Sony Vaio NW Review

Sony Vaio NW Review

The Sony Vaio NW is a 15.5” widescreen notebook recently released onto the market. It’s a budget machine, but you get a big bang for your buck. Currently, there is not a Configure-to-Order option available; you have to select from preconfigured machines. Nonetheless, all the current configurations offer just about as much processing power as a relatively demanding user would want, with Intel Core 2 Duo processors, option for discrete graphics, etc. Consumers looking for an inexpensive 15” notebook with great features should give this a serious look, although those that require lengthy battery times might be turned off. In general though, this is a great multimedia machine.

There are several preconfigured options available on sonystyle.com, and other configs are available in retail stores such as Best Buy and Staples. Retail stores usually have cheaper versions but they come with integrated graphics, whereas online the configurations offered all have ATI discrete graphics.

My configuration:

Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 2.0GHz, 3MB L2 cache, FSB 1066MHz (Centrino 2)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit (a free upgrade to Windows 7 is available)
Splashtop Linux Browser for Instant-On access to the web
15.5” 1366x768 glossy widescreen display (WXGA)
0.3MP MotionEye webcam and built-in microphone
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 Graphics (512MB)
Blu-Ray ROM/DVD-RW/CD-RW, Dual Layer
4GB DDR2 RAM, 800MHz
400GB 5,400rpm HDD
Intel 5100 AGN WiFi
Gigabit Ethernet
Dimensions: 14.6” x 1.2” x 9.8”
6-cell battery (an extended battery is available separately)
5.8lbs
Price: $999.99

A cheaper configuration is available at $849.99, but you’ll forgo the Blu-Ray drive and the Centrino 2 processor, and you get a smaller hard drive.

Build Quality and Design:





Sony has adopted a unique design for this notebook, etching a wood-like texture into the plastic casing. The effect is a ripply, wavy appearance. Some people might be turned off by this design, but I am not bothered by it, and in addition, this design resists fingerprints. In addition, this pattern is only visible from up close; stand a few meters away and most people could never tell. There are three color options, but my configuration only comes in birch white; other configurations will give you walnut brown, birch white, and silver rattan.

The lid is latchless and is held closed by hidden magnets, which work well and hold the lid firmly closed. The notebook requires two hands to open. The keyboard sits in a small depression, slightly below the level of the palmrest and speakers. This makes for a more ergonomical typing experience. Also, the entire palmrest section of the notebook is slimmer than the rest – the bottom slopes away at the keyboard where the CPU, GPU, and other components are housed. The best way to understand this is to see a picture of it – see the picture of the underside below.

Sony advertises that the chassis is constructed from recycled plastics. I’m not so sure that it’s a smart idea to make that one of the notebook’s selling points, but I have no qualm about the durability of the notebook. The keyboard trim and palmrest all show slight flex under pressure, and for normal use you won’t notice any of it. The screen bezel is probably the weakest part – it just isn’t even close to being stiff, and pressing it down can cause slight ripples in the screen. The lid itself flexes too, both vertically and when applying torsion. However, it does not cause any ripples either, and contrary to popular belief, some flex is good as it protects the screen from shattering if you drop it. The area under the optical drive also flexes, but this is common for many notebooks nowadays. Other parts on the bottom are quite firm. In conclusion, the build quality can’t match that of the Macbook Pros, but few notebooks can, and for a plastic notebook it is quite good.

Sony makes it easy to upgrade common components in the notebook. The hard drive is located directly underneath the right palmrest (see lower left of the picture below), and there is a dedicated cover for that which only required two screws to be removed to replace the hard drive (I just replaced mine two days ago). RAM is also easy to upgrade – I believe that it is housed in the center compartment, but as I haven’t opened it up I can’t be sure. As Sony included 4GB of RAM, you probably won’t ever need to add more RAM. The computer does support DDR3 RAM due to the FSB speed of the processor, but in practice you won’t feel a huge difference.



Screen and Speakers

The 1366x768 widescreen is decent. I am no expert when judging colors, contrasts, etc., but I saw no major problem with the screen, and I bet that most people won’t either. The screen can get plenty bright and very low too, so there is a setting for everyone. However, there are only 8 different brightness settings – you don’t get the 0-100% options that many monitors now include. 8 should be sufficient for most people though. One great thing about this notebook is the “Display Off” button, which allows you to shut off the display whenever you want to save power and/or battery. Viewing angles are fairly good.. There’s no problem viewing straight on, but the screen begins to blur at around 45 degrees and color inversion kicks in at 70-80 degrees. Viewing angles depend heavily on whatever color the display is showing, so for example, while editing this post, someone sitting next to me could easily see what I'm doing, but not as much so when I'm watching a movie in a dark scene.The display uses Sony’s X-Brite Eco technology, which is supposed to save battery life by (quoting LaptopMag) “using one backlight instead of two”.

Speakers are OK. They don’t get that loud and there is a complete lack of bass. Loud sounds are rather tinny, although I did not hear any distortion. Sound is very clear though. I would definitely recommend a set of headphones for watching movies, as that would save battery life too. For basic internet videos though, the speakers will suffice. There is a Mute button located above the keyboard too, but no touch sensitive media controls. Volume controls are mapped as Fn secondary commands above the F3 and F4 keys.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is excellent. I have never used an isolation (chiclet) style keyboard much before, but I definitely like it. Spacing is great and key travel is deep. The keyboard is very comfortable and also very quiet – nothing like the clacky Dell keyboards I’ve been used to using. The Fn key is thankfully located to the right of the Control key. There are also dedicated Page Up/Down, Home, and End keys. Keyboard flex is virtually nonexistent.

The touchpad has a textured surface and it is quite comfortable to use, although at first I found that my fingers would sometimes stop moving due to the friction caused by the raised bumps. I got used to it though, and then I had no problem. The right and bottom sides are scroll regions (they aren’t marked on the touchpad), and if you’d like, you can turn them off in the touchpad settings. That’s probably why it isn’t marked. The left side can be used as a zoom function, but you already have zoom keys mapped to secondary functions. There is no built in multitouch function, but in Windows, you don’t really have much use for it anyways.

Less good things can be said about the touchpad buttons. They are stiff and offer shallow throw – they require a bit of effort to push down, although it’s not entirely uncomfortable. On the other hand, they are big and easy to locate. Sony even made these keys raised above the surface of the touchpad, a nice design touch.

Ports

Port selection is decent on this machine. You get three USB ports, VGA, HDMI (only with ATI graphics), ExpressCard/34, Firewire 400(I think it’s 400), Gigabit Ethernet, Kensington lock slot, headphone jack, and microphone jack. There is also an SD card and a MagicGate Pro media card reader. The wireless on/off switch is located at the front of the notebook. Because of the way the screen opens, there are no ports on the back. Disappointingly, there is no eSATA port, something that is becoming increasingly common to notebooks nowadays. I also wish there were more USB ports, though admittedly, it would have been tough for Sony to fit in another one.

Left side:
DC-in, heat vent, VGA, HDMI, Firewire 400, USB, ExpressCard/34



Front:
WiFi switch, SD card and a MagicGate Pro media card reader, power/charging/busy lights



Right side:
Kensington lock slot, optical drive, two USB, headphone, microphone.



Performance:

System performance was excellent thanks to the Intel Centrino 2 processor and ATI graphics. This system should be capable of handling any multimedia task the user throws at it, with the exception of high-end 3D games. It took about 65 seconds to boot into Vista, although full control of the desktop didn’t arrive for another 30 seconds or so. The 400GB hard drive too is very speedy, running at 5,400rpm.

One thing I hate about Sony notebooks is the abundance of trialware and bloatware that Sony insists on preinstalling. They aren’t entirely truthful with telling you what they load either – apart from the usual Norton, Office, etc., they loaded nearly 40 other Sony applications too that the Control Panel didn’t see. Many of these were useless, such as DVD makers, slideshow makers, MusicBox, and tons of auxiliary programs for these programs. I happened across these as I was trying to uninstall something called “Application Manager for Vaio”, which actually turned out to be an uninstaller itself! Here, I uninstalled about 30 of the applications listed and kept about 10 that I thought I might need. Many of these were also set to start on startup, increasing boot times.

I downloaded some benchmarks and ran them on this computer.

PCMark Vantage: 3650
3DMark06: 4130
3DMark Vantage: This one was strange – from the main menu it told me that the minimum resolution was not supported and would not run. Then I ran it from the Options menu, and the test did complete, but it gave me N/A for the 3DMark score. Hmph. However, there were two other scores that might mean something to you guys. CPU test: 3874, and GPU test: 1184.

In my initial review, I didn't delve much into games because I didn't really game much, but that has changed significantly. I've played many games now on this laptop, and with the exception of Crysis, this laptop has not disappointed me. Call of Duty MW1, MW2, and WaW run very well at 1024x768 with medium settings, around 30-40 fps average (it dips below 25 at some times but not often). Bioshock runs at native resolution, max settings without any lag. Crysis runs well at 1024x720 (maybe 768...i don't remember) at all low to medium settings. In other words, this computer will more than suffice for casual gamers that don't expect every pixel.

Clearly, this system performs very well, and most users will not find reason to complain about performance, even with Vista (which, by the way, I like much better than XP). In addition, when Windows 7 is released, I expect the system to be even snappier. It’s great that Sony offers a free upgrade to Windows 7. I have already ordered mine.

Instant-On OS:

The Splashtop Linux instant-on OS boots in about 10 seconds, which is very snappy and certainly useful for quickly checking email. It only has an internet browser, and you cannot access your hard drive, but for checking email it will suffice. I saw no problems rendering webpages – the interface was somewhat similar to Firefox. Moreover, if you really need to type up a document, you can always use Google Docs – they work fine in this OS. The touchpad and buttons work fine in general too, but the scroll areas are finicky and hard to control. I recommend using the Page Up/Down keys or the arrow keys for scrolling.

It can save your WiFi configuration settings so you don’t have to enter a password each time you want to get online. There are a decent number of options that you can set for yourself too.

Heat and Noise:

The system does a decent job of managing heat. The palmrests got slightly warm after light usage (or maybe it was just my hand that got warm haha), but the keyboard and touchpad remained cool during normal usage (web browsing, document editing, etc). The hottest areas were the heat vent, the area directly beneath the heat vent, and the vent located in the center of the bottom of the notebook. In those conditions, it became impossible to use the notebook as a laptop, but the only times you would face temperatures like that would be running benchmarks or playing games. In general, the left side of the notebook gets warm/hot, but the right side stays very cool. Movie playback did make the system warmer, but it wasn’t too bad. I don’t have a thermometer to measure external temperatures, but heat should not be an issue for this computer and definitely not a deal breaker, although I would prefer less heat on the left side.

The computer did produce noise though. It was quiet noise but noise nonetheless. The CPU fans were usually on and you could hear them as a quiet lull underneath the keyboard. There is also a strange high pitched buzzing that is emitted from the computer, and while I’ve heard of this noise before in other computers, I could never pinpoint the source. It’s certainly not a problem with the computer itself, but it does get a little irritating after awhile. If you’re typing a document, watching a video, or playing a game, you most likely won’t notice as the other sounds coming from your computer will definitely mask it. I will investigate this problem and see if there is a fix or remedy. The optical drive wasn’t the quietest either – you can definitely hear the CD whirring and spinning. Under load, the main fan is also very quiet – when running benchmarks after benchmarks, the only way I could hear the fan is if I pressed my ear up to the vent. All in all, noise is no big deal, but I have seen quieter systems.

Battery

15” notebooks have always had shorter battery life than their smaller counterparts (with the exception of the Macbook Pros), and as such the Sony Vaio NW does rather disappoint, although for a 15” notebook it really isn’t all that bad. I did a DVD rundown test yesterday, in the Power Save mode with wireless off, brightness and volume at maximum, and closed down all background applications that might try to access the internet. The Vaio ran for 1 hour and 52 minutes before going into hibernate. This means that lowering the brightness and volume (and using headphones would help too) would allow you to watch a DVD for longer, possibly up to 2 hours and 20-30 minutes. Although you might not get through your entire movie, you could definitely get through a good portion of it, and in light use you could get up to 3 hours. Today, I started up the Vaio with 94% battery, surfed the web for an hour or so, then sat down and typed up this review (and turned off wireless), and I got a little over 3 hours of use. Not too bad.

After using this laptop for several months, I can provide a better idea of battery life. I'm always on Power Saver mode when using battery and I've pulled down a lot of the computer's power in the options to get the most out of my battery. If you're just doing Word document editing, with WiFi on and the occasional webpage, you can get about 2-2.5 hours. Heavy web surfing will take you down to 1-1.5 hours, as will multitasking (I sometimes have OneNote, MATLAB, Firefox, and Outlook running all at once plus antivirus, Dropbox, etc). All things considered, battery life isn't great but it really isn't that bad either.

Sony does offer an extended 9-cell battery as a separate purchase, but this costs a whopping $249. Until the price drops or Sony offers a CTO option, I recommend against buying the extended battery. You’d only get another 40 minutes to an hour out of it anyways, and it adds to the heft of the notebook.

Conclusion

The Sony Vaio NW is a great notebook for those looking for a big screen, great performance, discrete graphics, and lots of other goodies at a great price. You won’t find a Blu-Ray player in any other notebook at this price, and all in all the computer impresses. Users that don’t need the Blu-Ray player or discrete graphics can get this computer at Best Buy for around $649, while online configurations start at $849 for better components. Families looking for a powerhouse multimedia notebook, look elsewhere – there are HP desktop replacement notebooks with bigger screens and better insides for less, although the tradeoff is heat and battery life. I think this is a great option for students going off to college who don’t want to sacrifice performance for portability, as 5.8lbs really isn’t that heavy at all and battery life is acceptable. This is a solid multimedia and all-purpose notebook.

Pros:
Great performance
Build quality is decent
Good port selection
Slim profile, relatively light for its size
Heat management is good
Discrete graphics
Free Windows 7 upgrade!
Instant-on OS works well and boots fast
Battery life is acceptable

Cons:
Computer can get noisy
OK speakers
Screen viewing angles are poor
Touchpad buttons are stiff
Design is love it or hate it
Construction is entirely recycled plastic (I would like to see some magnesium alloy or aluminum support)
No eSATA

If there is anything else you'd like to see, please post and let me know.

Update 11-30-09: I added some frame rates for several games and updated battery life analysis.

 

Great review. Thanks.

 

Great review...thanks.

 

Thanks guys! Anything else you'd like me to include?

 

hi
can i just say great review and thanks
im a student about to start university and looking for a good laptop to use.
ive looked at both the macbook pro and vaio NW series. but what in your opinion is the right one to buy and why?
thanks

 

Thanks for the review

 

it really comes down to battery life and money. the macbook pros will give you a lot more battery life and a bit better performance, although in real life you won't notice a huge difference unless you're converting videos or something very processor intensive.

i take it that you're looking at the 15" laptops, not the 13" ones, since you're comparing MBPs with the NW series. the 15" MBPs are nearly twice as expensive as the vaios are. although you get a lot better battery life, you could also purchase an additional battery for the sony and still get about 5+ hours with both. MBP has better graphics though. then again, if you're into heavy gaming you aren't looking for either of these anyways.

another thing about this laptop is that the left side gets hot easily, but the right side stays ice cool. now, maybe i'm biased because i'm working in a hot environment. but that's one of the things about this notebook that i don't quite like. however, be prepared for high temperatures on a macbook too - the aluminum chassis is in essence a giant heatsink.

i was very close to buying a MBP, then i saw these and decided that it was a far better deal. money is tight these days. i wholeheartedly recommend the NW. you get about the same specs for half the money. and you can buy a second battery if one isn't enough for you.

 

Thanks for the excellent review. I'm personally a bit disappointed that it isn't built in some metal like magnesium alloy, but I've pretty much decided that this is the laptop that I want to buy for my last year at the university (will come in handy for taking my bachelors degree). However, there is one major issue that I'm hoping that someone can help me sort out. This laptop is not available here in the Nordics and I was wondering if anyone of you knows if it will be available for purchase here and, if so, when that will be. I've tried googling several times but to no success.

Importing is not an option due to the fact that I can get a very nice deal if it's available in my country.

 

hi
thanks for your reply. really helpfull.
i think i am going to purchase the NW series (still deciding to buy the blu-ray drive or not). one problem is that because im in the uk, the NW series is approx £800. but if i was to purchase from america, it would only cost £600 including shipping. not sure if it would be wise to go for the cheaper one and getit from abroad.

 

Thanks for your review. There are a two things I'd like to know:

-What are the limits of running an external display via HDMI + the laptop's display? I'd like to be able to dual-screen with the laptop + my main monitor at 1900X1200

-Can you tell which firewire chipset it is running? I'm looking for a laptop running the TI chipset

 

i purchased the blu-ray config not so much for blu-ray, but for the centrino 2 platform and the P-series processor, which is more energy-efficient and despite having a slightly lower clock speed, has more L2 cache. plus you get a bigger hard drive (although i immediately replaced it with an even bigger one that i already purchased). again, its about your priorities.

I can't tell you much about dual monitors, but according to AMD's website, you can drive two monitors at up to 2560x1600 resolution, which is pretty good. here's the website: http://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityradeonhd4500/index.html. see footnote 7.

As for the firewire chipset, I don't think it has the TI chipset - from what I gather, it has the Ricoh chipset instead. I could be wrong because I have never looked into this stuff before, but in my system information, it lists "RICOH OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller" on "IRQ 16". I believe you'll want to get a Macbook or an HP if you're looking for the TI chipset, but i'm sure there are other brands that do have it.

I honestly don't know about that. You may want to give Sony a call and ask them. Because this notebook has only been released recently, it might take them some time before they make it available in your region.

 

Does the cooling fan come on intermittently every like 2-3 minutes and then turn off?? OR is the NW fan noise a constant low audible hum??
example of intermittent fan noise, minus the chirps at the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFdpR...eature=related

Also, is the FW series a quiet computer in general while idling or doing daily things like surfing the net , word processing etc. As i need a really quiet computer for college (studying & writing essays). Thanks

 

I like everything about the NW and wanted to get it, but:

No bluetooth. I dont like those plug in mini USB bluetooth module.
No 1600x1200.

 

i also bought the vaio NW150J in silver from bestbuy. I love it!

i do like to point out that my notebook comes equipped with a HDMI output even though I dont have ATI graphics. only the Intel 4500MHD.

i really cant hear the cooling fan "kick-in" at all, maybe b/c my activities are very lightweight. the heat-vent gets barely warm after some periods of usage but not "hot" as the reviewer puts it. again, this could vary based on user. i love the keyboard especially, it has a very solid feel and the keys layout are spaced out further, i have small fingers and i can already feel the relaxation typing on this "isolated keyboard layout". so imagine someone with very chubby fingers, they should feel huge difference. the general design overall is stylish. it is plastic all around but feels very nicely built with superb quality, just like a sony should be. the 16:9 screen's hinge is reversed, so when it opens, it tucks itself behind the laptop base, making the laptop look smaller than its actually is.

Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 2.1ghz 2MB L2
4GB DDR2-PC6400 RAM
Blu-ray drive
320GB SATA HDD
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (1366x768)
HDMI + VGA output

 

Did you pay around $800 for the NW150 at Best Buy?

 

Bingo! the price isnt GREAT, but its reasonably priced i think.

 

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been around for awhile. I can never hear the fans at all. Only during gaming and intensive processes do the fans pump out lots of heat, and even that it's not that bad.

Lack of bluetooth should not be a dealbreaker. I honestly can't imagine anyone that dependent on bluetooth. I have a bluetooth mouse that came bundled with a bluetooth dongle and it works great with everything else - and it saves battery life too. If you want high resolution screen then yes this is not the laptop you would want but I can't imagine that you would actually want a laptop with that kind of high resolution.

Any more questions?

 

hi
i opted for the Blu-ray Disk drive and 500GB model (VGN-NW11Z) and honestly i cannot hear anything at all!! i have downloaded and installed a few games and software and still its pretty quiet. Its a great buy for me as a new student. would recommend to anyone who is looking for a great spec, stylish and pratical laptop!!!

 

I think these are pretty nice for the money especially for what you can get them for online. No bluetooth on any laptop is just plain silly and the viewing angles on this screen are horrible so you want to be looking at it dead on. I much prefer the walnut colored model but silver is OK while white is terrible.

 

hi, i'm thinking about buying sony vgnnw11st or vgnnw11zt. zt has got 500gb hard drive and blu ray £700, st is cheaper £650, with 320gb hard drive. i thought it was a good deal to go for zt but not sure if i need blu ray, i watch movies a lot but haven't got any blu ray. not sure if it makes any difference on 15.5'' screen anyway. what do u think? thanks.

 

Thanks for the review. Have you had a chance to try any games or full-screen MKVs on the NW at all? Any skipping or delay with Blu-Ray discs?

 

Because of the resolution, having a Blu-Ray drive doesn't do you any good unless you plan on outputting the video to an HD display and this laptop is more than capable of doing that. Remember that you can always purchase another hard drive from NewEgg for pretty cheap and use the old as an external hard drive. That's what I did.

As far as gameplay goes:
This computer can run Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty World at War at medium settings very smoothly. With resolution at 800x600 I can turn on most of the settings to high and I haven't ever dipped below 25fps on the most explosive scenes. Set the resolution any higher and you'll have to compromise but I'm happy. Admittedly, the levels do take some time to load - sometimes the video intro finishes before the level is fully loaded.

I can also run Bioshock at my native resolution with all the settings maxed out and there isn't any lag whatsoever. This graphics card continues to impress me the more I use it - and it doesn't even have GDDR3 RAM. I might even try out Crysis - I think that the card can handle it at lower settings.

I don't have any BluRay discs so I haven't tried that out yet, but I don't think it'll be a problem.

 

I was wondering where can you locate the touchpad settings? I can't find it in my mouse settings. any help is appreciated.

 

I have an icon for my touchpad settings in my system tray. You should too. If it's not there, you can do a search for "Mouse" in the Start Menu and you should find it.

 

Great review bounci rabbit! I have 2 questions for you:

1) Screen. You mentioned the viewing angles weren't stellar, but how is the glare? Is it a virtual mirror like many HP models I've seen, unusable outdoors, or is it manageable? I am a matte-girl myself, but this seems to be a very small market share.

2) Trackpad. How is the travel/responsiveness? On a Dell site reviewing trackpads, I understand that there seems to be a big difference in Alps vs Synaptics-- do you know which this is? Also, have you gotten used to the mouse buttons, or are they still annoying?

Thanks! Getting my hands on a NW is difficult in Canada, available largely online and with less selection, so I want to get a good idea of what to expect.

 

I've updated the review with some notes about the screen, but it's definitely not a virtual mirror. I can see some reflections but it's never been a problem for me. I don't work outside under the sun much though; it's usually in a classroom or my dorm. I imagine that most laptops would be tough to use outside, and honestly this laptop is probably no exception.

This laptop has an Alps touchpad, but I haven't had any problem with their responsiveness. You can adjust the sensitivity of course. I also like that they have four scroll areas (which you can customize and adjust). The left side is for zoom, bottom is for sideways scrolling, right is for vertical scrolling, and top is for back/forth in webpages and such (this one I disabled).

I've largely gotten used to the mouse buttons. They're not perfect but I've seen far worse on some HP laptops that really required a lot of force to press. These are just slightly stiff and have little travel. I usually use a mouse, and when I don't, I tap rather than left click (except for right clicks).

I can wholeheartedly recommend this machine. Unless you need lots of portability or you're a hardcore gamer, I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't like the NW. Just make sure you select the config that best suits you. I know that the integrated graphics config has much much better battery life.

There are other reviews of this notebook too, on LaptopMag, TrustedReviews, and PCMag. Maybe other sites too.

 

hello,
I bought NW and been wondering which apps can be easily uninstalled and with some benefit for my 64bit os

have you tried:
VAIO® Applications Uninstaller Software

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNUX490N&upd_id=3342&os_id=29

or did you uninstall them manually?
also....which of those programs can be safely uninstalled?

awaiting your advice
thank you

 

I'm in the market for a new laptop and am considering the Sony VGN-NW270F/S for $699 at Best Buy. I've never owned a Sony, but after some heavy researching I think this may be a good computer for me. (I didn't get any feedback on the "Which laptop is for me" forum). What do you all think of this Best Buy configuration?

Warranty Terms - Parts1 year limitedWarranty Terms - Labor1 year limitedProduct Height1.2"Product Width14.6"Product Weight6 lbs.Product Depth9.8"Color CategorySilverProcessor BrandIntel®ProcessorIntel® Core™2 DuoProcessor Speed2.2GHzBattery Type6-cell lithium-ionDisplay TypeWidescreen LCD (1366 x 768)Screen Size (Measured Diagonally)15.5"System Bus800MHzCache Memory2MB on die Level 2System Memory (RAM)4GBSystem Memory (RAM) Expandable To8GBType of Memory (RAM)DDR2Hard Drive TypeSATA (5400 rpm)Computer Hard Drive Size320GBOptical DriveDouble-layer DVD±RW/Blu-ray Disc/CD-RWOptical Drive SpeedsDrive speeds not specifiedDirect-Disc LabelingNoDigital Media Reader or SlotsYes, digital media card readerGraphicsMobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHDVideo Memory1750MB (total available)TV TunerNoMPEGYesBuilt-in WebcamYesModemNoneNetworkingBuilt-in 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T Ethernet LAN (with RJ-45 interface)Wireless NetworkingWireless-B+G+NBluetooth-EnabledNoS-Video OutputsNoneAdditional Audio/Video ConnectorsHDMIAudioIntel® High Definition audioPCMCIA Slots1 ExpressCard/34USB 2.0 Ports3IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports1Parallel PortsNoneGame PortsNoneLaptop WeightStandard (more than 5.5 lbs.)Battery LifeUp to 4 hoursBattery Life Range3.5 to 4.5 hoursPointing DeviceElectrostatic touchpadHDMI OutputYesBlu-ray PlayerYesOperating System PlatformWindowsOperating SystemWindows 7 Home Premium 64-bitIncluded SoftwareMicrosoft Works SE 9.0; VAIO Multimedia Suite and moreENERGY STAR QualifiedYes

 

I can't remember exactly which ones I uninstalled, but in general, any "Sony Movie Maker" or multimedia program I promptly uninstalled. I also uninstalled Sony Vaio Care and Updater. I left alone programs that sounded important to the computer - basically, things like configurations of power buttons, keyboard, etc. however, I think that all the programs are perfectly safe to uninstall. Sony would not make a computer dependent on proprietary software, and all the Fn button combos and buttons at the top of the keyboard are controlled by drivers that the uninstaller cannot access.

If you don't feel safe uninstalling a program, feel free to run it by me and I can tell you what I would do.

I didn't use the program you linked to because there was already a program in the computer - you just don't see it normally. It's called Application Manager. What I did was that I started up Revo Uninstaller, saw that program, and tried to remove it, but instead, Revo actually started up another uninstaller program that must have had at least 30 preinstalled programs listed with options to remove them all. I would recommend using that.

That's a pretty good configuration, but keep in mind that you have Intel graphics, so don't plan on playing any games. You'll get much better battery life than I did though. I see that you have an Intel "T" processor - if you want even better battery life, always go for "P" processors (for example, my processor number is P7350, but yours is T****). I don't know if that's an option though. Also, you only have 2MB of L2 cache - 3MB is better but depending on what you plan to do you might not see a big difference (if at all).

Other than the color, the processor and the graphics card, the configurations are almost identical. Again, this config is good but not for playing games. All depends on what you want to do with it.

 

I read somewhere in a review that the the HDMI Blu-Ray playback on TV's is video and no audio? Is this true? Hopefully you can still get surround sound.

 

Thank you for quick answers!

Another one:
VAIO splash screen on bootup - enable/disable?

 

I don't know, but HDMI is supposed to transmit both audio and video. I don't have any Blu-Ray discs or an HDMI cable.

I left it alone. I don't think disabling it speeds up the boot time that much, and plus it gives you more time to react if you want to change BIOS settings.

 

Come to think of it - you got a point mate.
Gonna leave it untouched.

How about that crazy thing called VGate - I like it but... the system is ready, I can perform all the tasks and still no news from Gate...it loads so long on my machine... am I alone here or is it the case in...most cases?

 

I would definitely uninstall the Media Programs at the very least. There is a whole bunch of crapware that loads on startup and will slow your computer down. Anything for pictures, videos, slideshows, etc is definitely safe to remove.

VGate...if it's the virtual environment program, then I'm not surprised. That requires a huge amount of horsepower, particularly graphics horsepower, and this computer isn't really designed for modeling virtual environments.

 

I'm not entirely sure we're talikng about the same thing..

by VGate I'm referring to Vaio Gate

 

It is great...........vaio nw' feeling is very good,i like it.............

 

Oh. I don't remember what that is...I've heard it before but it's certainly not on my computer anymore. I'm not sure what it's for either...but chances are that you don't need it. In fact, even the configuration programs and such I'm pretty sure you don't need - Sony would not make a computer unable to run without those programs. And as I said before, the drivers required to make the Fn key combos and other buttons work you cannot uninstall with the Application Manager.

Yes you should =)

 

this:

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1/capturetv.jpg

I find it useful, but if I need to wait for it to load...the charm is gone..

 

I upgraded my laptop to Windows 7 and as far as I can remember I never saw or used that software. Anything that I needed to do with this software I can do myself with other software. So I can't help you here.

 

thanks

CoreTemp64 says: 35 degrees
HWMonitor64 says: 45 degrees

which one should be trusted?

the famous WEB button...

how safe is it? what about malware? where's the cash? do you personally use it at all?

 

The opinions of other owners can also be sought in the owners thread. It is here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=401536

 

I typically use HWMonitor...but I haven't ever had the need to measure internal temperatures on this computer so I can't tell you. I don't have any major problems with heat except during gaming and a bit more heat than I'd like during long sessions with the computer.

I use the WEB button occasionally. It's useful if I just need to check my email and send a reply quickly, but the limitations are rather annoying - you can't do anything that isn't in a web browser. Malware isn't an issue because it's based on Linux, and besides, you can't download files. Funny enough, it doesn't save any battery - if anything, it chews battery even faster. So don't use it thinking that you can conserve battery power.

 

I'm surprised
and grateful for the words you wrote.

I'm interested in free applications only.
what are your safety suggestions?

how to set UAC?
turn on/off win defender/ firewall?
install avira or CIS or MSE or ThreatFire or Panda Cloud or?
Windows 7 Firewall Control Plus

 

Free security suites? AVG antivirus is good...and comodo is your best bet with firewalls but it does get rather annoying with all the popups you have to deal with.

the four questions at the end are easily answered with a simple google search.

 

Thank a lot mate!

 

Just found this review. Great job. Would you mind taking a look at this question and tell me if this is what you're talking about when referring to the bezel? Thanks.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=441970http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=441970

 

Yes that is what I am talking about. It doesn't really push out for me on the sides, but it is loose in general. It is rather disappointing seeing that the laptop is so good otherwise. But it is not a problem for me because I always push into the bezel when I open the laptop. I'll open the lid slightly, get my fingers underneath, and open it that way, and even though it sounds like a hassle, it's not - you get used to it and it feels natural. And of course, when you close the lid, you close it from the top, which doesn't affect the bezel.

 

Just found this review. It's great, thanks very much! One question - how do you think this laptop would perform running the Adobe Creative Suite - mostly Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign? Sometimes simultaneously. Thanks again!

 

It shouldn't be a problem as long as you give the computer a break every once in awhile. Adobe software is powerful but in my opinion very bloated and often inefficient. I was making a video for my final project a few weeks ago and I was working on my computer for hours nonstop, using Premiere and Photoshop simultaneously. After about 4-5 hours the computer got very hot and the software slowed significantly, so I saved my work, shut it down for about half an hour, and then restarted, and it was fine again. The computer deals with heat very well - within five minutes, most of the heat coming out of the left vent was entirely gone.

 

Before buying, first consider that the NW series is prone to touchpad errors,
there already are four different people with the same issue, which makes the machine unusable (keyboard & trackpad die).