Sony Vaio FW

Full review of Sony Vaio FW

The multimedia powerhouse that is the Sony VAIO FW-270j meets all your entertainment features and more in one attractive package. The 16.4" glossy 16:9 HD display in concert with the HDMI port and Blu-ray player give you all the tools you need for high quality video playback. With an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and a 320GB HDD, it can handle most other computing tasks too. It's a little heavy and just fair on battery life, but it makes up for it with style points and multimedia prowess.

Design, Keyboard and Mouse

The FW-270J isn't lacking for grace. With a minimalist design featuring a Macbook-like silver chassis and black chiclet keyboard, you'll love looking at more than just the glossy display. The display rests on what looks like two large hinges, the rightmost of which has a glowing green band which is lit when the computer is on. Everything about the laptop looks very smooth except for the lid, which is strangely black matte. The keyboard itself lacks a number pad despite room for it but the keys are well spaced and are decent for typing. The trackpad is smooth and comfortable.

Multimedia Power

This VAIO comes with a Blu-ray player, HDMI, and a beautiful 16.4" glossy HD display. Although the display claims to be "Full HD 1080p" the resolution is a 720p 1600x900 (Sony explains that it's only 1080p "when connected to a compatible HDTV", which essentially means you can use it as a Blu-ray player for your TV). The backlighting was excellent and helped eliminate the glare, and the viewing angles were good enough that multiple people could easily watch a movie on it sitting side by side. There is also a set of multimedia buttons placed above the keyboard, one of which gives you access to Sony's helpful built in multimedia software.

Connectivity

The FW-270j has a standard slew of ports with a few nice additions. You'll find a card reader, audio in/out, VGA, HDMI and i.Link S400 (ie: mini FireWire) as well as an ExpressCard/34 slot and 3 USB ports. Bluetooth and 802.11a/b/g/n was also included in the unit. The HDMI port is essential to any HTPC, and the list of other ports is enough to get most of your general computing jobs done.

Performance and Conclusion

This computer is a multimedia powerhouse with good internals but it lacked a GPU, which explains the score of 3235 on PCMark Vantage, although we were a little disappointed with the 74 on Worldbench. Battery performance was adequate for this type of laptop, with 101 minutes while watching a Blu-ray (enough time to actually finish it on one charge) and 181 minutes in general use. The downside of this laptop was that it is "just" decent in overall testing and it is a little heavy, but in return you are getting a beautiful laptop which looks as good as the HD video it is capable of easily playing.

Sony Vaio FW Technical Specifications

• Processor 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile
• Memory 3 GB
• Harddrive 250 GB
• OS Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
• Weight 6.4 lbs
• Screen 16.4
• Screen resolution 1600 x 900
• Graphic Card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 MHD
• Battery Life 5.5 hours

Pros

• Beautiful and bright HD display
• Blu-ray & HDMI
• Runs coolly and quietly
• Sleek minimalist design

Cons

• Misleading 1080p sticker on front
• All the other stickers too – they’re ugly
• Speakers could be better
• Matte lid is rough to the touch