AR Users, How do you like it?

Thinking about going with a AR 17in high res LCD over the FZ290. Is there any AR users out there? I do a lot of video editing and the higher resolution would be nice.

Let me know how you like this laptop.

 

I have the AR605 (specs in sig) and absolutely love it! Had a Dell with the 8600GT and had massive problems with it. Got this one, and FINALLY CoD4, WoW, Crysis, etc. run great! Sure, maybe not as good as the 8600GT, but after my experience... screw that card.

It's an all around beautiful laptop, with all the features one could want. (Including HDMI, Bluetooth, etc.)

 

i was going to get an AR...but opted for an fz21s...smaller screen but better gpu.
depends if ur goin for the high end AR really

 

singh100, if you want to get the 8600M GT graphic card, you can get it with the WUXGA screen in vaio AR.

 

I just got my AR670 and I love it too. It is, like KGann said, beautiful and it does everything I want. Don't expect to get much of a battery life from it, but if you're doing video editing I'd imagine you'd have it plugged in anyway. The bloatware Sony installs is annoying, but its easy enough to reinstall windows clean and then reinstall drivers and software from a recovery CD. Also, if you want to save some cash do like I did and buy the cheapest memory you can from Sony then upgrade it yourself - Sony wanted to charge over $700 for 4GB of memory, so I went with just 1GB and then bought 4GB from Newegg for only $150. Did the same with the HDD. Unfortunately, Sony doesn't seem to have 64bit drivers up, so I'm limited to only 3GB RAM. Anyway, here are my specs:

Extended Battery (BPL9)
WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n w/Integrated Bluetooth®
No TV Tuner
LCD 17" WUXGA (XBRITE-HiColor™
Blu-ray Disc™ Read and Write Drive
240GB (120GB x 2) SATA Hard Disk Drive - Upgraded to 400GB (2 X 200GB) 7200RPM from Newegg
1 GB DDR-SDRAM (DDR2-667, 512 MBx2) - Upgraded to 4GB (2 X 2GB) from Newegg
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.4GHz)

It came it at just under $3000 including the upgrades

 

All of the AR are pretty much "high end". The 8400GT is still considered high end, although not as good as the 8600-8800's.

I picked mine up at a little over a grand after tax.

 

Bought an AR630E during pre boxing day sale for 1399 CAN$ from Sonystyle.ca 10 days ago and loves it. (Except Vista compatibility issues)

 

I just bought an AR670 with 8600GT and 17" WUXGA this month. I posted about it somewhere here. I too opted for the cheapest RAM config then got 4GB of OCZ for about $130. Specs are in sig.

EDIT: I posted here

I love it. The most beautiful notebook display I've ever seen. The only game I've tried to run on it so far is Gears of War, and only briefly.

 

I've got an AR605e and overall I'm pretty satisfied. The only gripes I have is that the keyboard is kinda awkward to use compared to my dell, I make more typos then I should. The touch pad and buttons are awkward, I'd prefer to have the touch pad closer to the keyboard, and have the two buttons bigger and a lot more quiet when you click them. Right now I'm using a wireless mouse instead of the touch pad.

The only real major gripe I have is with Vista, I hate it, nothing will run on it and Sony is worthless for helping me get XP on the computer. Not to mention I've had Vista totally crap out twice, and the first time was within the first few minutes of using the computer after I installed one program.

On the plus side, the computer will run Call of Duty 4 at full resolution (1440x900) no problem. It seems like a pretty good computer that should still be relevant even a few years down the line. Definitely not the highest end computer, but it's not exactly a cheap totally outdated POS.

Only thing I've done to mine is install the 4GB ram I bought at newegg. I may eventually buy a bigger hard drive than 160gb, probably in the neighborhood of 250-500gb whenever prices go down. Right now the 160GB HD is on the border of not cutting it for all the p2p I download.

 

The Blu-Rey AR is great if you don't mind hauling a brick ....

 

I picked my AR570CTO back in August, and I love the thing. Sure its a bit big, but the screen is amazing. I too, do alot of video editing, and the computer handles it great. I added a 2 GB flash drive to use the ready boost feature with Vista and it makes a huge difference, too.

Gaming with COD4 is awesome, too. My 8400GS card does the job awesome, even at only 128MB. The 2.0 processor, 2 GB RAM, 4MB L2 cache and the screen all perform well. My only complaint is with Sony service. Idiots like all the rest of customer services, took them 4 months to get my warranty sorted out, kept selling the wrong one, and then cancelling the one they sold me.

All sorted now, but I'm very happy with purchase. Great product, great look IMHO, and I carry it with me alot with no problems. If you are going to edit video, definately go with the 17" to help view your work and also pay the extra $20 for the Adobe Elements that Sony sells with it. You won't be disappointed.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

 

I noticed that your sig says you have a " Intel Core2Duo (1.8 MHz)"....I didn't know they made 1.8MHz CPUs...that thing must be well slow!

 

That's what it says each processor is clocked at. I'm lost. It's a T7100.

 

Had the 1080p Blu-Rey model a few months back. If you don't mind hauling a brick, then it is amazing . It is a true desktop replacement if you stick 4 gigs in it.

 

I cannot play hi definition videos on my AR605E. They are H.264 .mp4 format from my camcorder. All clips are 720p. I can open the videos with Quicktime or WMP or even PowerDVD, but the video just moves a couple frames then completely freezes. I'm REALLY dissapointed with this laptop. By the way I have 4 gigs of ram. My old P4 desktop could play these files better.

 

I think people with AR don't carry their laptop around. Its more like a desktop replacement.

 

Pretty accurate.

 

Thanks everyone! I was thinking of the 1920x1200 display with a blueray burner. I have a FZ290 with a blueray burner now and love it but it has a hump in the keyboard around the qwerty area. I will be returning this laptop soon. Since new models are on the way I was hoping the AR would maybe drop in price a little.

I scan and edit a lot of pictures and I'm finding the FZ's 1280x800 screen kind of limiting. Since I was retruning this and getting another I gave the AR a look.

 

I carry mine every day. I have massive, dual-monitor desktops at home and work for when I'm at a desk, but when I'm mobile I want similar power. I have no use for dinky portables, I'd much rather carry a large heavy laptop with a beautiful display like the AR670.

BTW a backpack bag makes carrying things a lot easier than those over the shoulder messenger type bags. I have a huge Targus XL pack that easily holds the 17" AR + PSU, two full CD/DVD cases, 3 books, portable headset, external mouse, extra cables, paperwork, iPod, etc. and still has room for more stuff. It probably weighs 25 pounds when loaded but I don't have a problem carrying it. I'm a big guy though. It's nothing compared to the 80# rucks I carried in the Army.

 

If they don't carry it, then it pointless to get it in the first place. You can get a faster desktop for half the cost.

I had a AR for less than a week and sold it, since I couldn't cope with the weight. Now i just keep an overclocked QX as a desktop and use my UltraPortables as my main mean of communication.

 

I just bought a Vaio AR605E from Best Buy for $609.99. They had it stowed away on a shelf up high from public sight. I quickly returned my Acer and left the store a very happy customer. The computer is amazing.