Sony VAIO, The new AR Series !!!

I'm VERY interested in Sony VGN-AR51SU, too. I've been searching the internet for days, couldn't find a review yet.
2004-Oct I bought my fist laptop – Sony VGN-A297XP – and I still use it as main PC. No real problems, no blue screens, never needed support. Now, 3 years later I want more speed and Windows Vista. So I started reading hardware articles, looked up offers from most quality brands. To be honest – at first I thought Sony was more expensive since nowadays there are many brands offering 17" WUXGA 1920x1200 displays. After reading many notebook reviews the AR51SU seems to shine in many important areas – a worthy successor?

I'm looking for a multi-purpose desktop-replacement laptop rather than a gaming rig or business notebook.
My personal needs are in this order:
Display, CPU power, RAM, low noise, features, design

Display
This is mostly why I bought the A297XP and it appears that Sony is still leading this area. Not just resolution, but brightness and contrast of Sony's are extraordinary. Reviews for other brands clearly indicate lack of maximum brightness and contrast. Also I don't mind Sony's panels being glossy – no windows behind my back. For my type of work the display is probably the most important productivity factor. As in the movie "Heat" from 1995 where Robert De Niro tells Al Pacino: "I'm never going back!" - for me anything less than 1920x1200 is simply not an option. A premium display saves me lots of time and unnecessary printouts. Microsoft says: "Desktop real estate has been found to be a key factor in enhancing productivity of an information worker."

Note: There are plenty of review articles complaining about small text size on such high-resolution displays. This is superficial nonsense! These people clearly don't know their OS well enough. I remember changing Windows settings for fonts and/or DPI value back in 1997 when I got Windows NT 4 and an expensive Iiyama 22" 1600x1200@85Hz CRT monitor (still working perfectly)!
So yes – of course standard text sizes look smaller on high-DPI displays but you can always change OS display settings within seconds. On my A297XP (still using XP) I use Vista Font "Segoe UI" size 9 instead of Tahoma 8 because it's a bit nicer and slightly larger. Actually I even decreased title bar height from default, changed its font, means less space wasted.

CPU
Couldn't find many notebooks containing Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4 Ghz or something faster – seems to be top at the moment. Plus for Sony.

RAM
Comes with 2x1 GB already, pretty standard for expensive models. No RAM upgrade possible other than replacing both modules. But 2 GB should be enough these days as 1 GB (512 MB + 512MB extra) is still fine on A297XP running XP.

Noise
Sony does well in this area. In addition the free utility "RMClock" lets you undervolt the CPU. I have extraordinary improvement because of this on my A297XP, it keeps the fan at idle speed most of the time. E.g. my Intel Pentium M "Dothan" is absolutely stable at only 1.02 V @ 1.8 Ghz instead of default 1.34 V.

Features
I'll probably use most features (like digital TV, VGA & HDMI output, reading Blue-Ray content) except one: writing Blue-Ray discs (I use external HDDs for many years now, these let me keep related stuff together on a single drive [+ backup drive of course] - vs. splitting it up on several expensive write-once 25/50 GB BR discs).
2x250 GB HDD space is very rare and a big plus for Sony. There's no such thing as having too much HDD space!
Windows Vista ULTIMATE (allows extras like installable language packs, BitLocker, ...)

Cons:
*) 4200 RPM HDDs instead of 5400 or 7200 RPM. At least there are 2 drives (e.g. 1st for OS and 2nd for programs improves app startup speed, or use them in RAID 0 mode) and 2 GB RAM should leave some space for disc cache.
*) Casing and design maybe not as good as Apple's MacBook Pro. Apple is not an option for me though (almost no high-end engineering software for MacOS) and I'd miss Windows keyboard layout, right touchpad button etc.
*) Lots of unnecessary pre-installed software – just delaying boot time and nagging for registration. Who uses MS Works – especially on such a machine? So as with A297XP I'll have to make a clean install – just OS, drivers and apps I need.
*) no brightness sensor anymore? (I like this feature on my old one.)
*) no keyboard illumination. Guess I'll have to continue using USB lamp...
*) no fingerprint reader
*) no integrated Turbo RAM

Some alternatives I am considering:
ASUS W2W
Toshiba Qosmio G40
Lenovo ThinkPad T61p

Any suggestions?

1st real VGN-AR51SU review I found today:
CNET.co.uk: http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,...9293707,00.htm
Score: 8.0 excellent
We like: Sleek looks; large, HD display; extreme performance
We don't like: Heavy; poor battery life; expensive

CNET.co.uk judgement: "The Sony Vaio VGN-AR51SU isn't cheap, but provided you're not planning on transporting it too far, it won't disappoint. Its performance, even with 3D gaming, rivals that of some desktop machines"

Conclusion: "If you've got some extra cash and the space to accommodate the AR51SU, then you won't be disappointed by it. If you're prepared to cut a corner or two, though, there are cheaper models available in the same range. It's not designed for life on the road, but it's more compact than a desktop machine, but with performance that rivals a big box computer."



A couple of other AR-model reviews:

Tom's Hardware: 4 Hot Multimedia Notebooks Reviewed, one being VGN-AR630E
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/2007/10/...a_notebook_pc/

X-bit labs: VGN-AR11SR
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mob...io-bluray.html
(very detailed)

Both of these didn't like touchpad/buttons ergonomics. (No big deal for me though – most of the time I am using the laptop on my desk accompanied by a Wacom tablet.)



So far I've pretty much settled for the Sony. Spec-wise there's almost no competition if you need full HD display.
The PDF-manual I found on Sony's FTP is very generic – covers AR-series, 188 pages). Some of the few interesting paragraphs:
-----
Connecting a Computer Display (page 88)
If you want to connect a TFT/DVI monitor, use an HDMI cable (not supplied) and an HDMI to DVI-D adapter (not supplied)
to connect the TFT/DVI monitor to the HDMI port on your computer.

{Hopefully this provides real digital multimon capability – both laptop AND external LCD!? Of course I don't expect any multimon trouble using analog VGA connected to a CRT monitor.}
-----
To connect an HDMI-compatible TV to your computer (page 91)
If a device driver other than the one provided by Sony is used, the image will not be displayed and the audio will not be heard. Always use the device driver provided by Sony for updates.
-----

Btw, regarding HDDs – doing a quick search (4200 RPM, 250 GB) I only found 1 drive:
Fujitsu MHX2250BT
Specs: 2.1 bels (very quiet), idle: 0.5W, 12ms average read seek, <135g weight
My old Sony also has a very quiet but slow drive – Hitachi Travelstar 80 GB. Maybe Sony is very afraid of even worse battery life resulting in bad review scores. Anyway, RAM is more important for my type of work, I'm pretty sure I won't have to upgrade those HDDs ever.

Windows Vista 64 + 2x2 GB RAM are on my list as well. Vista 64bit driver availability is looking good nowadays. I'll only get Vista x64 Ultimate System Builder/OEM since I don't need a fancy package, manual and MS support anyway. No 32 bit included there but 2 are still cheaper than a single retail version.

According to drivers:
AverMedia http://www.avermedia.com offers 64bit drivers for its TV tuners but so far I don't know what device is actually integrated in the AR51SU. There might be a suitable driver shipping with Vista already.

Some Linux users got Motion Eye camera to work on various Sonys, it's probably a USB device.

Overall I expect most or even all features will work on x64 Vista and Linux 32/64.


Do you know the exact type of RAM module yet? SO-DIMM 200pin DDR2-667 CL5 maybe?
I guess CAS Latency 4 won't make a noticeable difference and BIOS won't allow any tuning at all.

MrM

How's the audio on the AR series compared to the the Qosmio G35 or G45?
I read a lot somewhere that the Qosmio's audio was 100X better. Anyone
wants to comment on that please?