Does the Sony VAIO have the Competitive Edge?
Written: Mar 28 '01 (Updated Mar 28 '01)
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Pros: Features, performance, versatility.
Cons: Technical service and support a potential concern, price.
The Bottom Line: Competitive notebook although I can’t put forth a recommendation in light of current competitor’s offerings based on price and anticipated technical support and service.
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| dmezzer's Full Review: Sony VAIO XG29 PC Notebook |
In choosing a laptop or notebook computer the consumer is faced with an array of products which I’ll venture to say have more similarities than differences. The laptop/notebook computer as an electronic device is designed primarily to be portable. Not so long ago portability was even attained at the expense of performance and other measures of operating convenience such as pointing devices and tiny keyboards. What has evolved due to consumer preference is somewhat of a compromise between performance and convenience while maintaining the portability for which the laptop/notebook is intended.
The Sony VAIO PCG-XG29 is a notebook computer which attains its objective of portability without sacrificing performance. There are still a couple of areas, one of which is convenience, where the Sony VAIO doesn’t necessarily measure up for everyone and these will be examined below.
Features
Dimensions
The Sony VIAO as mentioned above delivers in terms of portability with dimensions of 1.75” x 12.1” x 10.3” and a weight of 6 lbs. (without either the CD-RW or DVD-ROM drive in the multi-bay which brings the weight up to about 7.5 lbs.) Even at 7.5 pounds this thing weighs about the same as my Fender Stratocaster which is pretty light as solid-body electric guitars go. So if you can imagine having an electric guitar strapped over your shoulder in a smoke filled bar room the temperature and humidity of a steam bath for a couple of hours, you can imagine that carrying the VAIO through an airport for a couple of hours shouldn’t really be that much of a problem.
Performance
The XG29 comes equipped with an Intel Pentium III at 750 MHz fully powered (operating with reduced battery power can actually reduce throughput speed for your processor), 256kb Cache, and 128mb SDRAM (upgradeable to 256kb). PCI Bus. Fairly standard performance specs consistent with what’s on the market today.
Drives
Hard drive capacity is 18.1GB. The hot swap drive bay can be used for either the included DVD-ROM drive, the included floppy drive, an optional CD-RW drive, or an optional second hard drive or second battery pack giving you some very useful alternatives although these optional items surely don’t come cheap.
Display and Appearance
Both functionally and aesthetically this computer is a pleasure. The XGA screen is 14.1 inches diagonally which isn’t bad for a notebook. Driving the 14.1” display is NeoMagic’s NeoMedia technology which integrates larger amounts of DRAM (in this case 6 mb of SGRAM) with logic and analog functions for accelerated 3D graphics, AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) support combined with a standard 128-bit graphics accelerator and an MPEG accelerator. The end results are some impressive graphics which are a requirement for contemporary gaming and other multimedia including DVD playback. Although DVD playback won’t approach Omni-Theatre impressiveness on the 14.1” XGA, an external monitor can of course be connected for some improvement.
Battery
The included battery pack is a lithium ion which is rated for 2.5 - 3.5 hours of battery life per charge. This can of course be doubled by adding an optional second battery pack for a dual battery setup.
Slots and Interfaces
The Sony VAIO-XG29 in equipped with 2 PC card slots which can be filled with two type II cards or one type III PC card, ports for a VGA monitor, USB, RJ-11 phone jack, i.Link, Parallel port (floppy drive can be connected here), microphone input (mono), and headphone jack.
Other features
The XG29 sports IrDA standard infrared support, built-in stereo speakers, built-in microphone. Sony has also innovated the Jog Dial Control which serves as a pointing device, as well as a volume and brightness control. There is still a standard touch pad with scrolling functionality. A V.90 56kb modem is built in as well.
Accessories
Supplied accessories include the lithium-ion battery, the removable DVD-ROM drive, floppy drive, an AC adapter and a weight saver (a plastic insert which can be left in the drive bay to supposedly save weight).
Optional accessories available for purchase include a CD-RW drive as mentioned above, a 10GB hard drive, a docking station, or a USB mouse.
Software
Notable pre-installed software includes Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Word 2000, Sonic Foundry Sound Forge (a very functional audio mixing, editing program), Quicken Basic 2000, and a host of Sony multimedia software programs and basic task management utilities.
Bottom Line
The above makes the Sony VAIO PCG-XG29 sound impressive and it is. But it’s impressive in the same way many of it’s competitors Notebooks are impressive. There are a couple of things however which are unimpressive which in a market as competitive and as susceptible to rapid depreciation as the notebook computer market, may just be enough to warrant some serious consideration before laying down your $3600.00 for one of these. This is not a low-end unit in terms of pricing nor in terms of features, yet there a couple of things which one may find annoying which are integral to notebook satisfaction in terms of everyday usage are the size of the keyboard and the pointing devices. How much larger would the unit have to have been to make the keyboard comfortable to operate? For an example the Dell Dimension achieves a more comfortable keyboard size with dimensions of only 1.4” x 12.5” x 9.9”. The pointing mechanisms may be purely a matter of personal taste, but I would recommend considering purchasing the USB mouse accessory. Of course I’d have the same recommendation for the Dell. Be that as it may, a more important concern by far is support under warranty. For the price of this unit Sony really doesn’t offer anything exceptional in the area of support or warranty, something which should be looked at very closely with the purchase of a portable device as complex as a notebook. Sony pre-installs a lot of Sony software which again brings up a potential support concern. With a good reputation in customer support (like Dell’s) this unit would be more attractive, but Sony doesn’t have that. I’ve heard testimonials on problems attaining adequate technical support from Sony and I’ve had personal experience with Sony’s lack of durability in some products. All in all this is really a personal decision which depends to a large degree on one’s comfort with the support level offered. Personally I tend to be leaning more and more towards placing a high value on proven technical support for computer products as complexity increases.
To sum up, I would suggest a lengthy comparison of available competitive models and reading as many owner reviews on epinions as possible before buying a notebook in order to balance the ravers with the eye-openers. Although this product is competitive in many ways, and may be the perfect notebook for some, based on my personal criteria in which technical service and support weighs heavy, I can’t put forth a recommendation in light of current competitor’s offerings.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 3599.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 701-800
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Member: Don Mezzer
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