SZ110 initial impressions

Preliminary review
Updated: 2/26/06

3dmark05 with original drivers: 1886

Super Pi Calculations set to 2.0M

Sony SZ110B (1.83 Ghz Core Duo) 1m 24s
IBM ThinkPad X41 (1.50 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 2m 02s
Dell Latitude X1 (1.1 GHz ULV Pentium M) 2m 40s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 45s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 48s
IBM ThinkPad T41 (1.6GHz Banias Pentium M) 2m 23s
Compaq R3000T (Celeron 2.8GHz) 3m 3s
Dell Inspiron 600m (1.6 GHz Dothan Pentium M) 2m 10s
Dell Inspiron 8600 (1.7GHz Banias Pentium M) 2m 28s



Screen: 8.5/10
This SZ screen is somewhat a disappointment for me. I own two other laptops that were a lot cheaper and I expected the screen on Sony to be better, unfortunately it's not the best I've seen from Sony. The only good thing about it are viewing angles.

After using it for 2 days, I am getting used to the screen, so it's no longer an issue

Here are some negative points

-Light Leakage on the bottom (-.5)
-Seems like it has dark corners (-.5)
-Whites are not as white as on other displays (-.5) - "Sparkly" display

Keyboard: 7.5/10
Keyboard is second thing that I am not so pleased about it. As a lot of people been reporting it has cheap feeling to it when you type on it. It looks and feels something that would be on a $400 computer from Wal-Mart. Some flex is present, but not much. Despited that I think it's something that we can all get used to and ignore.

Touchpad 9/10
I like the touchpad, I don't like the location. It's not centered and causing me to press it accidentaly when typing with my palm.

Build Quality: 9.5/10
This is where the notebook shines. It feels like a solid built notebooks with only a few quirks
- Flimsy Lan/Modem cover which easily comes off
- When something inserted into USB port the plug will jiggle
- Battery rattling (worse then on any other laptops I've ever owned) Solution: Take a business card cut it out in small pieces and fold in two. Works like a charm
- Speaker grill is uneven on the right hand side, feels like a small bump.

Heat 10/10
- It runs amazingly cool in comparison to my Turion Compaq V2000z. The keyboard/palmrest never gets even warm, the bottom part is slightly warm, but it's far from unbareable.

Noise 9.5/10
It's noiser then my other two laptops and I hear a lot of weird unusual sounds, but nothing that would hurt my ears. I live in downtown and I am used to noise outside so this is definetely nothing to worry about.

Battery Life 9.5/10
Charging seems to take longer than on Compaq or Fujitsu, but battery life is a lot better
Here is what Windows battery meter reports when using Stamina mode:

wireless off/brightness is at the lowest - 5:16 mins - battery is at 99%
wireless on/brightness is at the lowest- 4:22 mins - battery is at 98%
wireless on/brightness at the highest - 3:04 - battery is at 97%

Actual tests allowed me to use the computer for about 4 hours with brightness set to low and wireless on during general use

Little things that matter:
Another thing I noticed that became a slight inconvinience is that the power cable is shorter than any other laptop power cables I've owned and the powerbrick is a lot bigger.
continued...

I think it's a little overpriced for what you get... but there is nothing else that has the same specs in a attractive & small package. Until something else comes out Sony is the leader right now

 

For those interested, I've posted a quick review here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1271748&postcount=13

Javier

 

wow, you really summed it all up, almost EXACTLY what were my thoughts about it. (Great minds think alike ) I will still be working on a complete review, once I reinstall Windows XP Pro

 

Does it look like the hard drive is easily accessible?

 

oh man i feeel so jealous
what more can i ask ?

superb battery life
no heat issue whatsoever.
no fan noise or any other.
superb design
super lcd
Super performance
Superlight

Man i fear there is no cons beside the pricing but for that price i think this is a must have laptop.

 

Nice picture. Looking at that you would think the Sony screen was as good as the Compaq one.

Did you get the stamina/speed switch to work after your clean install? Seems like that would be all in hardware not software- Just flip the switch and reboot. Let me know, it's the last thing preventing me from doing a clean install right now.

 

I saw one today. I thought that it was solid, but not the best Sony screen. It appeared that when you change the graphics card, you are asked to reboot the system. I did not notice any heat, and the store was noisy.

 

Honestly, compaq maybe a little brighter with slightly better whites, but angles are not as good as on sony. Also, compaq is too glossy which causes a lot of reflection. Still the best screen I have is Fujitsu.

as far as the switch you will be fine. Mine works great, except I don't get any prompt (only got it once and it doesn't show anymore) to restart the computer. So you just flip a switch, the light wouldn't change though right away, only after you manually restarted the PC.

 

klas- After your clean install how did you get the mouse touchpad control panel back? I'm not getting the advanced settings.

 

actually I haven't installed that yet... I will try it tomorrow. I am just curious how do I get other things to work now... Biometric scan, get newest video drivers and possibly get the stamina/speed prompt to work

 

ok it works

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNSZ140&upd_id=1993&os_id=7

 

I got an older driver/control panel to work. I will definitely give this a try in a minute.

I have the biometric scan working if you need any help.

 

yeah, let me know how did you get biometric scan to work please

 

For newer video drivers check www.laptopvideo2go.com

 

wonder how the new sz screen compare to the old S ?

 

checked my friend's Dell m700 and even on a cheapo Dell screen is nicer.

 

weird, i tried that site couple of days ago and it wouldn't let me to download stuff, now it works. However, after downloading 83.90 driver I cannot get it installed, says it's incorrect version. Can someone else try it? btw I did get biometric scan to work. I just forgot to install software for it

 

klas-

Which part are you stuck on for the Fingerprint Module? There are several dependices it looks like. I followed this order (got it off the Sony site) and everything seemed to work out ok.

BIOS update (if available)
Intel® Chipset (if applicable)
Sony Notebook Control (if applicable)
Sony Programmable I/O (if applicable)
Sony Shared Library
Video
Audio
Modem
Network
Wireless
MPEG
Memory Stick®
Memory Stick Registry
UPEK TouchChip Fingerprint Coprocessor
Infineon® Trusted Platform Module
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse utility
SmartWi™ Utility
Cingular Connection Utility
WWAN driver
Any other Sony Utilities

The only other thing I can't get working is the camera utility. I believe it allowed adjustments to color, contrast, etc. and allowed picture frames around the images when snapping them. Did you get this working again after a clean install?

 

i got the biometric scan to work, so the only thing I need is to update video drivers

 

super lcd? what are you talking about? did you even read his review?

 

yeah, it's far from being super, but nice anyway... btw, I've updated battery life in my review

 

by any chance are you klas a game player. i am not buying this laptop for games but if it has the option of playing them well it would be great...especially to justify the cost.

In australia the 2 models are ridiculous for their cost, people from europe and US consider urseves lucky....asia pacific got shafted!

 

I used to be a gamer for 10 years, but it changed couple of years ago... I will download Call of Duty 2 demo in an hour to give it a try, but I heard it plays games just fine...

 

Call of Duty 2 runs pretty bad (~20 fps) for me. The odd thing is that everything else runs great- UT2004, Tribes Vengeance, Battlefield 2, Halo, Madden 2006, Counter Strike Source.

 

Sorry, double post.

 

just played some Call of Duty 2 demo and it's been fun... laptop got slightly warmer on the bottom, and just a little warmer where the speakers are, but nothing crazy like Compaq V2000Z with Turion. I agree that game was a little laggy when a lot of action was going on, but overall it's been very playable. I didn't get this laptop for gaming, so it's not a big deal for me.

 

The best part is that when gaming the palm rests don't get even remotely warm. Very nice.

 

I am loving it... just to get the video drivers updated and we are good to go

 

thanks klas and flashram....just what i needed to know plays them well for the odd time here and there...mainly using this for its portability and the good specs...premium model being released in Asia Pacific in hong kong 7th march gonna get it from ther instaed of australia...i can get it with 2GB ram included for cheaper than standard premium in AUS with only 512 RAM!!

AUD$3300 for 1.83ghz 2 GB ram, and the works ie bitometric camera, premium case etc

about US$2300

cant wait especially after all the initial rolercoaster seems u guys are pretty happy with it

 

Anybody try the dual core patch for Call of Duty 2? I bet that would kill the lag.
http://www.callofduty.com/patch_cod2/
I don't know if it is a safe download or not-install at your own risk.

 

i only have demo

 

I noticed no difference with the patch. Still averaged around 20 fps with it. Every other game I've tried has been great.

 

Wow, I thought there would have been more of an improvement! My 2.0ghz Sz140 should be here tomorrow or Wednesday, so I'll get to experiment myself. Thx for trying the patch

 

How's the built-in cam and microphone? I travel quite a bit and the addition of these built-in would be a huge plus. Are they quality components? I may have to upgrade from my s560!

mike
http://www.mwang.org

 

quality is not so great for video cam, mic is decent enough, but I haven't done any testing, just on IM

 

Hey Flash

Out of curiosity what resolution did you have Call of Duty 2 on? Did you have all the effects turned on? Thx

 

I lowered pretty much every setting I could. I ran it at 1024x768, 800x600, and 640x480. 640x480 gave better frame rates of course, but it looked so bad I wouldn't even want to bother with it.

 

I have had my SZ-160 since Monday and have had a week to play around with it. Following are some comments. I have owned several laptops over a number of years including HP, IBM Thinkpads and Sony.

-The screen is nice. It is extremely bright and there are no problems with lack of color uniformity. I have the thinner carbon fiber model and it seems at least as sturdy if not more so than the standard model (which I played with at CompUsa).

-The keyboard is OK. Not great - it can be gotten used to. It has some flex and the travel is 3mm which is deep for a laptop and feels different. In general it doesn't really have a solid feel, but it is not a deal breaker. The FE model seems to have a better keyboard so I must surmise that the differences are due to weight reduction. It is not cramped at all. IBM Thinkpads have much better keyboards.

-The machine is quite light and reasonably well built. It seems sturdy - certainly not as well built as IBM or HP, but I have no serious complaints. I expected a comprimise given the weight. The battery does jiggle on the back as reported. It's not a Thinkpad or a HP - so get the warranty coverage. Sony has a (well deserved) reputation for failures and bad service. I bought this machine for the features despite this.

-Styling is nice. It is sleek - latching mechanism is nice.

-Battery life is not what is advertised. I am consistently getting 3-3.5 hours with the standard battery and a little over 5 with the extended battery. I am not doing anything special - mostly surfing with wireless on right now. I don't know if this is the USB bug - but the bottom line is that this machine doesn't live up to the hype with battery life. I have the LED backlight which should increase the life by an hour -> NOT.

-The fan noise is loud. I have read through these forums and I see many people saying how quiet this machine is and I cannot understand this. In a cafe or in a store - you cannot hear the fan at all. At home with minimal ambient noise - the fan is very noticeable and it oscillates between speeds. I have changed the settings to the "Quiet" setting to no avail. All of my IBM Thinkpads are essentially silent in comparison to this machine at its lowest fan setting. I am considering returning it for this reason alone. If you are used to working and concentrating in a quiet environment - this is a big distraction. If anyone has any tips on this - I would appreciate it!

-Webcam as a feature is nice, but this one is lousy. It points too high and performs poorly under low light conditions. This is not a nitpick as I have a lot of experience with webcams and it is far worse than ANY of the various webcams I have - even those costing very little.

-The ExpressCard/34 media reader is a nice addition but has flaws. It doesn't read newer 4G SD cards. It would have been nice if they just made the Memory Stick port a multireader. Also note that the ExpressCard port won't work with the ExpressCard/54 format which is where the video tuners cards that are not simple ports will come.

-Wireless reception is mediocre. Most access points that read as medium or higher with my Thinkpad come up low on the Vaio.

-Bluetooth works nicely. Mouse and headset so far without a hitch.

===
All noise and battery comments above apply to "Stamina" mode and with fan settings to quietest.
===

All in all this is the lightest, fastest machine in it's class right now. As far as an overall experience it's a bit dissapointing. For such an expensive machine you would expect Sony to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed and leave you with an overall satisfied feeling. This machine is not that. It's a matter of deciding if the noise, mediocre keyboard, moderate battery life, and other issues are worth having a light, fast, stylish machine.

 

That's too bad about the webcam. I guess I'll have to survive with an external one. Does anyone have a suggestion on a good one for a notebook?

mike
http://www.mwang.org

 

Glad my sz110 isn't noisy. You are the first person I've heard say their sz is loud.

 

The internal fan is always on. I may have overstated the issue by calling it "loud" but the fan noise is always audible in a quiet environment. This is not the case for many other notebooks where the fan only comes on for brief instances or the lowest "on" mode is so quiet as not to be heard.

 

as far as the fan goes I can tell that it's not noisy, but it's always on. I have Compaq v2000z & Fujitsu S6231 both have fans that turn on/off, they do not run constantly like SZ does which makes them quieter, but Sony has an advantange for not getting hot underneath and it doesn't get nearly as loud even if you are playing games for a while.