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computerwriter.com
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Review: Sony VAIO PCG R505TS Notebook ComputerToronto Star Fast Forward column for May 3, 2001 Copyright ©, Myles White, 2001 All rights reserved Slim is inIf you've been hunting for notebook computers at any time in the past several months, you may have noticed that they now come in three broadly defined categories. Desktop replacements are the most robust, with the largest screens, hard drive sizes, most powerful processors and a selection of built-in and hot-swappable storage options. Consumer models, and others in the under-$2,000 category were the subject of a Fast Forward section front a few weeks ago, but they're generally classified as either having trailing-edge technology or less robust Intel Celeron or AMD processors. There's an update here, by the way. When I wrote that feature, there were no mobile Athlon or Pentium 4 processors, nor was there a mobile Duron (AMD's head-to-head competitor with Intel's Celeron). At least some of that has changed. Intel is still not predicting when there will be a Pentium 4 mobile, but AMD has released two mobile Duron processors (at 600 and 700 MHz), and the company is predicting a mobile Athlon in the first half of this year. And that brings us to the third category - "Slim." The breed is exemplified by models from IBM (the ThinkPad Z series), Toshiba Portégé, and Sony's VAIO lineup. In particular, I've been playing with a VAIO PCG R505TS, an ultra-thin model with 850 MHz Intel Pentium III processor and my impressions of it are mixed. Before we get there, however, let's have a look at the rationale behind these paperweight notebooks. Travelling Light...I have to confess; I'm a desktop replacement kinda guy. When I'm out of the house with a notebook computer, it's almost always in situations where I need a large screen, CD-ROM (or CD-RW or DVD-ROM) drive, floppy drive, and some way to either get onto a network or out to the Internet. I'm forever connecting them to someone else's monitor or data projector, want to run external speakers, need to either install software or someone else's PowerPoint presentation (not to mention editing my own), writing reviews, creating tables and charts, and so it goes. But, conversations I've had with folks from IBM (and all the rest of the players) tell me that there's another type of notebook user out there who not only doesn't need all of the things I cling to, but doesn't want 'em, either. These would be sales reps and other road warriors who never install software on the road, use only a limited number of applications in their day-to-day travels, never need to connect to any other peripheral other than the company's network (or a hotel phone line for Internet services), and really don't want to pack the extra weight that various storage and playback options add. Even if they leave them at home, they don't want to pay for them. A large, 15.1-inch LCD screen is overkill for them, too. These slimline notebooks were made for them. Small, but pricey...
Although a company spokesperson suggested it might be available elsewhere, I wasn't able to find it listed at any Canadian retail online site. Base specs:
Tale of the tape...Before we get too heavily into performance numbers, I should report on how it felt to use the PCG R505TS. It came with Windows Millennium Edition, not my favourite version of Windows with its nagware to view first-time user videos. It also came with a Sony promotional screen saver, the VAIO Tour that had to go quickly. Unfortunately, there's no way to turn off the intrusive "Jog Dial" applet that starts up, almost invariably over where you need to focus on screen when writing text, whenever you touch the scrolling wheel. Yes, it's programmable to do a variety of things, but whether or not I use it should be a choice I get to make, not one I can't turn off if I find it more of a nuisance than an assistance. The touchpad seemed either to be tied to this applet or simply to have a fondness for taking time off to examine its own navel, because quite regularly it failed to respond – that's when it wasn't being overeager and doing things I hadn't asked it to do, such as closing programs. With an 850 MHz processor, I expected a little more performance than was apparent, and I suspect that my sense of sluggishness stems from the integrated Intel graphics chipset. Not only does its memory sharing trick diminish the RAM you get to do your work, but it also slows down graphics response. I don't think I was the first to evaluate the system, because there's no mention at Sony's Web site that Microsoft Word or Outlook comes pre-installed, yet they were present. I wanted to install benchmark software and a driver for a WiFi network card (802.11b wireless). To do so, I had to hook it into my existing Ethernet hard-wired network, upload the software, then install it - a half-hour of tediousness for a process that normally takes less than five minutes, but it was made mandatory by the lack of floppy - or any other external - drive. My subjective sense of the system's performance level was bourne out by my tests, using PassMark's Performance Test 3.4. For comparison, I checked the numbers against a full-blown desktop replacement notebook, Dell's Latitude C800. Despite having a slower, 800 MHz Pentium III mobile processor, the Dell clocked 98.7 on the PassMark Rating, compared to the Sony's 94.4. That's less than a 5 per cent discrepancy but some of the other numbers were more widely divergent. In rendering two-dimensional lines, bitmaps, and shapes, the Sony was 154, 72, and 61 per cent slower than the Dell. It was 31 per cent slower rendering 3D objects. Memory small block allocation, read, and write figures were all between 2 and 9 per cent slower for the Sony, with its "MMX Mark" falling 43 percent below the Dell. The Sony did have a slightly faster hard drive. As another point of comparison: the Dell I tested, an older model, is no longer available at the www.dell.ca Web site, but a faster, 850 MHz version is. With a 15.1-inch screen, the same amount of memory, and a modem (but no network connection), and including both a CD-ROM drive and floppy drive (they're not discardable), the price on April 25 was $3,859 (shipping extra). Small may be beautiful in some eyes, but it ain't cheap. |
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Sony's
VAIO PCG R505TS fits the bill for most of these criteria, but the bottom line is
anything but small. At the company's 