Shopping Sony VAIO VGN-FW198U/H

The Sony VAIO VGN-FW198U/H as sony vgp-bps8 strikes a near-perfect balance of portability, multimedia power, and screen real estate. How? One of the big reasons is the display. This notebook is the first to boast a 16.4-inch widescreen (with 16:9 aspect ratio) making this FW model ideal for watching Blu-ray movies or having two applications open side by side. At the same time, it’s considerably lighter than most 17-inch notebooks and only marginally heavier than notebooks with smaller 15.4-inch displays. And with Intel’s new Centrino 2 technology for fast productivity performance, better-than-average battery life, and a strikingly sleek design, there’s no reason why sony vgp-bps9 shouldn’t be at the top of your short list.

Design

Measuring 1.46 inches at its thickest point, the VAIO FW isn’t as svelte as an Apple MacBook Pro; still, the silver-and-black chassis looks sharp, blending angles and curves in a pleasing way. Open the latchless lid and you’ll find an uncluttered keyboard deck, with the comfortable Sony flat-top keyboard set into a plain silver deck. Unlike other “luxury” portables, however, sony vgp-bps9a/b has a decidedly plastic feel, but we are happy to see an oversize touchpad to match the large screen. Alas, the mouse buttons on our early production model were a bit loud and likely to annoy others if you’re in a quiet room.

Above sony vgp-bps9/s battery are Sony’s handy multimedia-control and volume buttons (but oddly, no mute button). We really appreciate the programmable AV Mode button, which lets you register utilities (Windows Media Center, iTunes, the Webcam applet, and so on) whose icons then appear in a quick-launch ribbon menu when you press the button.

All the requisite ports are here, including HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, USB (three of them), and FireWire. Sony has also included a memory card reader supporting Memory Stick and SD/MMC formats, as well as an ExpressCard/34 slot (yes, PC Cards have gone the way of the serial port, at least on consumer portables).

Sound quality from the up-firing stereo speakers was very good, with decent bass. But their top volume, while fine for personal use, might be inadequate for watching a movie from the couch. Considering the latitude d630 battery, some media mavens will find the lack of an integrated TV tuner and a remote disappointing in a desktop replacement model.

Novel Screen

The highlight of this all-new design as lenovo/IBM t61 battery is the unique-to-Sony 16.4-inch LCD. If a 15.4-inch desktop replacement has you wishing for more screen real estate but a 17-inch (or larger) luggable sacrifices too much in the way of portability, the VAIO FW Series is the answer to your prayers. The 16.4-inch screen, which has an aspect ratio of 16:9 instead of 16:10 (as seen on most widescreens) makes it seem squatter compared to other notebooks of its ilk, but in daily use, you’ll hardly notice the difference.Sony vgp-bps9/b gives you an uncramped view while still allowing the system to weigh a reasonably portable 6.7 pounds.

Image quality from the 1600 x 900 panel is stunning. It employs Sony’s Xbrite-HiColor technology, which claims a higher brightness and wider color gamut than run-of-the-mill LCDs, and it shows. Watching the Blu-ray edition of Live Free or Die Hard (via the preloaded InterVideo WinDVD BD player) was a pleasure on this screen, which exhibited natural colors, good details in shadow areas, and very good motion reproduction.

In Windows apps, colors pop, and we found ourselves turning down the screen brightness to work comfortably. So if your viewing environment has a lot of windows or overhead fluorescents, this panel as inspiron e1505 battery has the candle power to overcome it. The screen also boasts wide viewing angles, which makes the VAIO FW a good machine for multiple viewers to gather around.

Centrino 2 and Other Features

The xps m1330 battery combines a 2.53-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 processor, which has a faster front-side bus (FSB) than previous Intel CPUs, with 4GB of 800-MHz DDR2 SDRAM. We’d prefer DDR3 RAM, which is faster and uses less power, but that’s far from a dealbreaker. Rounding out the circuitry are a new chipset (the Mobile Intel 45 Express) and Intel’s next-gen 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi chip (dubbed WiFi Link 5100), and onboard Gigabit Ethernet.This inspiron 1525 battery trades integrated graphics for an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 graphics card. A big but not blazing 5,400-rpm 320GB hard drive rounds out the features.