Sony VAIO F (Late 2011) Laptop Reviews

Sony VAIO F (Late 2011) Laptop Reviews

The $1,399 Sony VAIO F is all lights, camera, and action. Boasting a large 16.4-inch 1080p display, a Blu-ray player, and a healthy stable of multimedia software, Sony’s latest entertainment media machine is sure to impress. A blazing quad-core Core i7 processor with Nvidia graphics ensures the show goes on, but is the VAIO F worth the cost of admission?

Sony VAIO F Design

The VAIO F is a collection of understated design and interesting angles. The black matte plastic lid is rather austere; a large chrome VAIO insignia is its only decoration. What the notebook lacks in panache, it makes up for with its ability to resist fingerprints and smudges. The lid is a half-inch shorter than the bottom deck, giving the notebook a prominent bottom lip that houses indicator lights for battery, wireless, and the SD card reader.

The notebook’s interior is similarly spartan, constructed of black matte plastic with few flourishes. The standout features include a large backlit keyboard and a raised plastic strip that serves as the palm rest and the touchpad. The keyboard deck slopes downward, revealing a long, thin speaker grille. Touch-sensitive media controls as well as buttons for VAIO Assist, the web browser, VAIO Media Gallery, and power are located directly above the keyboard.

Measuring 15.7 x 10.7 x 1.3-1.7 inches and weighing 6.6 pounds, the VAIO F easily outweighs both the Gigabyte P2532 (15.4 x 10.4 x 1.1-1.4 inches) and the HP Pavilion dv6t (14.8 x 9.7 x 1.2-1.3 inches), both of which weigh 5.8 pounds. While the Dell XP 15 L502X is slightly smaller at 15 x 10.4 x 1.5 inches, it managed to match the VAIO F’s chunky 6.6-pound frame.

Sony VAIO F Performance

Thanks to a quad-core 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-2670QM processor with 6GB of RAM, the VAIO F has some serious power under the hood. The notebook posted 9,608 on the PCMark Vantage. That’s 1,326 points above the desktop replacement average, and it also beats out the P2532 (8,780) and the XPS 15 L502X (8,548), both of which have a 2-GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU and 8GB of RAM. The HP dv6t’s 2.3-GHz Intel Core i5-2410M processor with 6GB brought up the rear with a score of 6,673.

It took the Sony VAIO F’s 640GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive 59 seconds to boot up the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, 2 seconds faster than the average. The Gigabyte P2532 and Dell XPS 15 L502X posted 1:00 and 0:53 thanks to their 750GB, 7,200-rpm hard drives. Although it’s also equipped with a 640GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive, the Pavilion dv6t came in dead last at 72 seconds.

During the LAPTOP File Transfer Test, the VAIO F duplicated 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 2 minutes and 38 seconds for a transfer rate of 32.2 MBps, slightly slower than the 36.2 MBps desktop replacement average. The P2532 and XPS 15 L502X tied with 33.3 MBps while the dv6t posted 30.1 MBps.

On the OpenOffice Spreadsheet test, the VAIO F took 5 minutes and 13 seconds to match 20,000 names to their corresponding addresses, 55 seconds behind the average. Still, it held on to beat out the XPS 15 L502X and the P2532, which clocked in at 5:14 and 5:27, respectively.

Sony VAIO F Technical Specifications

CPU 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-2670QM CPU
Operating System MS Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
RAM 6GB RAM Upgradable to 8GB
Hard Drive Size 640GB
Hard Drive Speed 7,200rpm
Hard Drive Type SATA Hard Drive
Display Size 16.4
Native Resolution 1920×1080
Optical Drive BD-R
Optical Drive Speed 8X
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GT540M
Video Memory 1GB
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Wi-Fi Model Atheros 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Mobile Broadband -
Touchpad Size 3.5 x 1.9 inches
Ports (excluding USB) Ethernet; Firewire 400; HDMI; Headphone; Microphone; USB 3.0; VGA; security lock slot
USB Ports 3 Ports
Card Slots 4-1 card reader
Warranty/Support 1 year limited warranty
Size 15.7 x 10.7 x 1.3 – 1.7-inches
Weight 6.6 pounds

height end sony laptops

The ultraportable market has become the pinnacle of laptops _ cramming all you can into a sleekly designed and light offering. So it’s no surprise to see so many models on offer. Sony’s designers, like many Japanese, are spatial geniuses, and have traditionally been very good in this area. The manufacturer has revamped its Vaio Z series to take on the competition from Apple, Samsung and Toshiba, among others.

So can Sony continue to justify its high prices in such a competitive market? Will people keep paying as competitors’ prices stay low? Let’s look at the least expensive of the three configurations of Vaio Z to see if it can keep Sony in the lead in the world of de luxe ultraportables.

OUTSIDE

The aluminium and carbon fibre design from the older Vaio Z models continues but the overall look is a departure. The matte black finish adds style points. Its slate-like appearance looks sturdy, even though it weighs only 1.39kg, around the same as the competition.

Below the screen, the island keyboard is well considered, nicely laid out and back-lit, but not as responsive as it could be. Below it, the button-less trackpad has a slightly annoying fingerprint reader in the middle of the touch buttons, and it’s not ideal for users with long fingers.

INSIDE

This configuration houses an Intel Core i5-580M Processor at 2.66 GHz supported by 6GB RAM. It’s an impressive engine and outperforms the low-voltage CPUs found in its competitors.

There is a 128GB (64GB x 2) SSD on board _ a big sticking point for the ultraportables. The SSD is no doubt superior and just becoming affordable, but is 128GB enough?

The 13.1-inch WXGA TFT screen with 1,600×900 resolution is another interesting choice by Sony. Lenovo opted for gorilla glass on its ThinkPad X1.

Although it’s pitched as a business machine, the speakers are below par for this price bracket.

A notable innovation by Sony is the Power Media Dock. It’s basically an external static dock that allows for the ultra light-weight of the machine, and assumes you will only use more power when at home, which is true for most users. It’s an interesting direction for Sony, and gives the machine new scope as a power hitter when at home, with its AMD Radeon HD 6650M card with 1GB of video RAM, optical drive and extra ports. But it threatens to become redundant as the technology becomes light (and cheap) enough to be contained on board _ so it’s just a bridging device for now, albeit an effective one.

Battery life is very good, as expected, on a par with the MBA and Samsung Series 9 at almost a full day’s use with normal work demands. Benchmarks online have pinned the machines at more than four hours of heavy use.

VERDICT

Sony satisfies the high expectations users have of the company with the new Vaio Z series, packing the spec of a much larger notebook into the form factor of an ultraportable. And you can really turn it into a monster with one of the higher-specification Vaios if you have a company credit card to wield.

Users will like the sleek design, power and the luxury feel, but the input devices and price will be stumbling blocks for many.

Most personal users will lean towards less expensive options with less performance, such as the Toshiba Portege R830, MBA or Samsung Series 9, in that price order _ but the Vaio Z series isn’t aimed at them anyway. For personal buyers who need power, Sony maintains its position as a leader in this sector.

via : http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/gadget/257116/high-end-sony-lite

Taiwan's HTC unveils 4G tablet HTC unveils 4G tablet in Taiwan

Taiwan’s leading smartphone maker HTC unveiled its first tablet device with 4G telecommunications technology on Thursday.

Fourth generation — 4G — technology provides high-speed broadband wireless services and higher quality image and data services.

The HTC Jetstream is due to hit the US market on Sunday, offered by telecom giant AT&T for $699.99 with a two-year contract, the manufacturer said.

The tablet will be equipped with a 10.1-inch (26 centimetre) screen and use Google’s Android 3.1 platform.

Analysts are not expecting big sales as the next generation telecommunication technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE), has yet to penetrate the market significantly.

Toshiba Qosmio X775 Review Toshiba laptops Qosmio X775 laptops Reviews

Toshiba Qosmio X775-Q7272 has the following specifications

- 17.3-inch glossy 900p display (1600×900 resolution)
- Intel Core i7-2630QM quad-core processor (2.0GHz, up to 2.9GHz Turbo Boost, 6MB cache, 45W TDP)
- Intel HM65 chipset
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M graphics card w/ 1GB GDDR5 dedicated video memory
- Graphics automatically switchable to integrated Intel graphics (Nvidia Optimus)
- 6GB DDR3-1333 RAM (1x 4GB + 1x 2GB; supports up to 8GB – 2x 4GB)
- Dual 500GB 7200RPM Seagate hard drives (ST9500423AS)
- Atheros AR9002WB-1NG wireless network adapter
- No internal Bluetooth
- Integrated webcam
- Tray-load Blu-ray ROM/DVD burner (MATSHITA BD-CMB UJ141EL)
- 1-year limited warranty
- 8-cell Li-ion battery (47Wh)
- Weight: 6.6 lbs.
- Dimensions: 16.3 x 10.8 x 1.1~2.4 inches

This Toshiba Qosmio X775 has got enthusiast-level specifications, so it is a high performance gaming notebook computer. Though it has 500GB hard drive, it still seems smaller than mainstreamed 40GB, 750GB, and 1TB drives. Qosmio X775 has non-traditional appearance. This powerful notebook has a low-res screen, outlandish design and mediocre build quality. If you are looking for a high-end multimedia use laptop, Toshiba Qosmio X775 is your best option.

Of course, some people may love it, however, and a great majority of people may not appreciate it. The X775′s shape is not as extreme as the previous-generation Qosmio X305, but what it lacks in curves it makes up for in bizarre colors. The palm rest and lid surface have a wood grain-like texture with metal silver paint which is almost blinding in direct light; needless to say, I am not a fan. The colors fade between black and red, which adds to the extreme look (for better or worse).

The build quality is disappointing. The X775′s plastic construction does little to differentiate it from most budget notebooks; more upscale materials are required on a notebook this expensive. The chassis has significant flex when twisted by the corners, meaning this notebook needs a stronger internal frame. The lid is flimsy and can be twisted with almost no effort; ripples appear on the screen when pressed from behind, indicating the display panel itself has little protection.

Overall the gaudy design is tough to like and the build quality is substandard compared to other multimedia and gaming laptops in the same price range.

Toshiba Qosmio X775 Ports and Features
Toshiba Qosmio X775 supports various ports – as it stands the notebook has the basics plus USB 3.0 but lacks an ExpressCard slot, DisplayPort, and eSATA. The optical drive also had an annoying rattle while reading DVDs. All picture descriptions below are listed from left to right.