S270 Review plus S SERIES GUIDE (pics)

The Guide Section could not be fit into this thread. The following link has the full post

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=1136091#post1136091

This is my first review/guide so please keep that in mind if you find my post lacking in any way. Thanks.

S270 Review-

The Choice-

Like many who are about to become college freshmans, I found myself in need of a laptop. To be honest, I knew absolutely ZIP about laptops at that time. My first stop was at dell after I heard about the $750 off coupon and without giving it a second thought, I purchased the Inspiron 6000 and soon returned it because of its weight, bulkiness, and mediocre performance and screen. Then, after a month of researching and comparing, I finally narrowed my choices to the s360 and the Asus w3v. Both were so evenly matched in my mind that I only chose the s360 because of its better touchpad.

The buying experience-

Now that I’ve decided on a computer, it’s time to actually buy it. As most of you know, the s360 went out of stock in most retailers a long time ago. I finally stumbled on a site called www.euclidcomputers.com that still had a few in stock. However, I saw that they had the s270 as well, which only varies from the 360 with a DVD RW drive, but has a slower CPU at 1.6 GHz and a smaller harddrive at 60 gigs. It was cheaper as well and without any more thought, I purchased the computer. The computer totaled to about $1620 after shipping and was tax free. It took only 3 days to arrive, which is incredible for Euclid computers.

First thoughts-

Even though the wait was short, I second guessed myself about this purchase right up till when the delivery man rang the doorbell. Then, I eagerly tore open the box and got my greedy little hands on my new laptop. From that point on, all doubts were dispelled. Here’s some quick specs-

Processor- Pentium M 725- 1.6 GHz
Display- 13.3 in TFT with XBright (glossy type)
Video- ATI mobility 9700
RAM- 1x512 MB Microdimm pc2700 ddr sdram
Harddrive- 60 gig 4200 rpm
Multimedia drive- DVD RW
Network- 2200 B/G internal wireless
Ports- 2x 2.0 USB, Audio, Microphone, Memory stick, port replicator, external monitor, PCMCIA, firewall
OS- Windows XP with SP 2



Design-

Just about everyone thinks this is one of the sexiest laptops and I would have to agree. The black exterior looks both sleek and professional and the shiny vaio letters add a touch of style to this already very decadent computer. Open it up and you’ll find yourself staring at a beautifully designed keyboard and touchpad. The sides are filled with the standard ports, but there are a few complaints here. First, there is no multicard reader. Second, the little cap for the USP ports looks very cheap and doesn’t fit in with the overall classy design.

Top View


Front View
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Right View

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Left View


Screen-



This is why most of us buy this laptop. This screen can go toe to toe with anything in the market today. There is virtually no flex, but the screen will ripple if you push very hard. DVDs come to life on the 1280x800 screen. I personally find that resolution too high for normal use so I lower it to 1024x768 while typing and web surfing. The brightness can be adjusted on 8 different levels and can easily be seen outdoors and indoors. No complaints here.

Sound-

Granted I am not picky about sound, you will be surprised at the quality of sound outputted by these 2 tiny speakers. I’ve watched Matrix Revolutions and Spiderman 2 on this computer with no external speakers and I must say that I am extremely pleased. Although the volume should not be pushed and bass is virtually nonexistent, I find it more than adequate for a laptop this size.

Keyboard/Touchpad-



I’ve been typing this review the entire time on the s270’s keyboard and although it’s a preference issue, I believe it to be the best laptop keyboard on the market (including IBMs). The depth of each key is more shallow than the IBM’s. I believe this feels more comfortable and helps me type faster, but that’s just me. Two S buttons on the very top can be customized to do various things like hibernate and mute. A wireless switch on the lower right hand corner is easy access to the wireless. My only complaint here is that the directional keys are undersized, which makes games like Underground Racing 2 difficult. Of course, you can customize those controls to use other keys.

Like I said before, the touchpad was the only thing that tipped me over the edge into buying this laptop. I hate using a mouse during class because the desks are so small and there’s absolutely no place to even put the mouse. Simply taking out the notebook and being ready to go is very important to me and the touchpad delivers here. The touchpad itself is very sensitive and does not need to be pressed very hard on. The 2 buttons on the bottom make very little noise when clicked so other people won’t be bothered. No complaint here

Battery Life-

I must say that this is where the s270 falls short of my expectations. Right out of the box, the battery life was a little more than 2 hours, which really bothered me since I was expecting at least 4. However, like all computers, there was hope. With Centrino hardware control (undervolting cpu, dynamic switching, and underclocking gpu and lowest screen brightness), I got the battery life all the way to a little over 5 hours.

Heat-

YES, despite what people say, there is still a heat issue with the s270. Without centrino hardware control, this thing gets scalding when playing games and running demanding apps like 3dmarks. When I opened up the laptop to apply artic silver, I found the thermal tape completely melted! However, with CHC and Arctic Silver 5, idle temperatures dropped to 43 degrees, but still gets hot when gaming.

3dmarks-

3dmark03 on this laptop right out of the box was around 2600. Yes, I was disappointed as well since I was expecting around 3k, but there was still hope. After a fresh install of windows with bloatware removal and the latest modded 5.7 cat drivers, the 3dmarks jumped to about 2800. Then I ordered 1 gb of ram from ebay and with that, the 3dmarks went to about 2950. Finally, with overclocking at 430/230, the 3dmarks went to about 3200. Also, I bought the new hitachi 7k60 off ebay and installed it myself (great sense of self satisfaction LOL ), but suprisingly, no increase of 3dmarks.

Actual Gaming-

I mainly used Battlefield 2 as my benchmark while testing this computer. After installed the 5.7 Cat drivers and at 512 mb of ram, BF2 at lowest settings and lowest resolutions was averaging at 60fps!! I was suprised as heck, but the second the resolution was bumped, fps dropped to about 20-24 with 512 mb of ram. After I upgraded ram to 1.5 gigs, the game was playable at highest resolution, 2x AA, some medium settings with dynamic shadows and dynamic lighting turned off (averaging 25-30 fps). Finally, with the new 7200 rpm hitachi HDD installed, the game was playable at same setting with 35-40 fps.

CPU-

At 1.6 GHz, my cpu is actually slower than the stock s360’s CPU, but for me, it is fast enough, because I use dynamic switching and it's underclocked most of the time anyways. With superpi, I calculated 2 million digits in 2 minutes flat, which isn't dissapointing.

Final thoughts-

I LOVE THIS COMPUTER! The only major flaw I can think of is the heat and I think of that as a challenge. Tweaking the CPU, underclocking the graphics card, and doing all the other great stuff really helped me learn a lot. Anyways, enough about my computer, lets go onto the guides (in the first link).

 

nice...pretty nice review ..and does the screen have too much of a glare there??..or is it easy to view the screen very clearly??

mods-could u move it to the "notebook news and reviews" section??..i think it should belong there

 

yeah, i guess i should move this there. screen is great. havent seen a better one yet. Not too much glare. Way less than the 700m.

 

Your duplicate and triplicate threads were deleted, you better re-add the link here.

 

yea...i see now

 

sorry, would have deleted this and the one on mods if I knew how. Anyways, just readded here. plus, do you know anyway to get the full review onto notebookreview? Thanks

 

hey, nice job sir! shoot me an email and I'll give you instructions as to how we can put it on the front of the site

abaxter at notebookreview.com

 

ok, sent the whole article

 

Does the S 270 has the DVD recorder? is it dual layer? Is it better than the S460? Where did you buy your HD?

 

The s270 is the customizable version of the s360. It can come with a DVD burner, which is the one I got. No, it is not dual layer since this thing came out a few years ago. The harddrive I bought off ebay, which is the only place that has the 7k60 in stock and at a reasonable price. It is comparable to the s460 and the slight differences are preference issues.

 

mysngoterased,
what about the fan noise in office applications and under heavy load? What is the casing and the back cover of the display made of? Is it magnesium?

The bigger Vaios which I have seen in the shop were not looking impressive.

 

Fan noise is medium. It's definitely louder than my dad's vaio A290, but A LOT quieter than my protege 7200. The casing is like all new Vaios (same material as the large A series). Take a look for yourself. most pple are impressed