Got my SZ110/B from Best Buy!!!

After waiting more than a month to get my customized SZ140 from SonyStyle, I waltzed into BestBuy last night here in L.A., and low and behold they have SZ110/B's IN STOCK for $1899. I immediately purchased one and happily drove home. It's a slight step down from the 2.0 gHz CPU that I wanted, but 1.83 is not enough performance dropoff to justify continuing to see "ship date unknown" on my order status page. I canceled my order from Sony and will post more pics and a review in the next couple of days. Just some initial thoughts:

-Keyboard is a bit flimsy, but more than usable. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad at all, but I'm coming from a ThinkPad T42, so I may be COMPLETELY SPOILED... It is full-size, though, and comfortable to type on.

-Peformance is zippy, with multitasking a breeze just as expected.

-Temperature is amazingly cool - this was the most pleasant surpise of all. Even when the fan DOES kick on, it's like a whisper - you can barely hear it at all.

-Wireless reception is fantastic so far.

-Screen is bright and crisp, as is expected from Sony.

-Many of you may be wondering (I know I was) which formats the "multi-card reader" reads. It is MS/SD/MMC/XD compatible, and slides into the Express card slot on the right of the unit. I honestly don't know why they didn't just build the card reader where the dedicated MS slot is on the left side of the unit. So, thank you, Sony, for giving me a MS slot on EACH SIDE of the notebook. I don't know how I ever survived with only one... ;P

-More to come!

Javier

 

Looks great!

 

Anyone else with a s560 who's thinking of upgrading? Is it worth the $$?

mike
http://www.mwang.org

 

Looks like your heat and noise experience emulates "calxn" in the big thread. Great news!

 

Can you please do a battery life test when on integreated and the 7400!!!

 

Thanks for the first impressions. Can you do a full review in the near term?

 

yes. I would be interested in the quality of the camera. Also, where is the microphone located? My s560 is lacking both a mic and a cam. I am finding that I am using Skype more and more and the external mic is starting to annoy me.

mike
http://www.mwang.org

 

Nice floors!

 

Looking forward to your review. I've finally seen SZs locally, and was very disappointed by the screens - a very faint (but visible) brownish grunge on the screen, and not nearly as bright as other Sonys nor even HPs. If you look closely can you detect this brownish look? I wish I could describe it better, but it is very definitely there in the 4 SZs that I have seen in various stores. I don't know if there's just a bad batch floating around Miami, but this is the only thing keeping me from purchasing this laptop. Thanks for any further comments you can give - and enjoy!

 

Thanks for posting the pictures!

Quick question for anyone who knows - how much video memory does the SZ have? I assume it's 128MB ded + 128 Shared since it says 256MB on Best Buy's website.

EDIT: Found the answer:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=36252&page=33

As I suspected.

 

Well, I have one thing to warn you about... beware of reinstalling OS on these things! I clean-installed WinXP Pro, and cannot get the drivers FROM SONY'S WEBSITE to load on the machine. Says it's "not for this model computer." SOOO, back to BestBuy for an exchange - I guess I'm just gonna have to remove Sony's bloatware piece by piece. And BOY, does this thing come with bloatware. After reinstalling the OS it was like I recovered another 500 mHz from the processor. Oh well...

One of the reasons I decided to clean-install the OS was because it would hang on restart or shutdown - I'm not sure if this is a common problem across this model, but a new laptop straight out of the box should not hang shutting down (at least not until I start installing software!!!)

Sony's support site for these things is not quite ready from prime time - not all the drivers are there, and some of the ones that are are incorrect. As far as the build quality of the notebook goes, it's pretty good - not great, but good. There's a "clack" coming from the space bar instead of the "click" that comes from the rest of the keys, which makes typing sound funny. Not sure if this is on all models or just mine. I'll update this when I get my new one.

About CandiceLF's screen complaint - my particular one does not have this brownish tinge. You're right, the screen is not as bright as other VAIO's that I've seen, but it is still excellent.

pshady - The microphone is located next to the camera at the top of the lid, which gives good sound quality - it doesn't catch any ambient noise from the computer itself. The camera quality is not good... about what you'd find on a cell phone, but I haven't seen any integrated webcams that ARE any good - so take that for what it's worth.

Battery life is good so far - I ran it on "Speed," which uses the NVidia card. I got about 3 hours of usage (quite good, considering I was installing drivers, rebooting repeatedly, and installing software). I then squeezed some more juice out of it by switching to "Stamina." It's worth noting that doing this not only switches video cards from the NVidia to the integrated GMA950, but also changes the power settings on the laptop. The screen brightness goes on a timer, etc... you know the drill. Pretty handy, I think.

Again, I'll try to post a full review as soon as I get my new unit.

Javier

 

I saw a display model SZ at Bestbuy a while back and also didn't notice the brown tinge but was dissapointed by its brightness compared to some of Sony's other offerings.
I also did not like the keyboard, wasn't a dealbreaker but not exactly a pleasure to use either.

 

Here are my thoughts after 2 days using my new Sony VAIO VGN-SZ110/B purchased from BestBuy…

Aesthetics

This is, in my opinion, a fantastic looking laptop. People have been walking by my office all week making comments about what a cool laptop I have. The lid is a textured material. If you’ve ever felt a pickup truck that had the bed coated with Line-X or a similar material, it’s a lot like that. Different from any other laptops I’ve seen, and very cool. The palmrests beneath the keyboard are a brushed aluminum feeling material – I’m not sure if it’s actually metal or not, but it feels great and looks even better.

Temperature and noise

This is by far the coolest-running laptop I have ever owned. No matter if I’m installing software or performing some other processor-intensive task, the laptop STAYS COOL. I barely ever notice the fan come on, and when it does, it’s very, very quiet - very well done by Sony in this regard.

As a byproduct, noise is a non-issue on this machine. Despite having a 5400 RPM hard drive, it doesn’t make much noise at all. My office is a very quiet place, and I can’t hear it unless I stick my ear directly on the left palmrest. CD/DVD noise is average – it’s not silent, but I have never heard a laptop optical drive that is. I would have to say that this is one of the quieter drives I have ever heard, especially on a laptop.

Keyboard

Keyboard on this model has less flex than the first one I got, but it still flexes. The flex is not limited to one side of the keyboard – it does it on both sides. It’s not as noisy as my ThinkPad keyboard was, and that I like very much. It’s not the best keyboard in the world, but certainly not the worst I’ve ever used, either. In other words, could be better, but good enough NOT to be a deal breaker…

Screen

One of the reasons I decided to go from a ThinkPad to a VAIO was that the screens I had seen on everyone else’s VAIO’s were so much better than my old IBM. Well, the LCD on this notebook is not up to par with other VAIO’s I’ve seen. It’s not as bad as the IBM screens (dull and washed out colors) so I wouldn’t call it poor or bad screen, but I was certainly expecting a brighter screen from Sony here. It’s still very responsive, and DVD’s look excellent when played in full-screen mode. However, I took a peek at an HP DV1000 last night, and that unit DEFINITELY has a superior display. Much like the keyboard, it’s not bad enough to be a deal-breaker, but it certainly could have been better.

Build Quality

This is an area where the SZ110 surpassed my expectations. I was afraid of receiving a crickety, rattly notebook that creaked when I grabbed it. I am glad to report that the build quality is comparable to my old ThinkPad T42, which is the best-built laptop I have ever laid my hands on. The joints don’t creak, and lid doesn’t move too easily. It’s very comfortable and easy to use on your lap, with no noticeable finish blemishes, loose screws, loose joints etc… I am pleasantly surprised with the build quality of this unit.

Performance

Sony packed a 1.83 gHz Intel Centrino duo processor into the SZ110 along with a 100GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. I’m reviewing the unit as it shipped, no upgrades – I say this because I’m planning on upgrading to 2GB of the highest speed RAM, so I’m sure performance will improve after that.

In a factory-shipped state (minus much of Sony’s pre-packaged bloatware) performance is remarkable. I leave the graphics rocker switch in the “speed” mode all the time, and the laptop flies through everything I throw at it. Startup time is good, especially when considering it loads the fingerprint reader right into the Windows logon screen.

The first unit I received would freeze on shutdown/restart, so I reinstalled/upgraded XP Pro. That was, in a word, disastrous. The recovery DVD’s that I created would not reinstall the Intel chipset and video drivers – gave me a message that those drivers were “not for my model computer.” That let me to bring it back and exchange it for a new one. This new unit does not suffer from any lockup/freezing issues. It’s worth noting that I’m still running XP home, and until I get my new XP disc from Microsoft I won’t be upgrading the OS.

Fingerprint reader

This was a major selling point for me on this unit. I’m not sure if this model is included with the BX series as Sony’s first crack at fingerprint readers, but it’s an inconsistent experience, at best. I noticed that after a while, especially while running on batteries, the system would turn off the fingerprint reader completely. I haven’t run any tests to see just how much power the fingerprint reader consumes, but I personally want it on at ALL times, as I am constantly logging in and out of secured websites. (what good is having a fingerprint reader if it doesn’t work?) I first had to disable the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” option in the device manager. Even after disabling that option, the system STILL turns the fingerprint reader off when you get to about 10% battery life remaining. I’ll have to dig around the settings some more, but that’s a bit of an annoyance.

The box also includes a memory card reader (VGP-MCA20) that fits in the express card slot on the right side of the notebook. It reads XD/SD/MMC and of course, memory sticks. I’m puzzled as to why Sony decided to build a MS-only slot on the left instead of making this a multi-format card reader. I’m not complaining, but it would have been nice to have the express card slot still available AND have a multi-card reader instead of a MS-only slot…

Battery Life

Battery life was quite good, especially compared to my old ThinkPad T42. That model was a 1.5 gHz Centrino, and I could never get more than 2 hours from it, probably because of the 15.1” display. This unit gave me 4 hours and 15 minutes this morning on the “speed’ setting. Once it told me I had 10 minutes remaining, I switched into the “stamina” setting, and managed to squeeze another 30 minutes until it died. Honestly, I was not expecting this much batter life out of this unit, and am pleasantly surprised.

Other issues

When I boot up Windows, I notice that I get the sound that Windows makes when you remove a device (for lack of a better word, it’s the “ding-dong” sound). I’m not sure where this is coming from – I haven’t installed/removed any hardware. It’s not a major annoyance, but I’ll try to pin down the reason and update this if I find the cause.

Bottom line – if I had to do it over, I would buy this laptop again - especially for the price - $1899 from BestBuy, with a $299 3 year extended warranty that includes wear-and-tear replacement and a one-time battery replacement.

If anyone wants specific pictures from certain angles or of certain features/screen shots, let me know and I’ll do my best to accommodate any requests. I hope this helps all of you considering this laptop.

Javier

 

Excellent review, thanks for sharing!

 

javylsu, thanks for the review! i just have question. how much total video ram does the nvidia geforce go 7400 have? is it 128 or 256? and how much memory is dedicated because i know that its not all dedicated due to the turbo cache

 

Thanks very much for your review!
I'm gonna buy SZ!
I have a little question...
Did you get 3years extended warranty from Best Buy or Sony?

 

I wanted to add that this screen has what everyone calls "sparkles" on some laptops. If you are not sure what it is check out notebookforums. This is due to high resolution and smaller screen

 

klas - i'm very much looking forward to your review... I'm anxious to see how much of the same issues we end up commenting on.

Qwerty - if you (or anyone else) can tell me how to check for how much video RAM is on the system and/or dedicated, I would be glad to relay it you.

Chung1q - I got the 3 year warranty from BestBuy. I much preferred to buy this unit from a local store because the entire line is new, and as we're seeing, there are inevitably bugs to be worked out.

Also, klas is dead-on about the "sparkles" on the screen. At the local BestBuy tonight (I went AGAIN... ;p) they had the SZ next to the new FE series - and all I have to say is WOW, is that FE screen NICE. It is SO BRIGHT, CLEAR, AND VIBRANT. Easily the best LCD I have EVER SEEN. If that thing weren't so friggin HUGE, I would consider buying one, but I can't lug that thing around...

Javier

 

Javier

I see that you have a TP T42 before this unit. Can you give me a little comparasion between the two? I need a replacement unit for my T42 too...I am considering X60 or this new Sony (the premium model). Do you think the keyboard is THAT much worse from the TP or do you think you can get used to it from time to time? Also, I wanna ask a very noob question, what is keyboard flex exactly? Thank you!

 

Ah yes, my old ThinkPad T42... as far as build quality and keyboards go, that thing is legendary. The only reason I'm replacing it was that the motherboard got fried, and it's not worth it to me to replace it. It's actually on eBay right now for anyone interested in the parts...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8769508371&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

Anyway, the areas where my T42 fell short were 1) performance and 2) the LCD. My old T42 would take its time to boot, and despite being a competent 1.5 gHz Centrino, wasn't what I expected as far as speed and responsiveness goes. The LCD screen was dull, and was my biggest complaint. So, when it died, I decided that my next notebook would have a NICE screen. This new unit is definitely a step up, but as has been mentioned before, it's not the greatest display available, especially for a Sony. However, it remains WELL ahead of my old T42.

The Keyboard is really not that bad. There's some flex (when you press one key, the other keys around that key move, or "flex") but it's really not that bad. Again, I'm coming from a T42, and that keyboard is better than any DESKTOP computer I've ever used. I've been typing on this keyboard all week, and I've really gotten used to it. It's average, but it's a sacrifice that is well worth it when I consider everything else this notebook has.

Despite having a dimmer screen, the T42's battery life wasn't exceptional. This SZ unit I am finding, has excellent battery life, even when I run it on the "speed" video card setting. When running on the "stamina" setting, it feels like it runs forever...

I was also considering a T60, but IBM simply wants too much for the processor and features that I wanted, and I was scared that with the slight change in the chasis design, they would lose some of that T42/43 "magic." From the ThinkPad Z series I got my hands on at Office Depot, I was certainly NOT impressed. I was also VERY disapointed with IBM's tech support when I had to use them. It seems like they're hiring any 16 year old kid they can pull off the street in India. None of them could speak UNDERSTANDABLE english, and I had to waste time with level 1 tech support before I got someone who knew ANYTHING about computers at level 2 support. And again, I wanted a better display than I had before, so I wound up going with this VAIO. I had originally ordered a customized SZ140 from SonyStyle, but I wound up finding this unit MUCH cheaper at BestBuy and cancelled my SonyStyle order. If I had to do it again, I would, and the more I use the SZ, the more I like it.

Hope this helps!

 

any SZ owners here who plays games?

I wonder how well SZ runs games like Call of Duty 2, FEAR, and WOW...

 

A guy on another forum (who eventually returned his machine) said he was playing BF2 at medium settings with no problems at all. He liked it as a gaming machine.

 

Headed out to pick up my sz110 in about an hour. I will test out some games (Far Cry, UT2004, BF2, COD2, any requests) and post back later tonight.

 

Hey Javier, thanks a lot for your reply!! I think I will definitely give the Sony a try!! After all, it's kinda boring if I get another laptop that looks 90% the same as the one I had before but smaller in size (from T42 to X60). I had the same annoying experience with IBM tech support. They are not THAT good and I even filed a formal complain on some of them who were rude. In the end, they offered me 5% off a new unit...(I get the same discount anywas with educational).

Once again, thanks for the comparison!! and please, keep the reviews coming!!

 

Just got home with mine. I will do a clean install this evening. So far I am impressed with the laptop, even with all the Sony garbage installed. The screen is a definite step-down from my 700m. It doesn't even really look glossy, but, I can deal with it.

I have no problems with the keyboard. It does feel somewhat cheap but it is plenty functional.

Installing Call of Duty 2 now.

If anyone has any questions let me know and I will gladly answer them.

 

oh, yes, please, keep us info as I'm watching closely to the SZ! I'll go check it out in my local BestBuy/CompUSA tomorrow. I think I'm 80% sold for it. should be a decent step up from my 600m (P-M 1.8ghz/512MB/60GB 7k100 HDD). but still would like to see/read more reviews...

 

Does this laptop have bluetooth? I've been doing a lot of research on Sony laptops and have only discovered that the T and S series have bluetooth. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Yes, it has bluetooth.

Javier

 

Does the black lid catch on fingerprints easily like the earlier S-series? Might be getting one if it's not.

edit: Could anyone post 3DMark 2005 results? Want to know how the GeForce Go 7400 is compareable to the Mobility Radeon X1400.

 

No, the lid doesn't catch fingerprints AT ALL, as it almost feels like sandpaper - really cool textured surface. Also, I'm downloading 3DMark now, and I'll post results when finished.

Javier

 

got 1886 3dmark05 with original drivers and Super Pi set to 2M is 1m 24s

 

OK guys - I got a 3DMark score of 1888 and a SuperPi score of 1 minute 17 seconds, both with all original software/drivers.

Javier

 

Out of curiousity, I just ran 3DMark with the Intel video card enabled, and got a whopping 540. So, there's our proof that the switch does make a difference!

Javier

 

do you know where can we possibly get drivers for our SZs? i tried 83.90 from laptopdrivers2go but it seems to be incompatible

 

Thanks for the replies guysA The ASUS V6J (with the same GPU) gets 1915 3DMarks with its lower-end T2300 CPU. Is this indicitive of it having more video memory (128MB dedicated) than the Sony SZ?

 

have u tried getting drivers from sony website?

 

Try 83.50:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8891

The .inf lists the 7400 Go.

 

I tried it, but get the same error that it's not supported. Anyone else had luck with it?

 

I don't think there are really any "benckmarks" designed to measure "dual core" performance. So, benchmarking is primarily going to show differences in GPU performance regardless of wether the cpu is single or dual core.

FYI, my 120p scored a 1903 in 3dmark'05. Not really a big difference. The SZ's as far as I know, all have 128 video ram.

 

I have a VAIO FE11S with nvidia's Go GeForce 7400 card. Call of Duty 2 runs slow on it.. I have set it up to have sound and display of the best possible quality.

Is there anything I can to do to sort this out or am I still low on hardware requirements.

Thanks.

D.