Please Tell Me About Your VAIO TX750

I have been looking at this computer for a long time and finally picked one up last week because CompUSA was offering a $300 rebate. However, I haven't even opened the box because if I do, I won't be able to return it without paying a restock fee. What I've been trying to do is find some user reviews to help make my mind up, but there are not many around. So I found this place and hope someone here can help me.

One of my main concerns is battery life. Real-world battery life. Sony's statement of 4-7.5 hours is a little vague.

Also, it only has a 1.2GHz processor and 512MB RAM. My main uses for this laptop will be word processing, listening to music, watching DVD's... no gaming or internet. So maybe 1.2GHz and 512MB RAM is enough?

The processor is listed as "low voltage". Is that for battery life? Will Core Duos and Core2 Duos eat more power than the Centrino, thus making it a mistake to wait for those to fall to a reasonable price.

Finally, how is it getting used to the size? Is it difficult to adjust to the smaller-than-standard keyboard. I'm small so I'm hoping this won't be a problem.

Thanks for any and all comments/suggestions.

 

I'm pretty sure it'll be more than enouogh for word processing, music, and dvds.
Core duo and core2 duo IS centrino.
Centrino is basically just a name given notebook processors
"Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology"
and theres the regular intel centrino mobile technology.

Low voltage processor just means... it uses less voltage. Less power = less heat, more battery, and of course, slower processor.

as for the notebook itself, I've only seen and tested the ones out on display at costco. It's really really small. The keyboard seemed huge in comparison to the laptop itself.
as for the battery life, I haven't had first hand experience, but if you've read the reviews, they all had positive results with an easy 5+ hours.

I was thinking about purchasing the TX, but I found the SZ to be a better fit for me. The TX had the upperhand in size and battery life, but the SZ was a lot cheaper, with a more powerful processor, bigger display, and a carbon chassis. The SZ can fit in my binder, which I thought was more than small enough for me.
Depends on the consumer though. If you need the smaller size, and don't need the more powerful processor, the tx is also a nice machine.

 

Low Voltage means it is a special version of the CPU that uses lower voltage and thus less power. Only the Core Solo has a ULV version right now. Core Duo and Core2 Duo both are regular versions which will use more power than Centrino ULV.

In my experience you really do get 5+ hrs of usage. I usually get more like 6-7 hrs, by configuring the advanced power settings. I turn off modem, i.link, and dvd drive when on battery because I don't really use them most of the time. If you press eject, it will turn on the DVD drive automatically so no big loss to have DVD turned off, you can still play DVDs very easily.

I would suggest you upgrade the RAM to 1GB. The graphics processor is a shared memory style integrated unit so it will use system memory for graphics operations. Somewhere between 128-224MB can be allocated to graphics, leaving less for you application. You can pretty much use any DDR2 SODIMM memory, PC3200, PC4300, PC5300, etc. I just took a PC4300 512MB stick I had leftover from upgrading a Dell E1705 and it works great. You can probably get 2nd hand Dell sticks for $20-$30 on ebay. Dell has pretty decent memory that is quite reliable, just like Kingston.

Regarding DVDs, I can play DVDs and web browse at the same time without skipping so I think it is plenty power for your needs.

Regarding the keyboard, it really depends on the individual. I've been using ultra-portables for many years so it was no problem for me to get used to the TX keyboard. As far as ultra-portables go, it was actually one of the better keyboards. I used to use a Panasonic ultra-portable. The only time I have slight problems is when I immediately switch from my Dell E1705 full-size keyboard, it takes around 2-3 minutes to get used to the smaller keyboard. By "get used" to I mean pressing the surrounding buttons for enter and arrows.

For most people the standard battery will last all day (light usage, no compiling or heavy computation stuff). If you get the large battery, I can pretty much guarantee this thing will last all day for 99% of the people. I played around 8 90minute DVDs draining the large battery, which is around 12 hours. Light usage will probably last more like 13-15hrs. The large battery does make the unit more bulky for travelling as there is a half inch high section that is below the level of the standard battery, but it also serves to tile the keyboard at a very nice angle for typing.

Overall I'm quite happy with the TX750. There is a TX850 out which changes to Core Solo ULV at same MHz and also adds fingerprint biometric, 1GB memory standard, and 3945 (vs 2200) Intel wireless, but it loses the WWAN (cingular edge). If you don't use WWAN, just get the TX850. If you use WWAN but don't like EDGE networks, then wait for VGN-TXN15PB which will basically be TX850 with Sprint EVDO Rev A integrated.

In my case I chose the TX750 because they are selling at lower prices right now and I had the 512MB stick lying around collecting dust. Also I prefer the Cingular EDGE because I have another TX750 and if I ever use EDGE, it uses a SIM card and I can have one account but share between 2 machines by swapping the SIM card. For EVDO Rev A, they don't use SIM cards on CDMA so I prefer to get the PCMCIA card which I can swap easily.

Some people comment the fan is on all the time, and in certain configs it can be, but even at its loudest, it doesn't really bother me. At its loudest it is probably the level of the whirring from a 7200RPM desktop harddrive except it is less of a whine sound and more of a fan blowing air sound. At its lowest (ie when it turns itself off) there is no noise at all.

Overall I'm quite happy with the unit, especially after I figured how to get the integrated SD card reader to read my 4GB Transcend 150x SD card that I use in my camera.

 

jesus... how much ram do you need? typing up documents and watching movies.
I play music, watch dvd's, type up word documents, browse internet, use photoshop, compile, and more, on 256 ram. (until I get my sz of course)
and my pf usage has never gone past 500. Its usually at around 230 with only firefox running.
As long as you have a clean system, without a ton of bloatware on your startup, I doubt you need the extra 512 mb ram.

 

I appreciate very much the time you have both taken to provide such informative responses to my post. If I may, I have a question or two for each of you...

jihoon - I thought at first that you already had your SZ but then your second post implies that you don't have it yet. Is that the one with the 13.3 screen size? And what's the rated battery life for that model? If I'm thinking of the same one, that one is about 4 pounds, correct?

sfhub - thanks for the info on how you are achieving the 5+ hrs of battery life. I did figure that if anything, I'd likely upgrade the ram and it sounds like that would be pretty easy considering the varied possibilities. I have some desktop RAM laying around but no laptop RAM so I'd have to buy. The larger battery would be a nice addition too except for the fact that it's so expensive ($300, isn't it?) If I do end up keeping the 750, I probably will start saving my nickels for it.

As far as the 850 goes, that one does sound nice too. Do you know if its battery life is comparable to the 750?? I'm way behind the times when it comes to internet connections. I just recently upgraded from dial-up to DSL! Going wireless isn't something I'm looking to do at all so that aspect of the machine won't sway me.

One final question... why wouldn't your SD card be recognized? I, too, use SD cards, although mine are no where near that size. How big of a card would it recognize before you tinkered with it?

Thanks again for all your help.
If anyone else reading this has something they'd like to add, I'd sure like to hear it. Please chime in.

 

There is a glut of DDR2 SODIMM memory from all the Dell folks upgrading their gaming rigs to 2GB keeping down memory prices. Right now 512MB is a very cheap upgrade, around $30, too little to merit long discussion.

I also use photoshop and in my experience it is a pig. It loves to eat memory up, especially with high megapixel images and it slows to a crawl when your machine has to page a lot.

I don't compile on the TX very often, but on my Dell, c++ compiles love to eat memory for the symbol tables which can get quite large for big projects.

Regardless $30 is so little it isn't worth arguing about either way. Basically just keep in mind 128MB on the TX is used up for graphics shared mem so you have system memory comparable to a 384MB system with dedicated graphics card. (I was wrong early about 128-224MB, this particular Intel graphics chipset is preconfigured for 128MB max when using 512MB or higher)

 

If you decide to upgrade RAM, just search ebay for dell ddr2 sodimm. You should find several entries and usually you can get them for around $30 for a single 512MB stick.

One option with the larger battery is to use third party that will run you around $120-$130 on ebay. The one thing is Sony has a runtime process that checks to see if you are using genuine Sony batteries and hibernates your system if it doesn't detect genuine batteries. The workaround is very simple, just disable the startup process called ISBMgr.exe. The runtime check for Sony batteries will then be disabled and you can use third party batteries. Search on ebay for VGP-BPL5 or VGP-BPS5 depending on which battery (extended of standard) you are interested in.

850 battery life is probably around 10-15% better than 750 battery life.

Regarding SD cards, the SD card reader, using Sony drivers will read 1GB (and maybe 2GB, I didn't test 2GB), however 4GB SD cards require FAT32 support in the SD driver. The SD spec does not officially include FAT32 support, so many builtin card readers will not read 4GB SD cards. If you search on Google you will see many references to this problem. Sony's builtin SD card reader suffers from the same problem, however by loading just released HP drivers for the TI PCIxx21 media reader chipset, I was able to use my 4GB SD card with no issues.

If you are interested in 4GB SD cards, there is a reference guide at Patriot Memory systems that is a summary of which devices support 4GB:
http://www.patriotmem.com/support/flashCompatp.jsp

 

I have had the 750 for a little less than a month now. I was going to buy an SZ at first but when I saw that the 750 was on sale at CompUSA I grabbed it. I only do word processing on this machine with some web surfing and of course DVD watching; no gaming! I thought I would have problems with the tiny font size but as it turns out my eyes have been able to adjust to it. The only thing I don't like about this machine is the long time it takes to boot up. A full charge of the batt last me all day and then some. Good luck with yours, i'm having a blast with mine!

 

Click Here

Finally added the Core Solo TX to the website (Top 2)

 

Well, I took it back... the 750, that is. I did some hard thinking and some more searching around the internet and decided that the 850 would be better for me. Better processor, more RAM (I know upgrading the 750 would have been cheap) and better battery life (up to 11hrs vs up to 7.5hrs)

Plus, once you added tax (not to mention the fact that they dropped the price by $100 the day after I bought it) it ended up being $1900 (after rebate) anyway. If I'm a bit more patient, I think I can get an 850 for close to that before too long.

One question that puzzles me... why isn't the 850 on the Sony site?

Thanks to everyone for your input. You have really helped me out.

 

It is on the sony website, just in the business section. The consumer version is the txn.

tx850
http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/VGN-TX850P/B

txn
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INT...tegoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_TXSeries

 

Try running bootvis

It should cut some seconds off the startup time.

Other than that, try using hibernate instead of shutdown.

 

I have 2 questions:

1. What is Bootvis and how do I run it?


2. Does hibernate drain the battery at all?

 

bootvis is an unofficial boot optimization tool from MSFT. Google search.

Hibernate uses *zero* battery. All memory contents are saved to disk and then power is turned off, same as if you powered down. Only difference is when you turn the system on, it knows to load memory contents from hibernate file instead performing full boot.

 

Just a quick update...

Yes, thank you. I found the 850 in the "Business" section. It looked identical to the txn.

Anyway, I went ahead and ordered my 850. It should be here on Monday. I'll post a review after getting it.

 

The TX850 is kinda the early version of the TXN's. All it lacks is the built in SPRINT EVDO. Other than that you're golden!

 

Thank you, nixon! I am chomping at the bit for my new baby to arrive!

This will be my first Sony. All of my other notebooks have been Compaqs (three previous, one current). In shopping around, I found that no other brand offered anything that could touch this Ultra-Portable with its super light weight and incredibly long battery life... the two most important features for me. It was expensive, but I'm confident it will end up being well worth it.

Stay tuned...