In my opinion, the best ultralight on the market today, albeit expensive
Written: Aug 21 '03
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Pros: Centrino, XBRITE screen, speaker placement, camera, battery life, ultralight, magnesium casing, style, overall great design
Cons: EXPENSIVE$, Gets hotter than expected, optical drive seems weak, sony support has bad name
The Bottom Line: Best screen, speakers, camera, style and overall layout of any other notebook. Best hardware (processor, ram, graphics, battery, optical drive) while remaining the second lightest two-spindle notebook in history).
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| grndslm's Full Review: Sony VAIO PCG-TR1A PC Notebook |
This notebook is amazing. I just received it yesterday and have nothing but praise.
The screen, speakers, and camera are the most unique features of the TR1A. The screen has a 1280 X 768 resolution (same as Fujitsu P5010, but looks sharper and brighter.) And in case the text is too small for users, a zoom button is on the side of the screen for easy access, right next to the volume and capture buttons. The speakers are placed along the top of the screen, and face the user directly for the line of sight that all speakers on ultraportables need. The camera is located right inbetween those speakers and can be flipped 180 degrees in order to record something (or someone) else. People who videoconference will love this feature, and if you don't videoconference now, maybe it will start you on a walk through the future. I think it could also be used for taking notes or drawings on regular paper and transferring it to your harddrive.
The harddrive has been a complaint by many Fujitsu P-series owners because (a) 30GB isn't enough for them, and (b) it's a special 1.5" drive that can't be upgraded - yet. This is why I don't find the harddrive a problem: (a) 30GB is enough for 90% of the computer users in the world, if it's not, you've always got a cdburner, that's one of the main thing that sets this ultralight from most of the pack. And if that's still not an option, you can setup an external usb drive at your house or wherever and keep all media (a.k.a.- large) files on it and leave whatever you NEED on the internal hdd. (b) The reason I say this harddrive can't be upgraded YET, is because I'm sure more 1.5" drives will be made in the future. People will understand that the low voltage drives are good for running cool, silent machines such as the TR1. Numerous Fujitsu customers complain that the harddrive gets too hot. The Sony gets a little hot, but not anything unpleasant. And what can you expect..the fan never comes on because it doesn't have to, and if you do wanna hear the fan, you better listen very carefully for a long time or else you might miss the rare occasion.
The only real other complaints I've heard from testers of this product is a smaller than average keyboard and touchpad and overall price (the biggest downside of the laptop, but still when compared to other laptops, the Sony's value shines more than ever).
I do have fairly thin to average sized fingers, and I find this 17mm pitch keyboard more comfortable than my full-sized keyboard used with my desktop. The P5010 has an 18mm pitch, but a smaller than average comma, period, and forward slash key, which would cause me to make more errors than this smaller, yet proportionally condensed keyboard. I guess it's all a matter of preference though. And the touchpad is soo rad (sorry for lack of better word). It's too accurate and if dragging and dropping becomes a problem, mouse settings in the control panel will help you solve it. The placement of the electro-static touchpad also tickles me. it's less than a half-inch away from the space bar, which means less transferring of the hand from keyboard to touchpad since your thumb is so close to both the spacebar and touchpad. It feels so nice. . .I just love to watch the mouse glide across the beautiful XBRITE screen.
But the honest reasons that this notebook rocks lie withinthe notebook. The 900MHz Low-voltage Mobile Pentium processor that comes with the Centrino package kicks rear end, my friend. It's compared to a 1.3 GHz Pentium 4 which is all the processing needs that anyone could need unless you are so darn ignorant that you really believe you need more than that. The rest of the Centrino package includes the internal wireless adapter that all notebooks of today should have installed, and the Intel graphics chip that gives the battery life that extra umph!
Sony advertises the laptop to last 7 hours, but real world time is around 5 hours which is the best out of a standard battery; it's pretty small actually. Which reminds me, unlike some bricks that I have seen some laptops come with, the charger is fairly compact and light, I was suprised by that. But anyway, buying a non-Centrino laptop will result in low battery life (not much sense in buying a laptop if you can't use it very long), hot, overworked processors annoying owners (not much sense in buying a laptop if you can't place it on your LAP), and something that's way too heavy (not much sense in buying a laptop that you can't carry around easily). A 3.1 lbs notebook with no external drives needed is what everyone needs in their life.
The only other true competitors to this very laptop are the Fujitsu P5010 and the Panasonic W2 (lightest, only 2.8 lbs). Both of those can be ordered online at www.laptopsinc.com; that was another reason I bought the Sony -- I could see in in the store, there were no Fujitsus or Panasonics around. Each is made for its own niche of users, and I am now apart of the Sony niche. "I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one."
I have not had to use Sony's tech support yet and I'm giving them 4 stars just because I haven't needed to talk to them, but I heard it wasn't worth jack. So, I'd recommend getting an extended warranty (whether it be Sony's, or a store's such as BestBuy, CircuitCity, etc.) on such an expensive machine and just letting someone else fix all the problems. I have a bad feeling about this optical drive. It seems weak, PLUS I saw a display model in CompUSA that had a broken combo drive that wouldn't shut. (It troubles me, but I think it all comes down to how well you take care of the machine).
Overall, I think it's the best of the 3 ultralights in the subnotebook category. All I can say is that they each have their pros and cons, you just need to compare them yourself. I'd highly recommend trying to actually use the machines before you buy one. Hopefully you locate a Sony somewhere and succomb to the brilliance and beauty found in the Sony.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 10 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
grndslm
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Reviews written: 2
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