New Sony SZ230P owner - impressions and questions

After going a few years without any notebook/laptop computers (and just using a PocketPC for portable needs) I finally found myself requiring a portable laptop once again. My initial requirements were simple: WinXP Pro, at least 1GB of RAM, and something that's really a laptop, and not a lugable. In other words, something small.

My initial purchase was an averatec 12" 2200 notebook. It was a good machine, but the first one I got kept freezing up (likely bad RAM.) The second one - which I had for 3 weeks - started having an issue with the display not initializing when it was powered off for more than a few hours. Being that I had purchased the averatec from Circuit City, my choices for exchange were limited to what they carried...

Enter the Sony SZ. The unit is larger, but still what I call a laptop/notebook. It actually seems lighter. The battery life is MUCH better. (The averatec gave me about 2 hours battery. The Sony gives me about 4 hours battery in Speed mode.)

Oddly, I think Averatec did a better job in display quality than Sony did... (when it worked at all.) I didn't have any light bleed from the cheaper unit, while the Sony has light bleed on the bottom.. not enough to distract - but enough to notice. Both are extremely usable at low backlight settings...

I prefer the Averatec synaptics touchpad DRIVER over what Sony is using, though I prefer the FEEL of the Sony provided touchpad. I only wish that the sony touchpad driver supported the concept of drag lock when reaching the edge of the pad (and not drag lock when I release.)

The intel wireless chip in the Sony is leaps and bounds better than the MSI (ralink chip) wireless in the Averatec. Completely ignoring the fact that the intel supports .a, the range of the intel is better. I don't know if this is a driver issue, hardware issue, arrangement of the internal antenna or what. Regardless, the Sony works better.

I wish there was a way to unplug this silly external antenna on the side of laptop. I have NO intention of EVER using EDGE WWAN access, and that antenna keeps getting snagged on stuff. I figure it'll eventually get broken off. At that point, I hope I can plug whatever hole it leaves.

Overall, I'm happy with the Sony machine. The machine performs single tasks slower than the averatec did, but multiple tasks faster (dual core...) Also, the Sony has a chance to play graphical games, while the cheaper unit could only handle games older than 8 years old or so. (The original Age of Empires from 1998 worked well on the averatec, but Bioware's Neverwinter Nights was impossible.)

So now my questions...

I notice that after the notebook has been in hibernate, the 802.11G won't reconnect to a WPA-PSK access point anymore. I keep getting errors that "Unable to load profile" or somesuch from the intel driver. Once I reboot, all is well. Has anyone else encountered this and found a solution?

The ACPI (software) battery meter when the unit is plugged in never seems figure out that the battery is fully charged. I often see "100% remaining (charging)" The hardware knows it's charged (the battery LED doesn't flash anymore) but it seems that the unit isn't getting that information to the WinXP ACPI drivers properly. Is this an issue on all these machines, or do I perhaps have a defective battery?

Sony has a bad habit of bundling too much stuff. I'm STILL not done uninstalling all the stuff they preinstalled "for me." Unfortunatly, there's nothing that seems to describe what is installed, and what it does, so I find myself running all these problems, spending 10 minutes digging in their help for a general description, before deciding that I really don't need 2 different media servers (a sony one AND a MS one.. its a notebook! Not a media server!)

Then there are the things I simply CAN'T uninstall. Seems that Sony installed two different things related to MS Office. One is a trial of office, which I promptly uninstalled. The other is called "Office 2003 Trial Assistant" which I can't make go away. The add/remove programs won't work (missing an MSI file) and I can't uninstall it otherwise. Oddly, Sony decided to install this trial thing in the \WINDOWS\ directory tree... Any help on this one?

Overall, I'm very happy with the notebook - assuming it still works great in a couple weeks, and I can finish uninstalling 2049329483 different useless things. (I STILL can't figure out why Sony would install TRIAL office software AND MS Works on the same machine... most people buying this notebook will already own a full version of MS Office...)

Take care
Gary

 

Keyboard: I don't have any problem with this keyboard. Yes, it's a "chiclet" type keyboard, but you really haven't have any other type of keyboard on something this thin and light. Otherwise, it works fine for me. I haven't had any problems with the spacebar outside of first getting used to another keyboard. At least Sony had the decency to put the backslash key over the ENTER key where it belongs... and I like having real navigation keys again (pgup/home/etc) instead of FN-arrow.

Build: This is funny.. when I first pick it up and carry it, it feels flimsy. This might be a simple illusion based on the unit being very thin and light-weight. When actually using it, however, the build quality seems good. In either case, I hate this flimsy antenna thing. I wonder if I could dremel it off....

biometric reader (fingerprint scanner): Having been using Pocket PC's for a few years - in particular HP/Compaq PPC's, I've become used to having one of these things. I only use it for logging on, but considering I have this thing requring a login any time the screen saver runs, screen blanks, or it goes into standby - the fingerprint scanner is a convienent feature... and likely more secure than typing passwords in plain view.

After reading this forum, I expected the unit to run cold. It doesn't. It does get warm after playing a game for an hour or so. On the other hand, it's not so warm that I have to take it off my lap.

Docking connector. Sony, did it ever occur to you that the edge of that little sliding door could have a notch so that it can hold itself closed? Granted, it's a small detail, but I expect something that costs this much to have the details right.

Ethernet/modem connector cover: This doesn't bother me at all. I generally only use wired ethernet when the unit is also plugged into the power adapter, and I haven't had any issue with the cover popping off. Yeah, it's kinda cheap looking, but it's better than the non-existant cover on other laptops, and I can't think of a better design which is feasible.

Camera: I didn't even know it had a camera until I got it home and was playing around. Based on my previous (non-existent) experience with laptop webcams, I can't really comment on this. At least it doesn't get in the way, and perhaps it'll be useful some day. Or not...

Missing: An old fashoined volumn DIAL or wheel of some kind. You know - so I can change the volume BEFORE windows is booted up and already blaring noise?

Take care
Gary

 

Thanks Gary for your input I will use it for my discission process!