Sony Corporation http://www.sonystyle.com
When I think of a laptop that encompasses all things media, the first thing that naturally comes to mind is a media center—the granddaddy of all laptops. Grand in the sense that it carries many of the media capabilities found in a home theater, topped off with the processing power of a desktop. The Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E ($3,299 direct) is no stranger to the media-center motif. After all, it is the first laptop to feature a Blu-ray high-definition disc drive. Its latest venture involves putting in the latest processing parts from Intel to complement the Blu-ray burner. Interestingly enough, Sony also throws in an external ATI Digital Cable tuner that's supposed to bring a cable set-top box experience to your PC, but that feature proved very problematic in our testing.
It's been over a year since Sony launched its first Blu-ray equipped laptop, the Sony VAIO VGN-AR190G, which had a thin profile and a smooth piano-black finish. Sony found no reason to change that design with the AR590E, although the finish has a tendency to attract smudges and fingerprints. Its 8.2-pound frame makes it still one of the lightest 17-inch laptops on the market. (Only Apple beats that, with its 6.7-pound wonder, the MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700).) If you ever owned or laid eyes on a Sony Bravia display, you'll understand when I say this company knows how to make screens. The 17-inch XBrite screen has a 1,920-by-1,200 resolution, which is often referred to as a 1080p-caliber screen. Whether you're playing the latest 3D games or watching the newest Blu-ray titles, it produces some of the richest colors and sharpest image detail in the market. That resolution is two notches higher than the 1,440-by-900 screen on the HP Pavilion dv9500t, and it matches that of the MacBook Pro 17-inch.
I'm not a big fan of the Sony keyboards, but the comfort level becomes tolerable as you spend more time with it. The keys don't offer the same resistance and responsiveness of a Dell Inspiron 1720 or an Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch keyboard. The positioning of the mouse buttons is somewhat unorthodox—on the edge of the front bezel, instead of right in front of the keys. The placement is perfectly acceptable, since the touchpad is well within reach, but I would enjoy the navigating experience a lot more if the mouse buttons weren't so noisy. I really like the idea of a locking mechanism that clamps the lid of the screen to the base. It's no different from any other laptop with a latch, but the AR590E is the only one that lets you tuck away the latch, via a physical release switch located on the front bezel.
Sony usually sits among the elite with its long list of features. With the AR590E's price, I would certainly hope so. It comes with a standard set of USB ports (three) and a FireWire port. Unlike the Dell Inspiron 1720, the AR590E comes with an HDMI-port, so you can stream both HD video content and digital audio simultaneously to a larger display, say, your 60-inch plasma TV. It also has an optical-out port, which can be an alternate means of streaming digital audio through your home-theater system. There is an option for an integrated TV tuner, but it costs an outrageous $400 extra. The dual 160GB hard drives (320GB total) are probably plenty to hold all your media files. You can bump the storage up to 500GB total for an extra $470, if you need more space. As with most media centers these days, there's a 1.3-megapixel webcam on top of the screen, and there's also a media card reader that reads Secure Digital, Memory Stick, and Memory Stick Pro.
The AR590E includes a rather interesting accessory that will let you watch and record cable television on the laptop. It's called the TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner, and it's a clunky external USB box made by ATI. The idea here is that you can get a CableCARD, which is about the size of a PC Card, from your cable provider (in my case, Time Warner Cable) and watch TV on your PC. The CableCARD is inserted into the CableCARD tuner box and acts as an equivalent to a cable set-top box, where you can watch and record premium cable TV channels through Windows Vista's Media Center interface. Good luck in getting this device to work, though.
Attaching the necessary cables is easy enough. A USB cable goes from your CableCARD tuner to the AR590E. You'll need to attach the coax cable from your cable provider to the tuner. Lastly, the power adapter makes it three clunky cables. Windows Vista recognizes the tuner as a network device and assigns it an IP address, similar to a router. You will need a high-speed Internet connection for various software updates. There's a slot inside the tuner for the CableCARD, and once the card's inserted, you'll have to configure it through Windows Media Center. Another annoying aspect of the configuration process is that you'll have to call your cable provider to activate the CableCARD. The activation process took about 15 minutes, but the device decided to shut itself down permanently after it was activated. After an hour of tinkering with the hardware, I decided to give up and move on. I have seen a working version of this CableCARD tuner with the Dell XPS 410, and when it does work, it functions as a "home server" that can play back and record HD and premium cable content to your laptop hard drive. Until ATI and Sony (as well as the cable companies and Microsoft) can figure out the kinks, I would opt for a configuration without the CableCARD tuner.
The Sony AR590E uses top-notch processing components, notwithstanding the erratic tuner. Like the Acer Aspire 5920G, it loads a 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU and 2GB of RAM, which are more than enough to handle your high-end media tasks. Despite using a slightly slower processor, it edged out both the HP Pavilion dv9500t and the Dell Inspiron 1720 on SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall. Your HD experience (as well as your 3D gaming ventures) will be further enhanced by the nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card. It's the same card found on the Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700), except Apple's gives you more video memory (512MB).
The AR590E was one of the first systems to run BAPCo's latest battery-life benchmark test—MobileMark 2007. But its scores were among the worst of any laptop, at 1 hour 47 minutes. The HP and Acer units, with their bigger batteries, both got over 3 hours.
If you're looking for the best Blu-ray experience on a laptop, the Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E is your ticket to HD bliss. It includes the media features necessary to make this experience a worthwhile one. It even includes an ATI TV Wonder Digital CableCARD tuner, which sounds great on paper but is clearly not ready for prime time. Aside from that, the system ranks right up there with the best media centers, even if it is a little on the pricey side.
Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E
Sony VAIO VGN-FZ485U
Sony Corporation http://www.sonystyle.com
Once Blu-ray triumphed over HD DVD in the high-def format war, Sony had an opportunity to emerge as the good guys in the cutthroat laptop market. But instead of focusing on a swift adoption of Blu-ray in the PC space, the company still seems obsessed with hitting profit margins. A good example is the Sony VAIO VGN-FZ485U, a mainstream multimedia laptop that doesn't wow you with performance or features. Its one redeeming quality is that it bundles a Blu-ray burner. Given that Sony is the strongest voice in the Blu-ray Consortium, which developed the format, the $2,199 (direct) price tag should've been a lot cheaper. Cramming excessive "bloatware" into this laptop was equally egregious, if not more so.
In a world where fancy metals and glossy finishes are beginning to take shape in laptop designs, the FZ485U's plastic frame lacks any of these things, which is, depending on your point of view, either satisfyingly minimalist or plain Jane boring. The FZ485U takes an Apple approach: The silver lid is clean, free of any artistic splashes or flashy colors. You can, however, have Sony customize it with patterns and colors (or even engrave the lid with meaningful statements of your choosing) to match your personality. My lid design was subtle, which is how I like it. But the unit's look is deceptive, because its dimensions (10 by 14 by 1.3 inches) might lead you to believe that it weighs as little as the 5.3-pound Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Penryn). Instead, the FZ485U's 6-pound frame puts it more in line with the Dell XPS M1530 (6.2 pounds) and the HP Pavilion dv6500t (5.8 pounds).
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The laptop's interior somewhat clashes with its silver exterior. Still, the full-size keyboard is comfortable and even a little mushy for those whose fingers are sensitive to hard surfaces. The Dell M1530 and the HP dv6500t have keyboards that offer more resistance and make hard clicking sounds when you type, which I prefer, since I tend to like background noises. The bright, 15.4-inch widescreen is superb for photos and videos, though I thought the resolution could have been higher than 1,280-by-800, given that the system bundles a Blu-ray drive. (The Apple MacBook Pro [Penryn] and the Dell M1530 come with 1,440-by-900 resolution).
The features are well balanced for a media laptop. The three USB ports and one FireWire port aren't head-turners, but they aren't the main attraction. For those who are starting their Blu-ray collection, the FZ485U comes with a BD-RE drive, better known as a Blu-ray burner, that also functions as a dual-layer burner for regular DVDs. While the combination of the BD-RE drive and InterVideo's WinDVD BD software make for a wonderful Blu-ray experience, the drive itself is very expensive. Beyond that, the HDMI port, the ExpressCard 34 slot, the 1.3-megapixel webcam, and separate SD and Memory Stick card readers are solid.
As for green credentials, the FZ485U doesn't meet the necessary criteria for EPEAT and Energy Star certifications. It does, however, comply with RoHS, a European consortium set up to eliminate hazardous byproducts from the manufacturing process. According to my own tests, using a PS3 International Kill A Watt meter, the 33 watts consumed while the laptop was idle came in above Energy Star's 19W ceiling (14W is the limit for laptops with integrated graphics). By contrast, both the Apple MacBook Pro and the HP Pavilion dv6500t passed my tests with a reading of 19W.
Although the FZ485U integrates the latest Intel Penryn core technology, its 2.1-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 is considered middle of the pack. For about the same price or less, the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Penryn) and the Dell M1530 start with T9000 series processors, which pack a bigger wallop, as evidenced on our performance tests.
On the other hand, the 4GB of RAM that the system incorporates is impressive, especially if you're an Adobe Photoshop guru or a database programmer. The FZ485U's Photoshop scores kept pace with those of the Apple MacBook Pro, but due to its slower processor, the FZ485U lagged behind the Apple MacBook Pro on the SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall score by 15 percent. Nor could it beat the ASUS M50Sa-A1—a $1,300 laptop—trailing it by 18 percent on SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall.
The FZ485U does use discrete graphics, but mainly to enhance the Blu-ray experience rather than for 3D gaming. Still, the nVidia GeForce 8400GT graphics delivered performance results on 3DMark06, Crysis, and World in Conflict benchmark tests that are above average—but don't surpass the 3D gaming scores of the Apple (running Boot Camp and Windows), the Dell, and the ASUS laptops. While discrete graphics is a welcome addition, it takes a toll on battery life. I'd be more forgiving if this were a desktop-replacement laptop, but a score of 2 hours 16 minutes on MobileMark 2007 tests, which barely gets you through a Blu-ray movie or a third of a coast-to-coast flight, is simply inexcusable. A mainstream laptop's battery life has to be in the 3- to 4-hour range; furthermore, the optional extended battery costs $250.
My biggest complaint about the Sony VAIO VGN-FZ485U is that it's too expensive for a mainstream laptop that does merely above-average (rather than extraordinary) things—my attitude would be dramatically different if the price were $1,600. But I have other issues as well. The FZ485U crams in software which users don't need and which bogs down performance. And the 2 hours of battery life makes it hard to recommend over systems like the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Penryn), the Dell XPS M1530, the HP Pavilion dv6500t, and the Asus M50Sa-A1.
Sony VAIO VGN-SZ791N
Sony Corporation http://www.sonystyle.com
When Sony kicked off its SZ series of ultraportables with the VAIO VGN-SZ170P, the company showed that it was the first to understand how important discrete graphics and an optical drive were to performance-seeking world travelers. Battery life was the only element that stood in the way of an SZ-series laptop overtaking the Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet. The Sony VAIO VGN-SZ791N ($2,499 direct) is the latest refresh. It keeps intact the successful compact design while providing a compelling performance boost with one of Intel 's new Penryn processors, a 2.5-GHz Core 2 Duo T9300. In addition to tallying improved performance scores, the SZ791N sustained over 5 hours of battery life, enough to earn it an Editor's Choice in the ultraportable category.
The SZ791N has a svelte, appealing look. The carbon fiber lid is beautifully made: Look at it closely and you can make out the fiber strands and subtle sparkles embedded in the coffee-brown exterior. The 13-inch LED screen is amazingly thin—not to mention bright—but the way the lid flexes raises some concerns about possible damage to the LCD. By contrast, Apple has figured out how to limit the bending in its MacBook Air while maintaining its thinness. The keyboard, unlike the one in the Fujitsu LifeBook P8010, is full-size, but Sony needs to work on the resistance of the keys in order to make them top-notch, like those in the perfectly crafted keyboard of the Lenovo ThinkPad X61.
An optical drive is not an absolute requirement—at least, Apple, which didn't include one in the MacBook Air, would like you to believe that it's optional—but kudos to the SZ791N for integrating one in case you want to drop in a DVD movie during that long flight. In fact, the Acer Ferrari 1100, the Fujitsu LifeBook P8010, and the ASUS U6S all have built-in optical drives. The two USB ports are scant compared with the four on the ASUS U6S, though better than the lone USB port on the MacBook Air. The U6S and the Dell XPS M1330 go as far as integrating an HDMI-out port for those who want to hook up their laptops to a modern big screen. For storage, the SZ791N throws in a voluminous (250GB) hard drive, a huge asset to video and audiophiles. The SZ791N integrates a Sprint EV-DO Rev A cellular modem, so you can get broadband connectivity wherever there's a cell phone signal. Many ultraportables still don't have these modems built-in. Among the others that do are the Lenovo X61, the Panasonic Toughbook W5, the Fujitsu LifeBook T2010, and the Dell XPS M1330.
The SZ791N continues to be one of the few ultraportables that run discrete graphics. The nVidia GeForce 8400M GS chipset lets you run many current 3D gaming titles, although you'll need a much better card to run games like Crysis and World in Conflict. Even so, the SZ791N delivered the best gaming numbers among ultraportables with discrete graphics, which include the ASUS U6S and the Dell M1330. The SZ791N runs two separate graphics systems, an arrangement unique to the SZ series. A physical switch above the keyboard lets you choose between the nVidia chipset and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, otherwise known as integrated graphics. (You have to reboot for the change to take effect.) Performance, particularly with games and 3D applications, is better with discrete graphics, but when you want to save on battery life and aren't doing any heavy-duty tasks you can switch to the integrated graphics.
MobileMark 2007 tests tallied 3 hours 49 minutes of battery life with its 63-Wh battery. The previous model, the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ370P, scored only 2:43. The improvement in battery life results from the Penryn processor core's greater energy efficiency. If you select the integrated graphics, battery life gets an additional hour and 17 minutes, for a total of 5 hours 6 minutes, according to MobileMark 2007—though you get a performance hit on 3D content.
Understandably, with all its power, the SZ791N cannot possibly adhere to Energy Star 4.0 requirements. It's not EPEAT-certified either, but Sony is adamant about not using hazardous materials in the production of its laptops, so it is RoHS-compliant. On our own energy usage tests with a Kill A Watt meter, the system recorded 23 watts in idle mode and 1W in sleep mode. Obviously, it's not as energy-efficient as the low-powered processors in the MacBook Air and the Fujitsu P8010, but it consumed less wattage than its standard-voltage counterparts: The ASUS U6S recorded 26 watts in idle mode, the Acer Ferrari 110034 watts.
Since its inception, the Sony SZ series has vied with the Lenovo ThinkPad X61 and its predecessors for the top spot as an all-around ultraportable. With the VAIO VGN-SZ791N, Sony has finally pulled past the X61 by being the first to deliver a system with the new Penryn processor. Intel's latest CPU helped the SZ791N deliver a blend of performance and battery life that tops the competition's. For that, it earns our coveted Editors' Choice.
