Sony makes some of the best multimedia laptops in the world -- you only have to look at the awesome Blu-ray-equipped Vaio AR11S for evidence.
Never ones to rest on their laurels, Sony's engineers have been busy trying to up the ante. Its latest creation, the new FZ series, aims to do for desktop replacements what the gorgeous TZ series did for ultraportables.
Design
The FZ is small for a digital entertainment laptop. It's nowhere near as effective as its 17-, 19- or 20-inch cousins for watching videos on from across a room. It is, however, ideal for anyone who simply intends to use it at a desk.
There's nothing particularly adventurous about the FZ's design, but there's no debating its attractiveness. Even from a distance, this thing screams 'premium'. The matte silver lid will attract admiring glances should you venture into the wider world, as will the glossy silver Vaio logo in the centre. You may not be venturing too far, though -- we had to lug its 2.7kg chassis between home and the CNET.co.uk offices and it wasn't much fun.
The area above the keyboard is dedicated to speakers and a set of multimedia shortcut keys for adjusting volume and playback, plus buttons for launching the dedicated AV mode. Below this, the keyboard, palm rest and the mouse trackpad are all matte black, which makes a nice contrast to the rest of the laptop. The keys are all of a good size and feel responsive enough, but the mouse trackpad is a tad too small for our liking -- you'll either have to ramp up the sensitivity or use multiple finger strokes.
The port arrangement on the FZ is subject to the same foibles as most laptops. The USB ports on the right side of the laptop are too close together so large USB devices will obscure the adjacent port. By the same token, one of the ports sits ludicrously close to the optical drive, bringing about the possibility of obscuring the drive tray.
The rest of the ports are logically arranged, though. There's 4-pin FireWire, a single USB, D-Sub, S-Video and HDMI ports on the left, plus LAN and modem ports at the rear -- where they should be. The front of the laptop is home to an SD card reader and a Memory Stick Pro reader, plus a wireless switch for starting and stopping Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
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Venkata Sudheer Babu Pakala 12 August 2010
Good: some what good look (externally)
Bad: total performence
Comment: i do agree with other 2 fellow Sony vaio victims. I bought my Sony vaio vgn model (approx. Oct 2007). I am not computer background/genius at that time. But later i came to know that there is no heater is needed inside my room in deep winter season in London. Imagine the heat it produces and it makes exhaust fan noise while it is running. The battery back-up is 40min. at the beginning and later it was decreased to zero after an year or 15 months. Now the batter is dead and i am using it with power. Also the mouse pad left key always has some problem and now somehow the cursor jumps to somewhere while typing, It is darn irritating. Later the biggest problem is graphic card. As i said i am non computer background, it took me a while to know the reason (of course i have mac book pro and neglected to research on stupid vaio). Later i found the reason and fortunately graphic card was replaced by Sony centre (UK) at free of cost. Later i opened each and every part and cleaned the battery. Now it is OK with less noise and heat. Last but not least: sound card is worst and utterly flop. At the end i am not a great or even average fan of Sony vaio and i love mac stuff.
cheers,
pakala
londongirl 13 April 2009
Good: Nothing
Bad: Fact that it was programmed to self-destruct after 1 year
Comment: Overheats like mad (too hot to touch!), battery lasts about 10 mins max, screen flickered for months, now has died completely and I can only use the laptop when connected to an external monitor (!), volume button stopped working.........what else.........basically it's absolutely useless only 18 months after purchase, v minimal (eve/wknd) home use, and the so-called customer service is non-existent. The price was very high for something designed to self-destruct after a year. The overheating and screen problems are (I now know) well-known problems that Sony is well aware of, but they continue to sell flawed products at extortionate prices. Avoid at all costs.
Kapuha 10 February 2008
Good: Nothing!
Bad: Sony Corporation ripping people off!!
Comment: I purchased a Sony VGN-FZ140E. We've had this computer for about 6 months. Within the first week of purchasing it, the mouse pad stopped accepting tap commands (i.e., you have to click on the mouse pad buttons to utilize the pad). Each time the mouse pad malfunctions, I have to go back into my control panel to reset it. This occurs about twice every hour. When I have more than 4 webpages open at the same time... the computer itself locks up and I have to reboot it. Then, it takes about 5 minutes for the computer to reboot.
This Sony product is absolutely pathetic. I also own an HP that is 6 years older than this computer, yet has proven to be MUCH more reliable in those 6 years. I trusted Sony only because I've owned TV's and DVD/VCR players from them. My advise... they get out of the computer business and stick to the TVs and DVD players only.
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