The Sony VAIO VGN-N130G/W Notebook is a nice addition for under $1000.00. It comes with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a 80GB hard drive. The notebook measures 14.4 inches wide, by 10.5 inches deep, by 1.6 inches thick and weighs 6.8 pounds.

It is loaded with 1 Gigabyte of DDR2 memory at 533MHz. (512MBx2) The 80GB hard drive is a Serial ATA drive running at 5400-rpm. (Revolutions Per Minute) The color display measures 15.4 inches with 1280 x 800 display in the widescreen mode.


The Strong Points
The LCD screen has XBRITE-ECO LCD technology to give movies better color purity and saturation, even in bright light. The widescreen color display on the notebook has brilliant colors and is crystal clear. It is powered with an integrated 128MB video, (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950) which is shared from the 1GB of on board memory.

There is a 80GB SATA hard drive running at 5400rpm. (Revolutions Per Minute)

The Intel Core 2 Duo processor T2050 1.6GHz is a good choice for an Intel chip. There is one Gigabyte of DDR2 memory at 533MHz, which is a very good choice for speed, performance and plenty of memory to run all the applications. It is expandable to 2GB maximum.

It has a built-in 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) Wireless Networking Adapter; made to work with most wireless connections. With Wi-Fi you can connect wirelessly at many places that offer free wireless connections. Place that offer a wireless connection are airports, colleges and hotels, plus you can use it wirelessly between your home computer if it is equipped for it.

The DVD reader/writer has 4x DL DVD+R/-R, (DL=Dual Layer can burn twice as much data) and 8x DVD+R/-R, with 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW. It also plays CDs and writes on 24x CD-R discs.

There is a multimedia card reader built-in that supports many of today's cards. Here is a list of cards; SD Card, Memory Stick Card, MMC Card, Memory Stick PRO, ExpressCard, and Memory Stick DUO PRO.


The Weak Points
It is great that Sony added 1GB (Gigabyte) of memory, but it uses two 512MB (Megabytes) of chips so there are no empty slots for adding more memory. The VAIO VGN-N130G/W can be upgraded to 2GB, but you will have to remove the two 512MB chips and replace them with two 1GB chips.

The hard drive running at 5400rpm instead of 7200rpm is a disappointment for me. The performance of the whole system is hampered because of a slower hard drive, especially in use with graphics like playing a game.

Using 128MB of shared memory for the graphics card is a disappointment for me, it should have been 128MB or 256MB of memory dedicated for the video card only and not using the RAM made to run the notebook. I know most Notebooks use the same memory, but that is a performance factor that can slow the Notebook down.

Like all Notebooks, the built-in speakers lack enough bass sound.


Other Features
A Lithium ion battery for about 5.5 hours of usage.
Network Card 10Base-T/100Base-TX
Modem Integrated V.92/V.90
AC adapter
667MHz FSB
PCMCIA/PC-Card connection
USB ports
One Firewire port
One year of warranty


Software Included
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Sony Click to DVD and DVgate Plus
Microsoft Works 8.5

Trial Software Included
Microsoft Office 2003
Norton Internet Security
TrendMicro AntiSpyware
America Online


VGN-FE770G verses VGN-N130G/W
The Sony VAIO VGN-FE770G Notebook is a better choice if you think it is worth an extra $300 to spend on a notebook.

The VGN-FE770G has a 120GB hard drives verses an 80GB hard drive for the VGN-N130G/W.

The VGN-FE770G uses the Intel Core Duo Processor T5600 (1.83GHz) verses the VGN-N130G/W with a slightly slower processor, the Intel Core Duo Processor T2050 (1.6GHz.)

There are some other minor changes, but overall the VAIO VGN-FE770G Notebook has a larger hard drive and a faster processor.


My Thoughts
The Sony VAIO VGN-N130G/W Notebook is a nice entry-level notebook computer for under $1000. The notebook is easy to use and the screen produces some brilliant colors.

Gaming makes the video come alive, especially if you add a set of external speakers with a subwoofer. Graphic games like Doom 3 played fair with a little hesitation, but not too bad. The same game plays flawlessly on my home computer with an AMD 3800 64-bit processor. If this Notebook would have had its own memory for the video card and a 7200rpm hard drive, I believe that Doom3 would have played flawlessly.

As far as video, it played flawlessly with great color and clarity. All of my DVDs are in the Widescreen format and this screen really showed how beautiful the video is.

The Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is a nice addition for the family and general use; for business I would recommend Windows XP professional or wait for the new Windows Vista (proposed date) to come out at the end of this month. No free upgrade to Vista for the notebook I was testing.

The battery is rated at 2.5 to 5.5 hours; I got about 4 hours before it needed a recharge. Charging time can very depending on usage.

Overall, it is not a bad computer for the price, though I personally still think AMD has Intel beat on price and performance of the processor.

This notebook is good for the home, office and taking to school.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 989
Operating System: Windows
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50