February 14th, 2008Review Of Sony Vaio VGN-TZ17GN
The Vaio is a column of laptops that’s by no means lost its flaunting value, and owning one is attractive much a style statement. This is the first time we’ve gotten our hands on one; it’s an ultra-portable from the Vaio TZ series.
At one time, we’ve looked at ultra-portables as well as the DMIQ series from ACI, Sahara’s NB736130, and, more recently, the ASUS S6Fm. While the ACI and Sahara charity are more reasonably priced, the ASUS S6Fm is a lifestyle ultra-portable. Does this Vaio have what brand-conscious buyers would be adamant of an ultra-portable?
Specifications
Intel Core2Duo Ultra Low-Voltage U7600 (1.2GHz 2MB L2 Cache 667MHz)
Intel Mobile Intel” 945GMS Express Chipset
1GB DDR2 RAM 667MHz
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (250MB max)
Windows Vista Business
Intel High Definition Audio
100GB HDD (Ultra Low-Voltage 4200 rpm)
8x Super Multi Dual-layer DVD Writer
11.1″ WXGA TFT Clear Bright High Colour LCD (1366 x 768)
82-key US Keypad
Intelligent Touchpad with two buttons plus left/right and up/down scroll
Camera with Motion Eye (640 x 480)
2 x USB 2.0 Ports
1 VGA Port
Express Card Slot
IEEE 1394 Port (mini FireWire)
MagicGate Memory Stick Card Reader (MS, MS Duo, MS Pro, MS Pro Duo)
Battery: VGP-BPL11 Li-ion (5800 mAh)
Width: 277 mm
Height: 29.8 mm
Depth: 198.2 mm
Weight: 1.2 kg
Design
It’s convenient that the Media Centre buttons are on the front of the unit; so are the headphones/Line-out and Mic/Line-in as well as the card slots. You’ll also like the presence of LEDs for card reader activity and battery status (in addition to, of course, hard disk activity). You turn WiFi and Bluetooth on and off using a slider at the front of the unit; the slider has LEDs to indicate the activity of these functions.
Open it up, and the laptop seems very slick. It will immediately remind you of a Mac - especially the keypad. The screen is bright and crisp, with a max supported resolution of 1366 x 768 - pretty impressive. There is a webcam above the screen; it supports the Motion EYE feature, which tracks the user’s face as it moves (within a certain range).
The area around the keypad has a piano-gloss finish; the speakers are at the top corners. The 82-key keypad is very comfortable; the entire look is a Mac-copy-paste job, but I found the tactility much better. Below the keypad, the glossy finish turns to matte, providing better friction to the wrist, thereby enhancing typing comfort. Wrist space is adequate, and the touchpad is placed such that you don’t find your fingers accidentally touching it; it has two buttons and a fingerprint scanner between them. The three lock LEDs are between the spacebar and the touchpad.
Now here’s something innovative about the design: the hinge of the screen is actually put to good use - the right end has the power button with a fluorescent green LED that blinks orange when the laptop is in standby. The other end of the hinge is the power socket of the laptop. The adapter, too, is part of the elegant package - the plug-point has a crescent-shaped green LED. The lid has the statutory Vaio logo, of course - imprinted with chrome.
The laptop is very light, which is good, but you do get the feeling that it’s fragile. Now although the body is plastic, I heard none of the creaking sounds you might expect - still, at the back of my head was this unfounded feeling that something might crack with a little too much pressure!
Performance
This Vaio aims to be an ultra-portable while not leaving performance behind. The powerhouse of the laptop is an Intel Core2Duo 1.2 GHz U7600, the ultra low-voltage version of the Core2Duo laptop solution. These processors are primarily used with the idea of providing longer backup times by sacrificing a little on performance. The low-rpm hard disk is the other thing that increases battery life while letting performance take a hit. The 1GB of RAM is shared with the onboard graphics. The RAM can be augmented by another 1 GB, which seems essential, because Vista Business comes preinstalled.
We put the laptop through our usual set of synthetic benchmarks. Here’s how it fared in SiSoft Sandra 2008, PCMark05, and 3DMark06. The Vaio may not have delivered the best set of synthetic benchmark results, but its performance, nonetheless, matches up to what you might demand of it (be it work, browsing, or AV entertainment). The sluggishness can be blamed on the OS to a large extent, and partially on the low rpm HDD - with XP loaded, the laptop would have a faster response and would work more smoothly.
Graphics performance is pretty poor - the scores say it all. The laptop isn’t meant for gaming, but you can play old-time favorites like Quake 3 and Counter-Strike. Comparatively speaking, in terms of performance, this laptop falls in between the ASUS and the ACI DMIQ series.
With its VGP-BPL11 (5800 mAh) Li-ion battery, the 11-hour battery life specification is pretty astounding; in reality, the laptop lasted me easily about 5 to 6 hours. This is due both to the battery itself and to the low-voltage processor.
The Sony Vaio TZ17GN retails at Rs 1, 14,900, and carries a one-year warranty. The pricing, we think, is to some extent over the top. This one is good as an ultra-portable, it’s light, and the battery life is amazing, though in the good deal performance has taken a hit. The ASUS S6Fm is an enhanced player, but isn’t as light - and doesn’t provide the same kind of backup time.
