sony 17inch A Series mini review

Hi there all..

just want to say i received my sony 17inch a series laptop at the weekend, bought after some haggling in london.

although i think there is a clear sony premium on the price (as for most sony products i find), i had seen this computer a couple of times on my travels and totally fell in love with the screen that comes with this machine.

as far as my experience goes at least, i havent seen anything which is really comparable to the real estate and resolution and clarity and contrast that this screen offers.

some may think that the resolution would make the text on the sceen too small. well, i was thinking that as well cause my other option was a dell 8600 with the same res but only a 15.4inch screen. i never got to see the dell cause obviously its all sold online, but i can say that on the sony i have no problems with this. i have in fact increased the icon size through windows settings, just cause i prefer it, though. and of course, i could increase it more if i wanted.

apart from the screen, the laptop itself feels really solidly built. the design is lovely, i just cant complain. sure i wouldnt want to carry this laptop around with me all day every day, but since its gonna sit on my desk 95% of the time i think its fine (3.9kg versus my 2yr old 15inch dell at 3.8kg!).

i have only tested 3dmark 03 and got 2759 out of the box. i think i could improve this if i updated drivers or overclocked but im not too techie so i will just leave it.

i plan to install flight sim 2004 at the weekend.... as long as this works reasonably well i will not tinker too much!

probably the biggest change for me is this wireless technology!! man thats great.... just switch a button on the front and then away you surf!!! really cool and i get high speed internet apparently from a neighbouring office for free!!!!! hopefully they arent actually a criminal gang who will hack into my machine!!!

i have the 1.7 centrino with 512mb and 64mb graphics card... i would grumble that since this is such an expensive laptop i should be slightly better specced, but im afraid i still succumbed to sony disease. i mean, in america i think they throw in a wireless mouse, speakers and all that.... not in the uk of course.

keyboard is fine, and the software it comes with is fine, connections are fine, everything else is basically fine and dandy.

oh... .and did i mention the screen????

krlock

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yep... thats me.

 

hey krlock, thanks for this overview of the A Series. Seems like you're mostly happy! If you want to do a more full review when you've had more time to play with this laptop that'd be great, shoot me an email and we can work this out (click on my profile or just use the contact us form or use [email protected]) And yes, there are rewards for full reviews!

 

thanks abaxter.... i will certainly post a follow up once i have more time.... not sure im really qualified to do a full review, though i am interested to know what kind of rewards are available? any beer or women??

krlock

yep... thats me.

 

A uxga on a 17" doesn't make the words aren't too small. I say this is a gr8 notebook. I bought the fujitsu n5010 and compared the screen with the 17" sony uxga and I have to say the sony 17" monitor looks better..sigh.