Vaio FW first impressions incl. pics and benchmarks

Nice thread, Cee!

I really like the FW so far but may return it because I thought that I was getting a full magnesium body; instead, only the top cover lid is truly magnesium, while the rest of the enclosure is some sort of hybrid. The bottom is so well built that it feels like carbon fibre.

Also, I disagree with you about the LCD. While is isn't bad for a laptop display, I'm used to my 1080p 32" Aquos, and the FW's backlighting is too uneven, being noticeably bright at the bottom than the top (typical of larger TN displays).

What I love most about this notebook still holds though: its look is phenomenal. Other than the XPS series, there is no other reasonably priced Windows laptop whose design I actually like. I also love the new Centrino 2 platform and its really low heat. Under normal usage, according to Core Temp, the CPUs do not rise above 35C, and even under 50% load, they remain about 40C, which is much cooler than my MacBooks ever were (45-50C idle!).

 

Also, does anyone know why Sony does not advertise the entry FW model as "Centrino 2," even though it shares the same bus speed (1066MHz) and P45 chipset as the other certified Centrino 2 models?

Is this just marketing to try and upsell us to the B-R models?

 

well here is the thing, if you bought the eco then the backlighting won't be even, the hi color is better in this area i believe.

only the early versions of the FW were not centrino 2, since they lacked the intel wireless card, check to see if you the atheros card, if you do you don't have the real 'official' centrino 2.

 

Does the Sony store have a Hi-color display model available?

 

But doesn't the Centrino 2 platform have more to do with the 1066 bus, P8000 CPU, and 800MHz bus? Surely, the wireless card is not the determining factor? I know that it's a whole combination of components, but as long as the actual speeds are the same, with the same CPU and the same P45 chipset, doesn't it qualify as a "Centrino 2"? Personally, I don't really care, just curious.

 

To qualify for the sticker you need all of the components including the WiFi card. In reality there isn't much if any difference, performance wise, between the Centrino 2 and non-Centrino 2 FWs. It's just a selling point for Intel and the OEMs.

 

Aight, makes sense. Thanks

 

Are there going to be any more sales on the FW series?

 

Thanks, I'm pretty sure that every screen is different, I guess I got lucky. I've never had a laptop screen that was this evenly lit and all-around great. For a while I had an xps m1530 with led screen which was just terrible, the worst backlight bleeding I've ever seen even though most people love that screen. I ended up returning it because of this... not to mention that it was TOO bright. The eco screen in my FW on the other hand is amazing, couldn't ask for anything more.

 

Should I exchange my FW and hope for a more even backlight? I got mine at Bestbuy for $999, so exchanging it will not be a hassle at all.

 

I was at a Berst Buy today and they had 2 diffferent FW models. I don't know why but the screen looked inferior to mine which I bought from sonystyle.com, perhaps it was cause the FW at Best Buy didn't have the ATI card. On the sonystyle FW page there is a sign that says Xbrite Dura. I'm just wondering if maybe the notebooks sold directly from Sony have different components. My FW just looks much superior to the ones at Best Buy and I have an Xbrite-Eco.

 

couldn't agree with you more ceenote, the screen on this fw is amazing, i got the exact same model as you and theres complete even lighting no bleeding and its perfect, still bright but not too much to blind, the colors are all vibrant etc, to be honest i dont really know why everyone is hating on the eco screen maybe theres some duds out there but mine is phenomenal..

couldnt be happier with this computer and well buddy owe it to you since it was your post about pulling the trigger on this that made me buy mine

 

Yeah I'd exchange it.

Exactly, I think most people just assume that eco=bad which is not true at all.

 

Exactly, I got the exact same model for best buy and the screen is beautiful. One of the best screens outside the hicolor and other double lamp screens or led.
The colors on mine are phenomenal and the screen doesn't have any backlight bleeding. Maybe I too got only lucky but the eco screen is really not as bad as some of you make it to be.

By the way, never saw a fw hicolor, but saw a tz and it's in a league of it's own

On a side note, the 3Dmark 06 of 2500+ puts it nearly at the same level that the 8600m gs (see notebookcheck). The question is why...the ddr3 or what?

 

"System presentation was extremely good for most errands not involving 3D graphics. Working along with office-productivity software, surfing the web, encoding video, or just looking through your iTunes library worked quite well devoid of any lag. The disappointing part was demanding to play semi-modern games such as Half-Life 2 or Portal, and availing very deprived frame rates. The ATI 3470 graphics accelerator didn’t really help with much besides offloading video decoding while enjoying a Blu-ray movie. I would encompass much rather seen a 3650 series graphics card, considering laptops like the Toshiba A305 which fall into the identical price category offer this."

The graphics card performance is pretty much self-explanatory.

 

I think this description of the 3470 is exaggerated. If you want a gaming laptop the 3470 probably won't do but for an occasional gamer who doesn't mind to reduce details and or resolution, the 3470 is sufficient. As you can see, I can play games like Company of Heroes or World in Conflict @ 1600x900 res and low details with 40+fps average. That way games still look good and run smoothly.

 

thought i would enter into this thread as I have recently bought an FW139eh....anyone know anything about the tablet PC settings?

there is a control panel menu for pens and inputs for use with the tablet screen....help???

 

I've got nothing better to do right now so I thought it's time to update this review with a few more benchmarks now that I've upgraded to a 320GB 7200rpm hdd, 4gigs of ram and 64bit Vista Ultimate.

current specs:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8400
4GB PC2-6400
320GB 7200rpm (Seagate drive)
DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/RAM
16.4" 1600 x 900
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3470 256MB dedicated
Atheros 802.11b/g/n Wireless
Integrated Stereo A2DP Bluetooth® Technology
Standard Capacity Lithium-ion Battery
Windows Vista Ultimate x64

PCMark05:



PCMark Vantage:



HDTune:

 

I wish that here were more high-end gpu offerings for VAIO laptops. Its a pitty, the Sony's are such a pretty piece, but lack some serious hardware

 

As a non-gamer, I'm lovin' my FW.

 

Im am very intressted to know how the FW is affected by the 7200 rpm drive, is the computer getting very warm and have you noticed any other problems with the 7200 rpm disk?

Br Alexander

 

No, no problems at all, in fact my 7200rpm hard drive is quieter and runs cooler than the old 5400rpm disk this laptop came with.

 

I can easily sit with the laptop on my lap for extended periods of time, watching movies and doing work on it, it gets warm, but never hot or uncomfortable.

 

So, how fast will be the improvements with 7200 rpm hard disk? I have recently ordered a FW290 (self-configurated) with

P8400
ATI 3650
ECO-screen
250G 5400rpm
3G PC2-6400

I don't know whether I should 1) pay USD 100 to Sony to upgrade the hard disk to 320G 7200rpm; 2) stay with the 5400rpm disk as the performance improvement is not significant; 3) buy a 7200rpm hard disk and upgrade it myself.

I mainly use the laptop for office, net surfing, photoshop and AutoCAD, casual gaming, and movies.

Thanks for your advices.

 

In my opinion, the performance difference between the 250gb 5400rpm drive and the 320gb 7200rpm hdd is pretty significant. I suggest to upgrade it yourself if you can find one for less than $100. It's really simple, switching the two drives only takes a couple minutes and you'd have a spare 250gb hard drive which can come in handy.

 

thanks CeeNote. This is what I think about too. I will wait until I get mine and try how fast or slow it is. Then, haha, start searching for hard drive sales

 

Hi Cee,

could you please discribe how to switch a little bit more detailed, Ive loose the 3 scews which holds the tray but it still seams to be a little bit stuck...

Br Alexander

 

Since you have the CTO model, please tell if the keyboard was standard or bilingual?

 

already answered in the FW threads, but the CTO comes with english only keyboard.

 

@CeeNote

dude, i've just ordered a VAIO FW laptop from the UK website....its been almost 9 months since u bought this laptop, so i wanted to know how is the laptop working now? are there any problems that u r facing? has the display quality,battery life, or the keyboard - mouse functionality deteriorated??

Also, can u tell me the exact model number of the original 5400 RPM drive (that u had got directly from sony) and your current 7200 RPM drive ?..(the model number can be found in windows by going to device manager)...i am asking because you had mentioned that 7200RPM is giving u a significant performance boost as compared to the 5400RPM that sony had supplied...i badly wanted to configure the laptop with a 7200RPM HDD, but the vaio UK site only offers 5400 RPMs..:-|, so i just wanted to find out how much i am losing when it comes to hard drive performance.


thanks.

 

wow 9months, it doesn't feel that long lol... overall I still haven't had any problems with this laptop whatsoever. The quality still feels the same, it doesn't feel like a tank like some of the thinkpads but i would still consider it to be good build quality. The keyboard is also good, it took some getting used to because the keys are spaced wider than on most laptop keyboards but i wouldn't consider that a problem. The battery hasn't shown any signs of abnormal wear yet, it still charges to 100%. Can't say much about the touchpad because i rarely use it but i like that it's so big.

Sorry i dont know the model number of the 5400rpm hdd that came with the laptop and i cant check because i don't own it anymore. the model # of my current 320g 7200rpm hdd is st9320421as and it's a seagate drive. It's probably one of the best 7200rpm drives out there. It's definitely a major performance boost over the 5400rpm one that came with the laptop especially when opening programs or booting the computer. Most importantly though, make sure to get rid of all the crapware that comes with the laptop. Sony ships a lot of that stuff and it will really slow down the system if you don't delete all of that stuff.

Hope this helps!

 

Just ordered one of these but with some extras and it should be getting here today =) so excited, im going to firstly reinstall vista to remove all the bloatware.

 

Anyone know what the higher-end 3650 card gets on the WEI or other benchmarks? I sure hope they upgrade to the Radeon 4k series before i buy!

 

It has been confirmed that the FW summer update will include an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4650. I think they are already starting to show up in various spots in Europe and it can't be long until they show up in North America.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

Love this Website. They also have a mobile processors benchmark page and excellent reviews of notebooks. They run computers through paces that most other reviewers never do.

English translation of the German www.notebookcheck.com site.

 

That's great news! Thanks for the reply.

 

In Sony EUROPE / Japan , FW already has ATI HD4650 1gb /512 !
check at sony uk site !
When the Us models will update ?
i want hd4650 =)

 

1gb you say?

*wipes drool*


Well actualy I'm not sure if the 1gb would benefit the graphics performance, since its on a 128 bit memory bus. But maybe that will be made up for in memory clock speed, we'll see I geuss.