Sony VAIO FS-640 Notebook PC

By C. Gomez
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C. Gomez

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Hello folks, this is my first large-scale review so please bear with me. I?ve been at Neowin a long time but have been out of it for a while as of late and just couldn?t remember my username, so here I am starting from scrat:blink:ink:

** Each picture is available in a much higher-resolution form, simply click on any one of them and you'll be taken to my Flickr account (out of my kindness towards 56k peop;)) ;)Introduction

Today, I will be reviewing Sony?s latest offering in the notebook computing market, the Sony FS-640. It is a light and moderately powerful portable computer that still manages to be stylish and well prices in the same breath. Before I get into all the subjectivity and photographs, here?s a technical primer on the notebook?s feTechnical Specificationsations

Processor: 1.6 GHz Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor

System Bus Speed: 533 MHz

RAM: 512 MB

Max RAM: 1 GB

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition

Hard Drive: 80 GB, 5400RPM

Primary Optical Drive: CD-RW: 40x (read), 16x (write), 10x (rewrite),

DVD-ROM: 8x, DVD Recorder: (DVD+/-RW)

Memory Stick Media Slot

Graphics Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900

Graphics RAM: 128 MB

Display: WXGA with XBRITE-ECO technology

Display Diagonal Size: 15.40 hundredths-inches

Display Viewable Size: 15.4 inches

Ports and Connectivity

PC Card Slots: 1

FireWire Ports: 1

USB 2.0 Ports: 3

Modem: 56 Kbps

Network Connection: Intel PRO/WIRELESS 2200BG Network Connection

Size (LWH): 14.30 inches, 10.40 inches, 1.40 inches

Weight: 6.30 pounds

From the technical specifications alone, you are able to tell that this notebook is quite light and small when you factor in that it has a 15.4? WXGA screen. In addition, it features a pretty zippy Pentium-M processor and the whole Centrino wireless dealey (to be talked about later). But, first thinOpening the Box the Box

The notebook, ordered from Amazon.com, comes in a clean and simple box. It?s a tad fancier than what you?d get with a Dell but is no Apple product packaging where you get the ?wow? factor. What was included was simply the notebook, a battery pack, an AC adapter and minimal documentation. The manual and recovery media aren?t provided so you have to print that from a PDF on Sony?s website and use 11 CD-Rs or 2 DVD-Rs for the recovery media.

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In reference to the keyboard, I thought it was wonderful. It was nice and quite large, the tactile feedback of each key was right on and it?s a breeze to type on. I am able to type full speed without and difference from my full-sized desktop keyboard. The touchpad is a simple touchpad that matches the gray/silver casing that surrounds it.

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I'd like to emphasize how thin the notebook is which is one feature that really appealed to me. The looks in general of the computer simply are awesome and, to accent that point, take a closer look:

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With 512MB of RAM, the notebook was not slowed much by running multiple applications at once, at most times, iTunes, Firefox, and multiple Office applications were always running with nearly zero wait while changing windows and multitasking.

The CD-RW/DVD-RW (dual layer) drive works wonderfully. Playing DVDs works well right out of the box and so does burning DVDs. I did not have a chance to test out the dual layer functionality because I couldn?t find any media when I was out to the store, and I had no use for 9GB of space on one disc. On the same subject, the Memory Stick slot works just as advertised with the media that I had on hand. No surprise, I just wish that it had an Secure Digital or Compact Flash slot to use since those are my media formats of choice.

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For expandability, there is nothing too special here. Three USB 2.0 ports work just fine, and there is one 4-pin Firewire port on the side. One qualm I have with this is that it isn?t full sized which means you have to use one of those blasted adapters with most devices which means there is just one more thing to lose. But this is standard Sony protocol, so I shouldn?t have been all that surprised. Also, there is a PC Card slot available, no surprise and does what it should.

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The harddrive is a spacious 80GB capacity drive, about 6GB are set aside for the recovery images of stuff (which I will delete soon since I?ve created the recovery media already). The first thing I did with the drive was resize it down to 55GB and use the newly freed space for extra partitions since its and organizational system that I always use, having documents and photographs on another partition makes me feel better. I don?t know, doesn?t matter that much anyway.

As for graphics performance, it does not include any spectacular ATI Mobile graphics card or anything, but its performance is good by any account. I tested it with games I had on hand (Midtown Madness 2, Grand Theft Auto 3, MS Flight Simulator 2004, Sim City 4) and they all ran just fine, the same or better than my desktop with a NVIDIA GeForce 4 card. You can?t really Wireless Performance it just works well.

Wireless Performance

In this day and age, wireless is standard issue on notebook computers. This particular one was of the Intel Centrino branding and it works fan-freaking-tastically. The speed I get is great, but the big story is range. When my HP iPAQ 4355 only gives me about 2 of 5 bars on my wireless network while the notebook from the exact same place reads off ?Excellent? in Windows. It outperformed a desktop PCI Wi-Fi card as well by a large margin, even when unobstructed. I was able to use the notebook in places where the PDA signal dropped out many many feet ago. I don?t know if this is true on all Centrino notebooks, but the excellent performance made wireless a stand-out feature on the notebook.

One thing I must say is that to get good wireless performance, you must change a few settings. When I first started using the notebook and started downloading the Windows updates, the downloads would keep stalling and I had no idea why? The thing is, by default, it uses this ultra-powersaving setup on the wireless chip. Once you go into the Device Manager and get into the device properties for the Intel WirelessPRO 2200BG chip and change the power settings, you?ll be good to go. The 15.4? WXGA Widescreen Displayworks just great.

The 15.4? WXGA Widescreen Display

I am incredibly picky about LCD screens, color and brightness; ask anyone. But I was more than pleased with this widescreen display. It?s plenty bright, and is quite usable at 60-80% brightness when most displays need it cranked all the way up to have white-whites and a nice bright screen. And, the thing I usually complain about with LCDs is that white doesn?t always look white; it can look yellowish or it can look blueish. This screen is neither, white is white in all of its vibrant glory. The 1280x800 pixel resolution is very usable on a screen of this size, too.

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Battery Life

In real life use, I?d say that the battery life on this Sony notebook is average. When using Wi-Fi with my own, more power-devouring chip settings, the notebook gets about two full hours of continuous use (listening to a network stream of music in iTunes, browsing the internet and working in Microsoft Word). When Wi-Fi is off and I plug in an Ethernet cable, the battery life almost doubles to about three and half hHeat and Cooling It?s far from spectacular but I?ll take it.

Heat and Cooling

As computers get faster, they produce much more heat which has become a big problem with notebook computers; this is where the new Pentium-Ms are supposed to shine. The Sony Vaio does moderately well when it comes to how much heat is ends up producing and how it cools itself. When I am using this heavily and with wireless active, the notebook gets moderately hot; not too hot to touch, but I?d say lukewarm or so. This is when it is actually on my lap or a desk, but I did notice that when I used it on my bed where there are many blankets, the notebook got much hotter since the heat had nowhere to go. That alarmed me a bit since the fan on the notebook hardly ever comes on (not counting the one on the DVD drive). Overall, I think the cOdds and Ends even a tad better than most new ones that I?ve used.

Odds and Ends

The Vaio has a few features that are worth mentioning.

>> The touchpad allows you to scroll vertically and horizontally if you drag your finger along the right or bottom of it, respectively. I don?t know how common this is, but it became an invaluable feature when browsing the internet.

>> The speakers are relatively good for a notebook and the volume goes quite loud too. I also liked that Sony made the headphone jack at the front of the notebook and not on the side which just seems a bit more convenient.

>> The WLAN functionality has a dedicated switch to enable and disable it.

Annoyances and Dislikes[/b].flickr.com/22763767_5881653d5f.jpg[/img]

Annoyances and Dislikes

Okay, this device is not without its flaws, and here they are (or what bugged me a lot).

>> The Ethernet port on this notebook is a tad loose; what I mean is that, while the cable won?t come unhooked from the computer, it when moved a lot can lose connection for a split second because it sort of has a bit of room to wiggle around. This will never impact you when you?re using the book on a desk or in a stationary position, I only noticed this when I was using the notebook on my lap and moved it a lot.

>> The Firewire port is not standard sized and there are no other media card slots other than the Memory Stick. Not necessities but bothered me enough.

>> Sony has a thing about making about five hundred programs that are just for the Vaio, and while some are nice, some are just pointless and take up space that they shouldn?t.

>> No printer manuals or recovery media. I didn?t need a manual, but on a notebook that costs this much, thPriceamn manual; jeez. And recovery media should not be an extra charge, Sony?

Price

The notebook was not that expensive in my opinion for being a stylish Sony. It was $1500 at Amazon.com, but at the time, there was $250 available in rebates which made it much more Final Scoring and Pros/ConsedPackaging: 8/10 or a computer of this quality.

Final Scoring and Pros/ConInstallation/Setup: 9/10(It?s no Apple iPod half-cube, but it doesn?t need to be)

Installation/Setup: 9/10

(Was quick enough, but Windows Design/Aesthetics: 10/10alone without setting up an internet connection at the startup)Build Quality: 9/10/10

(I love the way it looks, it?s smalPerformance/Features: 9/10 Quality: 9/10

(Knocked down for the Ethernet port Value: 8/10ance/Features: 9/10

(Not the fastest thing out there, but performs well)

Value: 8/10

(The components can be had for cheaper, but in a larger/uglier package)

Pros:

Speedy Processor and a decent amount of RAM

Outstanding wireless performance

Beautiful bright/vivid WXGA screen

It?s a small and relatively light notebook

Design-wise, it looks stunning

Cons:

A tad expensive

Ethernet port slightly loose

Firewire port not full-sized

Edited by Ink Noise
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C. Gomez

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Why don't you just download all the drivers and any apps you want from Sony's site, burn them, and reformat?

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I thought about that, because this notebook comes with Windows XP Home Edition and I'd much rather have Professional Edition; but therer were no drivers available online. But, after a bit more reading, I have found out that all drivers can be got from the recovery media that I created if I was to do a clean install of Windows XP Pro.

Uninstalling most of the junk does do the job well without leaving left over references and files, especially if the Home Edition installed on the notebook is all you have/want.

Proficient

Nighthawk-F117

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Great review, nice and detailed. I will need a laptop soon, this looks like it might be in the running.

Installation/Setup: 9/10

(Was quick enough, but Windows just didn?t want to leave me alone without setting up an internet connection at the startup)

That can't really be helped by Sony, that's a Windows thing - don't blame sony.

Enthusiast

C. Gomez

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I am planning on purchasing a notebook and this was one that I was considering. I was wondering if you could show a picture of what the ac adapter looks like. I dont want to get one that is too heavy and fat.

Thank you for your review, it was great!

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No problem, here are two pictures where I used my iPod photo so that you can make a comparison on the size of the adapter...

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Anyone else need photos while I have my digital camera out?

  • 2 weeks later...
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