie or game at normal volume levels meant putting everything to 100%, and still not being at the level you wanted it to be. Getting past volume levels, bass and midrange were entirely lacking, which is very disappointing for a multimedia oriented notebook.

For external audio, the headphone jack worked fine providing clear audio from what I could hear through my Sennheiser HD80 headphones. This option would be preferred over having to listen to the speakers. The third and probably best option for external audio is the HDMI port. The ATI 3470 graphics supported audio out through the HDMI port, and thus worked perfectly for enjoying your favorite movie on the big screen.

System performance was very good for most tasks not involving 3D graphics. Working with office productivity software, surfing the web, encoding video, or just looking through your iTunes library performed quite well without any lag. The disappointing part was trying to play semi-modern games such as Half-Life 2 or Portal, and getting very poor frame rates. The ATI 3470 graphics didn’t really help with much besides offloading video decoding while enjoying a Blu-ray movie. I would have much rather seen a 3650 series graphics card, considering notebooks like the Toshiba A305 which fall into the same price category offer this. To give you a quick example of what the game play was like, here is my average FPS while playing HL2: Episode 2 and Portal.

Working away from a power outlet was not a fun activity with this configuration that included a 4400mAh battery. In the balanced profile with the screen brightness set to 60%, I squeezed out 2 hours and 39 minutes before the notebook shut itself down. Watching a Blu-ray movie decreased the battery life further, putting me into the range of a movie, with enough time to safely shutdown once the film ended … figure 2 hours and 10 minutes overall. The one thing I can say though, if you have the option to select the extended battery, get it.

Charging times were slower than what I am accustomed to, taking almost 30 minutes to go from dead up to 15%. Most notebooks would get into the 30-40% range in this amount of time.

SONY VAIO TZ Series

Autor tdomf_2061d | 10.08.2008 | Category Sony Laptops

The Sony TZ is the latest offering from Sony in the ultra portable market. With its small size and extreme low weight, it is a must on any business traveler’s notebook list. The Sony TZ combines a new LED backlight display, solid state drive, over-sized battery, and ultra low voltage processors from Intel to make it an all around extended battery performer. Read on to find out how the paper specs stack up in real world use.

Sony’s designers worked overtime to make the TZ not only an ultra portable notebook, but to make it an ultra portable notebook that looks good. Lines match up, panel thicknesses stay the same, hinges are molded into body with the battery, AC plug, and power button integrated, and it’s topped off with a carbon fiber lid to seal the deal. Lifting the display cover you find the glossy keyboard surface reflecting the world around you with keys standing out like ripples on a pond. This notebook could be perfectly described in one word; glamorous.

The build quality of this notebook is excellent. Having such thin panels merging together across various parts of the notebook you would almost expect to see uneven panel spacing or gaps, but this notebook has none. Panels merge together with razor thin clearances, and even flexing the notebook doesn’t make the parts squeak or groan from plastic rubbing together. Support is excellent around the base of the laptop, leaving just the screen with some amount of flex. I can’t really place too much blame on Sony for that, since it is only 4.75mm thick. Overall I found the Sony TZ to be of excellent quality, only lacking on allowing certain parts to be upgraded by the user.

Sporting a new LED backlight screen, a first for a Sony ultra-portable, the laptop is able to achieve great color reproduction and backlight distribution. Watching movies, editing pictures, or just browsing the web was very enjoyable. I only wish this laptop had the performance of a gaming machine, so that the screen could be used for more recreational purposes. Comfortable brightness levels on the TZ were around midrange, with anything above too bright for my poor eyes. As is common with most notebook displays, viewing angles were excellent horizontally, but poor vertically. The purple anti-glare screen coating combined with the poor viewing angles helped make dark colors invert at shallow angles.

Protection of the screen from the display cover is on the weak side, since it is extremely thin. Throughout the review procedure, the only damage I was able to inflict were key marks left on the screen from the LCD pressing on the dirty keys. These were only temporary marks, I was able to rub them off with a soft cloth (which Sony included with the notebook). Besides flexing the screen into a taco shape or accidentally sitting on it, I don’t see most users having any problem with the screen.

The speakers on the Sony TZ are located right below the pivot point of the display, providing a clear path to your head for maximum listening pleasure. They worked quite well for watching movies, playing games, or listening to some music around the office. With the volume set to max, the decibel meter registered ~64dB at one foot. The audio was only slightly distorting on high notes, but stayed mostly clear. During normal use high and upper midrange came through well, but don’t expect any lower notes from speakers this small.

The keyboard on the Sony TZ is very compact, and takes a bit to get used to typing on. It took a few hours of use before I could type without peaking at the keys. Passwords were mangled, friends were confused with my typing, and websites locked me out for too many login attempts. Once I got used to it the typing was fairly comfortable, but this keyboard is not ideal as a primary machine used during an entire work week. For users who would buy this machine as the main computer in their office, a docking station with full-size keyboard would be highly recommended.

Under normal use, backlight at 80 percent, Sony Optimized power profile set, and using wireless for web browsing, the TZ pulled off six hours and 43 minutes. I was hoping for more, as the preproduction model seemed to go more than seven hours, but it was still very good. Watching movies on the laptop got just less than four hours, meaning you could get through even the longest movies on a flight without a recharge.

Charging the battery took quite long compared to what I have been used to. More than five hours to get a complete charge was not out of the question, and two hours to get over 50 percent. Most other laptops will charge at a faster rate up to the 75-80 percent level, but the TZ had no such feature.