Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

Sony’s     Notebooks by Ross Tester Around the middle of last year, Sony introduced its new range of VAIO Notebooks. Now, twelve months later and with several new models on the market, we thought it about time to have a closer look at these intriguing machines. W hen Sony launched the VAIO computer range on the market, they described them as a “new concept” in personal computing. Was this just more marketing hype, or were they really something different? And that name, VAIO: what does it mean? To the uninitiated, it sounds like some sort of pathway. But to where? In fact VAIO is an acronym for Video Audio Integrated Operation. That in itself gives a pretty good clue as to this 16  Silicon Chip computer’s likely application: video and audio. In fact, that is precisely where I had my first introduction to the VAIO. During July and August last year, Sony VAIO computers were used extensively by NSW TAFE (Technical and Further Education) who were contracted by the Sydney Olympic Games Organising Committee to provide training to the 47,000 Olympics volunteers (and later the Paralympics Volunteers). As one of those trainees, I was impressed! The standard of audio/video presentation was outstanding – an excellent mix of video and Powerpoint-style “slideshows” which were shown to groups ranging in size from just a few up to many thousands via A/V projectors. I noticed at the time of training that name, VAIO, and wondered then what the significance of it was. It was only after the hectic period of the Games was over that I started to look a little deeper. And then in the July issue of SILICON CHIP Jim Rowe’s article on Digital www.siliconchip.com.au Audio Amplifiers jogged the memory “. . . have true digital audio amps, as does Sony’s new Playstation 2 and its VAIO handheld computers. . .” So we thought it might be opportune to have a closer look at one of these machines, particularly with regard to its graphics, video and sound handling capabilities. Sony were more than happy to lend us one of the models and so, before long, we were playing with a Sony VAIO FX770K. Now this is by no means Sony’s topof-the-line VAIO but it does come with some rather impressive specs. It wasn’t the graphics/video/sound oriented machine we had hoped to look at but is more a business-oriented product, albeit with pretty good performance in the graphics, video and sound areas. Hardware The microprocessor in this particular model is a 650MHz Mobile Intel Pentium III Processor featuring Intel SpeedStep Technology (more on this shortly), running with an Intel 815 EM chip set integrated graphics accelerator. The system bus is a standard 100MHz and it comes with 128MB of SDRAM and 32KB/256KB of cache memory (on chip). The hard drive is 20GB, divided into two 10GB logical drives and it sports an 8x DVD-ROM drive (which obviously also plays CDs – at up to 20x). ­There is a single type III PC card slot (or two type II) and it supports Cardbios. Other interfaces included are the standard 15-pin monitor, 25-pin parallel and 9-pin serial ports, plus two USB connectors, a 4-pin iLINK (IEEE 394) port and 3.5mm jacks for microphone in (mono) and headphone out (stereo). There is also an inbuilt 100 Base-T/10Base-TX Ethernet port built in. i.LINK, by the way, is a bi-directional digital interface for exchanging data, such as digital video clips and sound files, between devices that have i.LINK connectors, or for controlling other devices. An upgraded model, the PCGFX770TK, also has a built-in modem for accessing the Internet, point-topoint data communication, and so on. The floppy disk drive is removable (in fact, it is a normally supplied “option”. Removing the floppy drive (a two second operation) allows its port www.siliconchip.com.au From the left, the ports are USB, serial, parallel, external monitor and network (100 base-T or 10 base-T), with another USB port and DC power on the right. Here’s a close-up of the audio/video ports: the red socket is microphone, green is earphones or external (powered) speakers. Next is the i400 i-link port while the two buttons alongside release the PC-cards from their bays at right. to be used by other (optional!) devices. Software Reflecting the machine’s target business market, the operating system is Windows 2000 Professional, claimed to be the most stable Windows operating system yet. Some might argue that point! Other software included with the machine is DVgate 2.2, Movie-Shaker 2.0, Sony Notebook Setup, Picture-Gear 5.0, Smart Capture 4.1, OpenMG Jukebox 2.0, Smart Connect 3.0, Smart Connect Monitor 1.0, DVD Region Setting Utility, Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0, Adobe Premiere 5.1LE, Quick-Time 4.1, Real Player 7 Basic, McAfee VirusScan and WinDVD 2000. LCD and keyboard On opening the VAIO and powering it up, arguably the most striking feature is the big, beautiful 14.1-inch (35.8cm) LCD colour TFT display capable of XGA (1024 x 768) resolution. Because it’s LCD, you tend to view this screen closer than you would a typical CRT monitor. It is very clear and crisp and even after extended use I didn’t find it at all tiring. Of course, you could plug in an external monitor and get up to 1400 x 1050 resolution. One of the common misconceptions about notebook computers is the size of their keyboards. Many people think that they are smaller than standard desktop keyboards but, with very few exceptions, they are the same size (they have to be, otherwise you’d make too many typing mistakes!). If you don’t believe us, measure, say, the numeral keys from 1 to 0 on your computer keyboard. From outside edge to outside edge, I’ll bet it’s around 185mm. On the Sony, as on most notebooks – 185mm! Of course, notebooks sacrifice the numeric keypad and function keys The other side of the case has the removable floppy disk drive (left) and the DVD player at right, shown here partially open. The touch-pad “mouse” can also be seen in this shot (middle left). The pad on the right is the touch-sensitive one while the two pads below it simulate left and right mouse buttons. September 2001  17 Some of the “help” files are, in my humble opinion, woefully inadequate. Here is the information you get on how to connect the computer to your network – basically, all it says is “plug it in”. For any more help you are supposed to contact the system manager of the network. What if you don’t have one? By the way, Sony are not alone here: help is becoming less and less helpful amongst most hardware and software! of desktop keyboards. For those who want a “numeric” keypad (eg, for fast data entry), the Sony places it on the M, JKL, UIO and 789 keys, activated by the “num lk” key. The various function keys are located on three sides of the alpha/numeric keys – it doesn’t take very long at all to get used to their locations. The normal mouse is replaced by a touch-sensitive pad. Draw your finger over the pad and the on-screen cursor follows the movement. Two large switch pads underneath the touch pad simulate the left and right mouse buttons. It takes a bit of getting used to when you’ve used a mouse for twenty years (especially on drop-down menus!!!) but in time, I believe it could be quite enjoyable. Sony is fairly noncommital about the type of graphics firmware – the spec simply says “hi-speed graphic accelerator”. It is based on Intel’s 815EM integrated chipset. In this particular VAIO there is no separate video memory – it shares up to 11MB with the main memory. The audio system is Windows Sound System compatible, AC97 compliant and features a software MIDI sound generator, 3D sound function and has the previously mentioned digital amplifier with a pair of inbuilt speakers. On this point, we have to be somewhat critical: we believe one of the main uses for a machine such as this is on-the-job presentations – say, for example, an advertising agency wanting to present a new campaign 18  Silicon Chip to a client. The audio simply isn’t loud enough! And even with ’phones plugged in, you could hardly describe it as mind-blowing. A pair of amplified speakers would solve the problem – but that’s something else to carry around. Incidentally, audio level, screen brightness and other functions are all controlled via the keyboard: audio, for example, is a “Fn” and F4 key combination, followed by right or left arrows to increase or decrease the volume (mimicked by an on-screen icon). Having the inbuilt network adaptor was a joy – I wanted to transfer some files from my office PC to the notebook and vice versa – it was simply a matter of plugging the Sony in, setting a few parameters and it talked to the network with no worries. I didn’t get a chance to fire up any USB devices, mainly because I didn’t have a suitable cable on hand. But with two USB ports included, the Sony VAIO would have no problems communicating with other USB devices. Dual speed One interesting feature of this particular notebook, which uses Intel’s “Speedstep” technology, is its automatic changeover to a lower-power mode on battery. With the AC adaptor plugged in, the machine operates at its maximum 650MHz. But if you unplug power, the screen automatically dims and the machine switches to “battery optimized performance”, dropping the CPU speed down to 500MHz. The battery is a 14.8V/1700mAh Li- ion type which can be swapped over. Incidentally, a fully-charged battery is rated to last 1.5 to 2.5 hours, depending on usage. The computer has an automatic “hibernate” mode when the battery is nearly exhausted, saving current work and settings to the hard disk drive before effectively turning itself off. From this point, nothing is lost when either the battery is recharged or the computer is run on AC. ­It also has a “standby” mode which shuts down most functions to save power (for example, if you are taking a break) but if the battery discharges completely in this mode, current work and settings would be lost. The AC adaptor is universal – 100 to 240V 50/60Hz so you can take it virtually anywhere in the world. Three so-called “power” keys above the keyboard allow instant (well, almost) connection to the Internet, to email (both assuming an external modem is connected) and also to go into standby mode, as mentioned above. Each of these keys is programmable to do other tasks if you wish. In use The VAIO PCG-FX770K is not the best performing machine in the range from a graphics and video handling point of view. It is obviously not intended to be – there are significantly more expensive VAIO models which are aimed squarely at that market. So we didn’t get the opportunity to run the VAIO through all the modes we would have liked. Instead, we used it in the mode intended – as a business computer with advanced video/audio capabilities. We’ve already criticised the audio level; no doubt, though, the vast majority of users would link this to an A/V projector so would not find that a problem. And as far as video goes, we’ve already commented on the beautifully clear, crisp screen. We ran the “Fantastia 2000” DVD as a test and the machine acquitted itself very well indeed – no dropouts, no freezes, no problems. The Sony is capable of playing DVDs from any region – up to a point. The DVD Region Setting Utility will allow you to change the region a few times – they don’t actually say how many – but once this limit is reached the machine is locked – permanently – on this region. Bad luck if you want to watch a Region 1 DVD and that’s your last www.siliconchip.com.au change – you’ll never be able to watch a region 4 (ie, Australian) DVD again. What’s the betting there will be a “crack” on the Internet soon for this little feature? We also loaded and ran a few applications which this type of machine would lend itself to. One program which very quickly sorts out the men from the boys, as far as operation goes, is Photoshop. While the screen re-writes weren’t as quick as we were used to with a comparable speed desktop computer, they were adequate – and the quality was excellent. In fact, I did some high-level photo manipulation using the VAIO then transferred the file to my desktop computer to compare results: there was nothing to pick between them. Colour accuracy was superb. As you might expect with 128MB of memory and a 20GB hard disk, there was precious little difference in “ordinary” applications such as Word or Pagemaker. But with the big advantage of go-anywhere performance, the VAIO has a definite edge. The “manual” A somewhat abridged operating www.siliconchip.com.au manual is supplied – basically, it’s just a getting started and trouble-shooting guide. The “real” manual is pre-loaded onto the computer’s hard disk. It’s a trend being followed by more and more manufacturers these days (printed manuals are expensive) but, speaking purely from a personal perspective, they are less satisfying than a “real” manual. It’s more of this push to make everything resemble web pages. Sure, you can almost instantly log on to the manual and look up what you want in the index. But I’d much rather have something I can read over and over in my hot little hand (OK, so I’m a slow learner). And the quality and quantity of the information leaves a little to be desired, too: for example, on the underside of the machine are at least three expansion sockets. Try as I might, I couldn’t find any reference to them or what they were for. Perhaps Sony intends them for factory options only. Well, they should say so – or at least explain what they are for. And another: there’s a section on connecting to a LAN via the Ethernet connector. I’ve reproduced the page to show the wealth (!) of information given. It’s typical – I would have expected much more.­ The verdict? At an rrp of $3799, the Sony VAIO PCG-FX770K does represent very good value for money, even with the limitations we’ve described. With 850MHz processor, 128MB of member and 20GB of hard disk drive to play with it’s going to handle most of the work you can throw at it and you won’t tire viewing that beautiful big LCD screen. The software supplied will more than get you started in audio and video. If you want more features, you’re going to have to spend more: the just-released FX-880K, for example, has a PIII 850MHz processor, a 15-inch TFT LCD screen, an inbuilt modem and all the bells and whistles of the FX770K – and costs $4699. Even more upmarket is the PCGR505 with a $5899 tag – but that includes a docking station. Anyway, that’s the Sony VAIO FX770K – in many ways exciting, in some ways disappointing. But overall the pluses far outweigh the minuses. The biggest minus of all: Sony have just called, asking for it back . . . SC spoilsports! September 2001  19