Overall:
Very good overall performance for a single core desktop replacement computer. The processor is not the mobile version and because of that the battery drains within 1.5 hour if not on heavy load and less than a hour if you use it intensively - this and the weight of the computer itself (3.6 kg) and the size of the power supply disclassify the computer as a mobile.
Before some further comments I have to explicitly state that it is an extremely expensive computer for what you get. I found my self paying for the brand, and software I don't really need. Customer support is close to zero. It is a major issue to find a telephone number on which the support can be reached. Lack of updates: I still have a BIOS that any decent Linux distribution report to have LONG existing and well known bug! The nVidia driver update actually works worse than the old. I have installed the official drivers... There is a warning that the drivers are not designed for OEM distributions - ask your manufacturer!!!
Despite of that, there is a customer forum support, that exists on the official web page, but appears to be completely unsupported by the company. The search engine on the forum is something annoying - I can't find my own post a week later... Might be on purpose...
The hardware quality is SONY - at least that. BUT, try to refrain yourself from upgrading the DVD firmware - there are some troubles waiting for you there.
Running Linux on the computer always brings you some surprises. I had on my computer SUSE 9.0, Debian for a while, Gentoo for 2 days, and Kubuntu 6.06 right now. The last distribution is the first one to recognize nearly 99% of the hardware. The main problems are related to sonypi and the nVidia drivers and settings. Otherwise the rest of the hardware works without serious interventions. I have never managed to configure the computer to be able to suspend or hibernate. I have never succeed to switch the external screen once the X server is up and running - it is not that difficult if the monitor is plugged in advance. This once again disqualify the computer as mobile (at least to me).
Overall score: Great desktop replacement but too expensive!
Pros & Cons in details:
Pros:
- Powerful CPU and Graphics
- Clear and nice colors but not brilliant as you expect from the specification
- Large HDD - 80GB Hitachi Travelstar - still competitive.
- internal DVD+/-RW - respectable option at that time
- Power profiles management - gives you more flexibility than Windows manager gives you. Advanced battery information - gives you an estimate of the time left running on battery with the current load and the health of the battery.
- Two PCMCIA card slots.
- Recovery disks on DVD included - WinXP SP1(English and German)
- Drivers for XP and 2000 available separately on the support web page
- Internal FireWire
- Easy to replace HDD, RAM and miniPCI. Easy to clean the dust from inside.
Cons:
- Heavy and noisy: there are 3 (three) fans inside. One never stops, one starts quite soon and newer stops but is not that noisy and one for the hard disk (you don't hear that one since when it starts the other two are noisy enough).
- Lots of crappy software: ClickToDVD - what the ... is that, SonicStage etc. preloaded free software !?
- Short time running on battery - if you use your computer for browsing or movie watching - you have less than 1 hour. Put a wireless on top of that and you have less than 40-45 min.
- Lack of wireless - well there are configurations that have wireless.
- All USB plugs are placed on the back of the computer.
Some final words:
There are some problems that can not be related directly to the model but still related to the subject.
- Clicking hard disk - too frequent and annoying sound from the hard disk that comes from the heads while parking - every now and then. Running Linux or anything else - the problem disappears. I had a long post on that subject. You can get that problem with other brand and models as well.
- Slow USB transfer rates with some devices, including Memory Stick Duo 1GB and SanDisk Micro - 512MB (both work quite well on other computers and different operation system)
- Upgrade to SP2 slows down dramatically the computer. I have done all suggestions on the web without a success. Removing Norton Antivirus makes the computer fast as it supposed to be. Right now I have AVG freeware and this combination seems to be bearable.
