Sony VGN-A117S - Centrino with 17"

Searching for the Notebook that fulfills all my wishes, I think I have found that one what I´ve been looking for. The Sony VGN-A117S!

The technical specifications:
Intel Pentium M Dothan 1,7 Ghz
512 MB RAM
80 GB HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 64 MB VRAM
17" WUXGA TFT with 1920x1200 max. resolution
Bluetooth
DVD Multiformat burner
for 2500 €.

It is the only notebook I´ve seen with the Centrino technology AND a 17" Display. So here we go.

Software
Windows XP Home Edition was already installed when I started the notebook the first time. Also many programms like Works or burning programs were installed, too.

Display
I´ve seen some other displays before, from Gericom, Clevo, Acer, Dell and Acer notebooks, and I must say, the Sony display is the best of them all!
The colours are very clear, the brightness is good, and the high max. resolution looks good on this display. It looks better than the same resolution on a Dell Inspiron 8600 with an 15,4" screen. When I was gaming and benchmarking, the reaction time was also very good - no ghosting at all. The interpolation is good down to 1024x768, 800x600 looks a bit muddy. Ah, and it has NO dead pixels.

Noise
The notebook is very quiet at all. You will hear the fan only in a very small or silent room. There are 5 steps of the fan, but even if on the highest level it is very quiet and only runs for a few seconds. For example when benchmarking. But when you force the notebook with power-management to run the fan only on the highest level, well, then you have a very small less of power, but only a very small. It becomes a bit warmer during the time, but not hot.

Benchmarks
I´ve benchmarked it with 3DMark 2001 SE, 3DMark 03 and PC Mark 04. I´m satisfied with the results:
3D Mark 2001 SE with default settings 10400 points
3D Mark 03 with default settings 2886 points
PC Mark was also succesful, but I don´t know the cause, the program don´t give a overall score .

I´ve tested not so much games, because I don´t bought the notebook for that, and I have a desktop PC with an X800 Pro, so I don´t need it for games - but I tested Thief - Deadly Shadows on it and it runs without any problems and good with medium details.

Weight and dimensions
Sony says it weights about 3,9 kg - I think this is ok for such a big notebook. The dimensions are 42x29x4 cm.

Design and quality
The design of this notebooks looks very nice - and the quality is also very good. Materials are from good quality, the screen is good, the touchpad and the keyboard react good, the fan is quiet and it doesn´t become heat - for the price I think this is obvious.

Battery runtime
Sony says it is about 2,5 hours but I think it is about 3,5 hours - when you dim it down and swith the powermanagemt on "Battery life". With WLAN shut off I think it´s about 4 hours runtime.
Surely there are notebooks with better runtimes, but keep in mind that this one has:
- a very big display
- the Dothan which needs more electricity as the Banias
- a battery with only 4 aH and 11,5 V

In the end, I´m very satisfied with this beautiful monster notebook. Some people have a bad opinion about Sony notebooks - I can´t agree with them, this is the finest notebook I ever have seen. If you got any questions, ask me.

I don´t know where your problem is?
Well, a larger VRAM would be better, but the 9700 with 64 MB VRAM is as good as the 9600 with 128 MB VRAM. I have testet both graphic cards, and the benchmark results were the same. And for me quality is more important than high-end-benchmarks.
For gaming I got a desktop-PC wich is MUCH faster than the most expensive notebook. But it costs only the half of such a thing. The fastest notebook graphic card is the ATI Radeon 9700 with 256 MB VRAM, but the benchmarks are only on the level of a cheap middle class desktop GraCa.
And a faster graphic card would make more heat and a shorter battery runtime.

So, and I don´t know why you write something about a notebook with 20 GB HDD and whatnot. I wrote a review about THIS notebook with 80 GB HDD etc. and NOT about the notebook what you have seen there.
I´m satisfied with this notebook and don´t see any reason to complain about it.

It HAS dual channel ram...

I´m lucky that here is someone other with this notebook. Was a good choise, man.
And when it is true that you can upgrade the graphic card, well, that notebook would beat all other.

Before this I got the Clevo 47 DV, the same like the Sager 4780 - well, I HATE this notebook. It was hot, slower than the Sony in spite of the 128 MB VRAM and 1024 MB RAM, made a noise like hell and the battery runtime was about a half hour when gaming. But also surfing in the internet or using MS Office was not longer than 80 minutes possible...

And I don´t know how many rpm the HDD has, but it isn´t slow at all. Booting Windows is faster than on my desktop, and loading savegames is as fast as on my desktop.

EDIT:
Again to the "small" VRAM:
See here http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=18065 that the only notebook with the same graCa and 256 MB VRAM only gets some hundred points more in the benchmarks, pah. . When this is a cause for someone to buy the Sager instead of the Sony, to each his own, but don´t cry when you also have to buy a loudspeaker and a microfone to communicate with other people standing near you when you´re using the Sager.

1. Ok, I don´t know.
2. That is wrong. The Radeon 9700 with 64 MB VRAM has the same performance as the 9600 with 128 MB VRAM because it is clocked higher. Only the 9700 with 128 MB VRAM is faster. Don´t let you blind from the higher VRAM. My notebook outperforms our old desktop PC with a Geforce 4 MX 440 with 128 MB VRAM.