Sony VAIO B Review (pics, specs)

Sony does make good laptops. The Sony VAIO B is not one of those. Following is a full review of my not so hot experience with the purchase of the Sony VAIO B100 14.1" screen thin-and-light business laptop.

Sony VAIO B 14.1" Screen Notebook

Specs

• 1.7 Intel Pentium M(Dothan) with 2MB FSB cache
• 512MB with chips integrated on the motherboard (You can't remove theRAM that is, but there is one free slot on the bottom of the computer to add more. You can go upto 1.5GB total,I still thinka removable 512MBDIMM would be a little better)
• 60GB 4200RPM hard drive
• Pioneer 8x DVDR
• 14.1" 1400 x 1050 TFT screen
• On board integratedIntel graphics processor
• Sony memory stick Pro Slot (I would prefer SD, but Sony has to sell its camera format I guess!)
• 2USB 2.0Ports (not good, if you have an external mouse and USBdiskthen you haveno ports left)
• Firewire port
• VGAout port
• 100mbit Network LAN port
• 56Kbps modem
• Wireless 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth

Purchase

I ordered fromthe Sony VAIO B series notebookvia the internet,I live in Greece and the online store was aGreek internet shop. It took 2 days to get here andthe total cost came to1587 euros ($1700+) including 18% VAT (value added tax).

The VAIO Bsystem I purchasedcame fromGreece, but it comes with a UK keyboard and UK Operating System. I actually prefer the English version OS for Windows XPbut many users would want proper localization and keyboard even in small countries like Greece. Other manufacturers do this.HP and Acer at least provide a localized Greek OS and keyboard layout for machines sold here. A non-localized keyboard and OS unfortunatelyreduces the resale value of the machine.

In the Box

Upon receiving the Sony VAIO B100 I was disappointed to seethere were many things missing from the box that I would expect and liked to have been included. There are NO Windows setup disks, no driver disks, no application disks, no documentation disks, and no recovery disks. Shame on sony for such a policy. There is a recovery system included , but they place this on the hard drive and call it a "feature".

Hard Drive and System SoftwareSetup

TheVAIO B hard drive is setup in an insane way. There exists one hidden unreadable partition, one application partition and one data partition. The drive is filled with Sony media players and the usual junk such as AOL. There are also many setup folders on the drive that take up space. This includes setup programs forMicrosoft Works, WindowsXP SP1 (the installedOS is SP2 though), driver folders and so on. With all this included stuff on the hard drive the system takes ages to boot, the slow disk speed of 4200RPM doesn't help that boot time either. By taking this approach Sony is saving maybe 1 Euro by not providing any application CD/DVDs or Recovery DVDsbut then makes a mess of thehard driveand takes up valuable space. Not good.

I had a Travelstar 7200RPM/60GB hard drive ordered separately and installed that in this laptop instead.

Design and Build

TheVAIOBis very light, which is good, but the build looks andfeels like plastic so it's not very solid.In comparison to this notebook an Acer, HP orIBM notebook feels like a rock. This Sony VAIO B notebookis very flexible and you can easily push the palmrest to bend 2-3mm with a single finger and minimal force. It also does not feel convincingly builtwhen the lid is closed. The lid is just not firm enough and it does not seem like it would protect the screen given even a smalldrop. I wouldn't even put the VAIO B upside down on a hard surface toget accessto the bottom of the notebook, I just don't feel the lid is strong enough to prevent from being pushed against the screen. This laptopshould have a "Handle with Care" sticker on the palmrest.

The machine has a slope, it is higher on the back and lower on the front. Whena high capacity battery is used itelevates the back andcauses an even greater slope. So the slimness of this notebook is kind of negated by this slope. It is thin at the front, where it is about3cm from resting surface to top of the noteboook, but at the back this goes up to about5cmof height (measurements taken withthe lid closed). The notebook alsohas a weight distribution problem. Using two notebook casesI have, neither would stand upright with the Sony inside. So if you have puta bag down with this laptop inside you'll needto lean the bag againsta wall or let it drop to the floor, annoying! The same bagsworkOK for being able to stand up with the laptop inside when using HP, IBM and Acer laptops I've had in the past.

Power and Battery

The Sony comes with a two prong adapter with a nice thin cable. This is great for transport. But there is one problem, there is no grounding of any kind. Opening theCD and touching a metal part proved that. You can feel current. The power in my area is not very good and the grounding in most houses isn't good either, so I have some safety concerns.

The notebook end of the power cable is a joke. It bends left and right and has terrible fit. It easily unplugs itself if you pull the cable a bit.

Battery life is ok. I got about 4hours under light usage and 2:10 when viewing DVDs at medium volume and medium screenbrightness setting. A high capacity battery is available 450 Euros.

Keyboard

The keyboard has a rubbery feel and a very small key travel distance. It's easy to miss keystrokes and there is minimum feedback from a key to let you know it has actually been pushed. It honestly is the worst keyboard I have ever encountered.At leastthe keyboardisfull size and they didn't reduce the size of any keysto fit them all on. But then again,even some 12-inch laptops manage to squeeze in a full size keyboard so there's no major achievement here. The keyboard is at an angle which feels nice for typingcompared to other laptops.

ThePg Up andPgDn keys are done with Fn buttoncombination strokes, I findthisprocess slow and irritating. Other manufacturers with notebooks of this size oftenincludenormal Pg Up andPg Dn keys and evenstandard placed Homeand End keyssometimes.

I wish Sony provided some way to turn the touchpad on or off via a hardware button on the keyboard or by the touchpad. My previous HP machine had a hardware key right on the touchpad to allow me to disable it. For this laptop I have to go through a built-in Sony software application to enable or disable the touchpad, and this takes a lot of time. I often need to disable the touchpad when typing so that I don't accidentally brush the touchpad area and move the cursor so having an easy way to toggle the touchpad on/off is important to me.

Noise and Heat

The VAIO Bmakes little noise. It is also very configurable compared to other laptops with a nice util by Sony. You can really optimize noise/performance/tft brightness etc on this machine. The vent on the right serves as anice handwarmerduring thosewinter nights, but the machine does not get hot, even under heavy use. There is a lot of noise coming from the Travelstar 7200RPM disk that I put in this notebook, the noise is worse than I've experienced in other notebooks, which leads me to believe the internal construction is very light and thin plasticmaterial that does not muffle sounds. The machine feels great on your lap as it'sabout 700 gramsless weight than the typical 3 Kg laptop. Since the notebook is not that big with no vents on the bottom, back, and not heat buildup on the bottom under normal use you don't need to worry about it feeling uncomfortably hot if used in your lap. The vent on the right side was an excellent choice. You can put this laptopon any surface and it will still not get hot.

Speakers

The speakers are small, tinny sounding and positioned really close to each other. They do sound a lot better than any Acer I have used but not as good as some HP or Toshiba business laptops or most desktopreplacement style notebooks. There is not much stereo sound since the speakers are too close to each other. The overall volumeoutput is very quiet. I recommend using headphones orexternal speakers. I triedtesting the souldthrough my Dynaudio BM15A (2,000 euros street price) active studio speakers and the sound generated, to my ears at least,was as good as what comes frompro audio sound cards.The soundmax circuit on this machine does a good job and is well supported by the motherboard electronics.

DVD

TheDVDR is excellent. The included drive is made by Pioneerwho makes a great 8X unit. I think it is the bestDVDR I ever encountered on a laptop. The Sony VAIO B cheap construction shows though as thecase rattles when the DVD-R accesses data. This doesn't occur forDVD videos, just on data discs and when putting theDVD into the drive. Holding theDVDcover actuallystops the noise! Sony should take care of this problem.

The DVD is on the right side,I find this kind ofannoyingwhen is not much space and you use a mouse over on the right-side too. The drivealso falls too low when opening. It has literally scratched the surface ofmy desk and sticks to the surface if using it on a softer surface.

Graphics.

Theintegrated Intelgraphicsperformed surprisingly well in empiric 2D tests such as. Adobe Illustrator redraws. But it is very slow for 3D as we know. This is not a gamer's notebook.

TFT Screen

This is the worst TFT I have ever seen.Viewing angles are minimal. 14.1 screens usually have about half the vertical viewing angle compared to 15.4 wide but this one gets the unusability (no such word, I know) prize! I would say the vertical viewing angle is NEGATIVE. That means that in the perfect position the top of the monitor is like 40% darker than the bottom. Bottom too light. Top too dark. You have to tilt the TFTin theopposite direction to fix these problems and that's what I mean by negative viewing angle. The CCFL that lights the tube isthe same as any other in laptops madetoday, but it is also very badly positioned. It is too close to the screen border. When viewing a black screen you see bleed that reaches the center of the screen. I have never seen such a bad case as this. On other notebooks it is just 1-2cm. I confirmed this with another laptop of the same model. My laptop screen also proved to be problematic in uniformity. The right 1/3 of theTFT did not light up properly. This resulted in red whites and darkness in this area and text was a lot harder to read also. This showed fully in a grey background.

Even in simple apps like Word, using the laptop was hard since the bottom to top difference in lighting made things hard to read. Moving my head 2cm vertically would completely change the screen image. And even the perfect angle was still terrible. A friend of mine who fixes TFTs for a living says that this screen has a very bad design. They tried to minimize the size of the TFT cover and this made them put the CCFL too close to screen. So it bleeds 10x compared to the usual 15.4 screen and also has viewing angle problems since the filters that diffuse the lights from the CCFL do not work optimally. From a normal user point of view, viewing aDVD on this Sony series is a joke. The typical 4year oldkid will ask what that white thing is on the bottom! And if you do graphics, ha! My guess is that depending on where the color is (height on screen) it will appear +-20% in brightness. Unusable.

Horizontal angle is very bad also. Viewing aDVD with somebody else such as your girlfriend or boyfriend is a very bad experience. You would have to put your heads really close and still have a bad picture because the 10cm off center you would both be would spoil the image even more..I guess it would make it a more intimate experience! Combine that with the CCFL bleed on the bottom and the terrible black of thisTFT and you're in for one painful viewing experience.One good note is that the TFT had no dead pixels, but I wouldn't mind those compared to the left side uniformity (specific unit) problem and the general uniformity/viewing angle (all sony b1-xps) problem.

Conclusion

Sony does make good laptops. The VAIO B is not one of those. I returned the laptop pretty much so immediately due to the monitor issues. If you like Sony I recommend looking at other models such as the FS, S, A or T series of notebooks which don't seem to have the same major problems as the VAIO B does.

Pros

• Good battery life
• Light weight
• Fast DVD drive

Cons

• Bad build, flimsy design
• Terrible LCD display
• Lots of software installed you won't want
• Slow standard hard drive
• Bad keyboard

Pricing and Availability

 

Wow, the VAIO B really gets trashed in this review. Wonder if anyone out there can back up if this laptop really is all this bad.

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No recovery CD's? You sure you didn't get a lemon? Sony has ALWAYS included the standard things even if the materials themselves weren't top notch. And this is geared towards the business side, so such materials are all the more important.

That said, I've also heard that the B series wasn't too good a laptop in terms of what you got for what you paid. You'd be a lot better off with either an FS (if you want to log around more) or an S. I'm very surprised though that you found the screen lacking, or is this a non-XBRITE screen?

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<blockquote>
I wish Sony provided some way to turn the touchpad on or off via a hardware button on the keyboard or by the touchpad. My previous HP machine had a hardware key right on the touchpad to allow me to disable it. For this laptop I have to go through a built-in Sony software application to enable or disable the touchpad, and this takes a lot of time. I often need to disable the touchpad when typing so that I don't accidentally brush the touchpad area and move the cursor so having an easy way to toggle the touchpad on/off is important to me.
</blockquote>
Try to use TouchFreeze (http://www.yaranga.net/TouchFreeze) - simple free utility that disables touchpad automaticly while you typing.