A Good All-Around Performer for Home Users: Sony VAIO FR-130 Notebook
Written: Nov 20 '03
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Pros: Durable and capable, with plenty of extras and lots of potential.
Cons: Minor problem with battery connection; that hinky TouchPad
The Bottom Line: The VAIO FR130 is a fine unit for home and light office use. Though it won't bust your budget, it still has plenty of power and features.
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| scmrak's Full Review: Sony VAIO FR130 PC Notebook |
After several years of toting a notebook computer while on the road, I recently found myself bereft. Well, I was bereft of the job that had supplied the computer, but what the heck - I'm in good company. My first inclination was to set up my own business: "I'll be my own boss! No more answering to someone else!" I thought. And so it was that I diverted some of my last paycheck into the coffers of Best Buy to get myself a laptop. I'd been using a Sony for the past couple of years and felt confident in the brand; besides the manufacturer and the retailer were both running decent rebates at the time. My finances being a bit on the tight side, I could only spring for an entry-level model, the Sony VAIO FR-130. With seven months of consistent use, I'm still satisfied... Here's what my $1199 (less rebates) bought me:
Out of The Box
Processor, Hard Drive Capacity, Memory: The core of the FR-130 is an AMD Athlon 2000+ processor, with a rated clock speed of 1.667 GHz. It ain't a Pentium V, but then it's not a Celeron, either. The stock model comes with a 40 GB hard drive and 256 MB of RAM, which is expandable to 1 GB.
Video, Audio, Keyboard, Pointers: The FR-130 has a relatively small 14-inch TFT active matrix LCD screen, which is driven by an nVidia chip with 16 MB of graphics memory. Audio is managed by a VIA AC97 Audio Controller, driving a pair of tiny speakers mounted above the keyboard. There's a typical 101-key PS-2 keyboard (no number pad), and the default pointing device is a top-mounted touchpad (ALPS).
Ports and Peripherals: The FR-130 arrives equipped with a CD-RW/DVD drive and a standard floppy, both of which are side-mounted. The two PCMCIA slots are also side-mounted. The array of ports is impressive, even compared to the previous Sony I was using: three USB ports (supporting USB 2.0), a modem jack, an Ethernet port, a parallel port, an IEEE firewire port, and a monitor port. For Audio and Video playback, there's an A/V OUT jack that can be connected to a television for DVD playback, and headphone and microphone jacks. A 56 Kbps V.90 internal modem is standard.
Power: Besides running off household current (with the included adapter), the FR-130 can operate on the supplied battery. My experience is that it'll run for three or four hours between charges, although constant CD or hard drive usage quickly eats the battery. Recharge time from exhausted to fully charged is about an hour. The FR130 supports dual batteries if you remove the CD/DVD drive.
OS and Software
Sony ships the FR-130 with Windows XP (Home Version). They also bundle some software, including WordPerfect Office 2002 (WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, and Corel Presentation), PC-Cillin, and Quicken Basic 2003. A grouping of Sony A/V software is included as well, comprising such goodies as MovieShaker, PicoPlay, PictureGear, SonicBlast, and other things I've frankly never used. Sony wants to position this notebook as a video editing station, I guess.
My Modifications
The only peripheral I've felt it necessary to add is a mouse - for my money, that TouchPad is a case of carpal tunnel syndrome looking for a wrist to land on. My investment of $9 in a crummy optical mouse means that my right arm doesn't ache at night any more. Software-wise, I added in my own Microsoft Office and CorelDraw plus a couple of other miscellaneous productivity tools.
My big change was to repartition the hard drive and install RedHat Linux 9.0 over the D: partition, which means that the Sony now runs as a dual-boot DOS/UNIX machine. The process was surprisingly easy, except for it taking three days to figure out that Linux doesn't "see" but one of the USB ports for some odd reason. Otherwise, everything's copacetic.
Schlepping the Sony
Buying a less expensive notebook meant that I sacrificed two things: processor speed (it's an Athlon instead of a Pentium V) and screen size (it's a 14.1-inch diagonal instead of 15-inch or larger). But for less money, I did get "more" computer - it's heavier than the notebooks that cost twice as much - like those cool titanium Dells CEOs always "need." Overall, the FR-130 bulks in at a pretty hefty seven-plus pounds, although you can cut the mass by a pound or two by leaving your battery at home (which kind of defeats the purpose of a notebook, doesn't it?) At least it's relatively small, though, so I can fit it into my very old Targa laptop case (which I originally bought for a 286...).
Speaking of schlepping, one thing I must say is that the Sony seems pretty durable. One afternoon I came home to find it lying on the hardwood floor - either the cat or the dogs had knocked it off the table. I ran every piece of software, tested every port I could, and ran every peripheral: everything still works (knock wood). One problem I've had with the FR-130 is that the battery doesn't always seat properly, so the system thinks it's not charged. Come to think of it, that problem went away after it took that dive. Hmmm, maybe I can rent the animals out as computer techs? Another problem I noted is that the TouchPad seems oversensitive, but I get the impression that they're all like that.
Overall Impressions
In terms of I/O, the LCD screen has excellent clarity (at least for these aging eyes), good enough that I have no problems reading 8-point type and can even puzzle through 6-point sans serif text if I have to. The inboard speakers are pretty laughable - very tinny - which is understandable, since they're also very tiny. They're barely acceptable for audio on a DVD, but just don't cut it for playing CDs. Using headphones has proved quite acceptable, however. I've seen no problems with 'Net connections, either modem or Ethernet.
I appreciate the XP - not that it's the greatest, but my desktop PC has Windows ME. That in itself says volumes...
Buyers will definitely want to add a mouse, since those TouchPads are pretty hinky pieces of work. Working without a mouse is OK for the short term, but I wouldn't want to make a habit of it.
This isn't a particularly powerful package, although upgrading to the full gig of memory would probably help a bit. Still, if you're running CPU-intensive special applications, you may want to scrape together a few additional dollars to get more horsepower. A Toshiba with a Pentium V and pretty much the same other features is only a $100 more. If, however, you only need a laptop for an internet connection and doing office productivity-type things, this one's a darned good place to start.
previously reviewed topic covered in the text:
Red Hat Linux 9.0
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1199
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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