Innovative tool, if a bit pricey
Written: Nov 06 '99 (Updated Nov 08 '99)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Stunning design, compact size, genuinely useful and fun!
Cons: A little slow, somewhat expensive
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| GR366's Full Review: Sony VAIO C1X PC Notebook |
I'm writing this epinion from my Sony PictureBook. I bought this nifty little machine six months ago and have gotten a lot of use out of it, primarily Web surfing, email and Web development. Okay, some games too.
The camera, built on a swivel atop the screen, is certainly not high quality, but the pictures are passable (maximum 640x480 pixels). This feature came in very handy while I was looking for an apartment to share with my sister, who was moving from Boston to L.A. A small capture button at the upper-right corner of the keyboard automatically launches the image capture software, and the same button snaps the picture with an actual shutter sound. I can't say I use the camera as much as I thought I would -- although it did prove handy in snapping a picture of my coworker asleep on the job once.
The screen is gorgeous, quite bright and crisp. Default resolution is 1024x480, so it feels like you're looking at a motion picture screen. This aspect ratio felt natural to me, coming from an everyday work setup of a Macintosh with two monitors next to each other. It's important that you have good eyesight, though -- things get a little small.
I like the keyboard. I probably couldn't type effectively if it were any smaller, but it does just fine. There are a few space-saving quirks, like the tilde key positioned down by the fn and ctrl keys.
There is no trackpad, which I happen to like. I never really got the hang of those. I've found the little pointer stick in the middle of the keyboard to be very natural -- it's fast and has a bit of texture to it to keep finger traction. There are replacement tips for the pointer stick included. The "mouse" buttons are well positioned, and Sony has even added a sort of scroll wheel -- a third button in the center that you can click and then scroll using the pointer stick.
An internal modem is included and connection is literally a snap with a little hinged door near the back-right. I'd have preferred that the external ports have been positioned on the right side and the expansion card on the left, but that's because I'm right-handed, and plugging the external mouse (not included) on the left takes away a good portion of the slack of the little VAIO mouse cable.
The PictureBook is quite rugged. I regularly drop it in my backpack and can go anywhere without the traditional over-the-shoulder laptop bag. The power supply is well-designed. There's a gutter around the perimeter to wrap the cord around (so that it doesn't bulk out beyond the shape of the little brick), and the metal prongs that go into the outlet actually collapse into the brick as well.
I don't use the battery very much. It has come in handy while traveling, but I'm usually close enough to an outlet -- and I didn't want to shell out the extra $300 for the bigger battery.
The problems I've had with the machine are: 1) Sound for some reason stutters out of the speaker sometimes. 2) Processor speed is a little slow for today's standards -- a Pentium 266 MMX. Definitely upgrade it to 128MB RAM (To be fair, I have successfully played Quake II on this little machine!) 3) Occasionally the sleep mode wakes up to an all-white screen and I have to fully power the machine off (this is accomplished by pushing the power button and holding for a good 3 seconds). 4) I was never able to connect to Sony's online registration for this product.
Overall, I've been very pleased with this beautiful machine. I think the design is brilliant (I might have to buy an Audi TT to match it!), the portability is top-notch (imagine carrying a slightly oversized paperback book), and the geek-factor makes it irresistible (I literally developed a very large Web site almost entirely on this machine). I don't know what Sony has planned for version 2, you might want to wait and see. On the other hand, you're not going to find these features anywhere else.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
GR366
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 9 members
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