Beautiful machine for the price

I am starting with my narrative here for those that want a sort of personal tour; you can skip to the bottom if you just want raw stats.

THE GOOD

My purchase is based on the need for a reliable notebook PC for business use. I was looking for something with a full sized keyboard and a nice display for doing presentations with clients (and also to be easier on the eyes during marathon working sessions). It can be tough shopping for notebook PC's these days. There are a lot of models with similar profiles and pricing. Most of them even look pretty much the same. Anyway I wanted to stay at a price that would be not too far over $1000 (at least closer to $1000 vs $2000). But at that price range, I mostly found only mediocre machines.

The surprise was when I ran across this Sony machine. First of all, the look is unique. The first impression is sleek and thin - and different; but in a good way. It looks thinner and has cleaner lines. Its not bristling with obvious controls and lights. And the 15.4 inch xbrite wide screen display is a real eye catcher. It was head and shoulders above the other displays on the HP/Compaq, Gateways, Toshibas, etc that were also on the shelves. It was brighter, sharper, with an anti-glare coating. I mean, your eye is just drawn to it.

For me, the display is key. I have had many "company" PC's with muddy, dim displays. If I am going to stare at it for hours at a time, I want it to be clear and bright, with vibrant colors and good contrast. This fits the bill. The case feels very solid, and has a smooth and steady feel when you open it. Lid clicks shut and a catch must be slid aside to open it.

After seeing the gorgeous display (and seeing the $1299 price after rebate), I was preparing myself for disappointment in other areas upon closer inspection. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The keyboard (another important factor for a heavy user) is solid, with a nice positive clicky feeling to it. High quality is what comes to mind. The keys have just the right give for comfortable typing, while still giving you tactile feedback and the right clicking sound. I am sure Sony engineers focused on the ergonomics of it and they got it just right. I know, I may sound a bit obsessed about a keyboard (maybe I need to get a life..haha) but having had machines with crappy, mushy keyboards and being annoyed for hours as I have been forced to use them, I have come to look for much better. This Sony did not disappoint.

I was also happy to see that there is a dual layer DVD writer/reader included. This is a nice extra that I did not expect. And it sits nicely in the slim case, on the left side, and pops open with a solid, high quality feel. The chipset is a decent powered Pentium M, with a generous 2MB cache, there is 512M of Ram included, with lots of room to expand it. An 80 GIG hard drive is a good size, I was expecting smaller.

The touch pad is pretty standard 2 button deal. However I like that you can scroll within apps or when browsing, by dragging your finger down the far right edge of the pad.

Another good thing: this machine does not get hot. It runs pretty cool and it's also pretty quiet.

This is a good machine for your standard business user or normal home user. Its comfortable to use, has a beautiful display, and good basic features. Its NOT a machine for power-gamers (although with additional RAM I am sure it could perform pretty decent there) and/or those who are into the highest lab test performance scores. It won't be at the top of the performance ratings in PC magazine. But I don't need it to be. If you are like me, you will be very happy with this machine. And hey, lets not forget we are talking $1299 here.


THE NOT SO GOOD

Overwhelmingly I like this machine and I am surprised by the features for the price and the high quality. However, a few nits:

- I hate it when you have a machine with all memory slots filled (in this case, 2 DIMMS of 256MB). It means you have to toss the memory out when you upgrade (I am upgrading to a total of 1 GIG, which means the 256MB DIMMS are useless to me). It may be the architecture requires both slots to be used. But it also may be Sony's way of making you buy more memory when you upgrade.

- Speaking of memory upgrades, Sony wants $300 for one 512MB memory module. Yikes! I found the exact part number, exact spec memory on another website for $59. Come on, Sony! Make sure you shop around on the accessories.

- The AC brick is...well..almost actually a brick in size. Its bulky. Also, I would like the total length of the cord to be another foot or two. Its noticably shorter than others I have used. Don't get me wrong, its still about 6 feet long, but I would like it just a little longer to prevent tripping hazards when its plugged in across a room.

- I would prefer XP Pro included vs Home Edition. But, this is how one keeps the price a little lower so I understand.

- There is useless junk software loaded (its not just Sony, it seems they all do this). I mean, I don't want AOL, and trial copies of MS Office, quicken, and 10 other things. Not even full versions. You have to buy them eventually. I wish manufacturers would put more really useful stuff on the machines or else not clutter up the hard drive with it. But again, I wanted low a price so there is a trade off.

- Twin speakers just above the keyboard do not have very loud volume and do not sound great. They are passable but nothing to get excited about. You will likely want to use headphones.

- Battery life is mediocre. I think the battery supplied is not the right capacity for the demands of this machine. Spec says 2.5 hours, my experience has been between 90 and 120 minutes tops.

- No floppy drive included, no standard PS2 mouse plug or standard external keyboard plug. But if you are looking for this you are behind the times, my friend. Time to throw away that PS2 mouse. Its sure to be track ball as well and not optical. And who uses a floppy anymore? And everything now seems to plug in via USB. Mouse, keyboard, etc. Sorry if you have (like me) a box in the closet full of that stuff with the old connectors. If you really must keep that stuff you can buy an adapter to make it fit a USB port (and a USB external floppy can be had for about 50 bucks if you MUST have one).

- Some choppiness when watching DVD movies sometimes. I am hoping additional RAM I ordered will eliminate this. Its not a major issue but a few times I have seen the picture hesitate.

- No paper manual. I know its the electronic age but I like to read some things on paper. You can print the PDF out and read it. Bit I guess I am old fashioned, I want my user manual!

STATS

Intel Pentium M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz)with 2MB L2 Cache

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (service pack 2)

DVD R Double Layer/DVD -RW Drive

512MB RAM (expandable to 2MB; 2 slots, both filled with 256MB DIMMS)

80GB hard drive

128MB shared video memory

15.4" Widescreen LCD with XBRITE Technology

Integrated wireless b/g (with external switch to turn on/off)

3 USB ports (USB 2.0), external monitor jack, 1 firewire jack, sony memory card slot, PCMCIA card slot

Integrated network card and phone modem, jacks for both

2-button touch pad

2 programmable buttons above the keyboard for quick actions (default setting to turn sound on/off, and second one is to switch in/out of an external monitor)

Jack on the bottom to hook into a docking station

AC converter "brick" included

Headphone and microphone jacks

Detachable battery on the back end

1 year warrantee (parts and labor)

CONCLUSION

I bought this machine and I have enjoyed using it. The monitor has my work mates jealous. Its not too heavy, looks great, runs cool and quiet. The performance is great with MS office, visio, browser, the usual suspects.