Review:
I will start with the pro’s and than move on to the con’s
Firstly, the screen. Amazing quality, very bright when chosen with the appropriate settings, but otherwise very legible, very clean, and just over all great. When viewing movies through the dvd player they are great. Though a con about it. It does reflect and at times a lot depending on the light conditions.
Weight: This laptop is not heavy at all. I believe it is around 6.2 pounds which to me makes this a good portable laptop if your not looking for high end features.
Built quality. At first I was little scared of buying a Sony because people have said they aren’t that good etc etc, and also owning a Compaq I was scared to go for a big name company again because my Compaq build quality wasn’t that well. This Sony FS 550 hands down is built very tough. Very hard plastic it seems like it, I really don’t know the material but it’s solid. Black on the bottom, light grey inside and the keys. The screen doesn’t move that well it’s very tight when releasing the latch you need to use both hands.
Touch pad is good, very sensitive at times. I always have to have a clear path when I am typing because if I touch it the cursor moves all over the place! Sometimes it doesn’t move that well and you have to put some force for it to move, but other than that it seems very responsive.
The keyboard, well it’s good, soft, I just don’t like the fact that the buttons are in this order CTRL than FN. I always press FN instead of ctrl when I am copying things and I end up cursing because I think that laptop isn’t working. I was used to the Compaq layout. The keys though seemed a bit raised, not sure how I could explain it, but they seem fragile in a way.
DVD+-RW. I really haven’t tested this out, but just watching movies. It gets loud when its spinning. I burned one dvd at 4X no problem.
Fan noise: Not that loud when it goes on. It seems to go one for a short very short period couple of seconds and then it goes off. It doesn’t stay on long, and it doesn’t go on very often. For such small casing it seems to cool itself just fine. I was typing some of this on my bed, on the cover and I picked up the laptop and it wasn’t hot, just a little bit warm. I was surprised. The only thing I feel gets warm is the right palm rest, and the track pad.
Graphics: well don’t play any games and you will be fine. At times this laptop has problems loading pages with a lot of graphics and it slows down. Sony tech told me this is because the graphics in this machine are dynamic so the memory is adjusting by the amount of graphics it’s thrown at it. Only 1gig of ram can be added to the system from the sony specs, and it comes with 2x256DDR 333mhz ram. For a Sonoma based laptop SONY make this version into a budget laptop. They did not even include DDR2 or a pci-e card but other manufactures have done this such as dell. I tried to run Aquamark 3D, well running at 1024 and the settings it has when first loaded it was taking forever to get through the first screen. The average FPS was about 5-7. With test was done with power bar on. I got tired of waiting so I cancelled it. 3dmark01, this machine scored about 4500points. So if your looking to play games move on to another laptop or visit www.sonystyle.com and configure a FS550. I wish I had this option here in Canada, I would of jumped all over it. It was slow when I was playing solitaire show down over MSN with my cousin which just uses FLASH, and at times the system would freeze, and pause, and then continue.
It comes with windows xp home edition, and it’s bloated with a lot of stuff that most of us will never use. I have everything still running and I have not yet to remove or reinstall windows BUT it came with a lot of pre installed programs!
Sound Quality: Well it’s not the best I have heard. My older Compaq 915CA had jbl speakers and that thing played music well. This laptop though it says HD sound, the volume is really low, even at full. Though the one cool thing I like when you press the FN key and the up or down volume (Fn+F4 or F5) it shows an onscreen display like a media centre sort of thing.
Battery LIFE: ITs not the best after three days of charging and draining, i am still only getting at least two hours of it.. two hours and a bit i should say. i was getting that with my amd compaq system.
Wireless Internet: Not sure what is going on here, but the connection with this laptop drops a lot, though on my other wireless machines it works fine, i have to toggle the switch on and off and it will work again. I know it is not my router because when this machine drops the others that are wireless are still workin fine.
If your not going to be playing games, and just need something portable with a great screen, 3 USB ports, one IEEE, dual layer dual format dvd writer, vga out, memory stick, wifi, and a PCMCIA slot then this laptop is for you. Though if you need Bluetooth etc and other features look elsewhere. I am not to sure if I will keep it, because at the price of 2199.99 Canadian I am not to sure if it’s really worth it. I have found Acer laptops for 1999.99 with more features than this laptop. Though I wouldn’t recommend it, I was expecting more from it. The integrated graphics really slow this system down. ONE thing it doesn’t lack which a lot of other manufactures do lack IS the LOOKS. HANDS DOWN I give this laptop a 10 in the looks, slim, and xbrite. I really like the screen though and I am hoping that we in Canada well have more options of the FS - Series.
I will start with the pro’s and than move on to the con’s
Firstly, the screen. Amazing quality, very bright when chosen with the appropriate settings, but otherwise very legible, very clean, and just over all great. When viewing movies through the dvd player they are great. Though a con about it. It does reflect and at times a lot depending on the light conditions.
Weight: This laptop is not heavy at all. I believe it is around 6.2 pounds which to me makes this a good portable laptop if your not looking for high end features.
Built quality. At first I was little scared of buying a Sony because people have said they aren’t that good etc etc, and also owning a Compaq I was scared to go for a big name company again because my Compaq build quality wasn’t that well. This Sony FS 550 hands down is built very tough. Very hard plastic it seems like it, I really don’t know the material but it’s solid. Black on the bottom, light grey inside and the keys. The screen doesn’t move that well it’s very tight when releasing the latch you need to use both hands.
Touch pad is good, very sensitive at times. I always have to have a clear path when I am typing because if I touch it the cursor moves all over the place! Sometimes it doesn’t move that well and you have to put some force for it to move, but other than that it seems very responsive.
The keyboard, well it’s good, soft, I just don’t like the fact that the buttons are in this order CTRL than FN. I always press FN instead of ctrl when I am copying things and I end up cursing because I think that laptop isn’t working. I was used to the Compaq layout. The keys though seemed a bit raised, not sure how I could explain it, but they seem fragile in a way.
DVD+-RW. I really haven’t tested this out, but just watching movies. It gets loud when its spinning. I burned one dvd at 4X no problem.
Fan noise: Not that loud when it goes on. It seems to go one for a short very short period couple of seconds and then it goes off. It doesn’t stay on long, and it doesn’t go on very often. For such small casing it seems to cool itself just fine. I was typing some of this on my bed, on the cover and I picked up the laptop and it wasn’t hot, just a little bit warm. I was surprised. The only thing I feel gets warm is the right palm rest, and the track pad.
Graphics: well don’t play any games and you will be fine. At times this laptop has problems loading pages with a lot of graphics and it slows down. Sony tech told me this is because the graphics in this machine are dynamic so the memory is adjusting by the amount of graphics it’s thrown at it. Only 1gig of ram can be added to the system from the sony specs, and it comes with 2x256DDR 333mhz ram. For a Sonoma based laptop SONY make this version into a budget laptop. They did not even include DDR2 or a pci-e card but other manufactures have done this such as dell. I tried to run Aquamark 3D, well running at 1024 and the settings it has when first loaded it was taking forever to get through the first screen. The average FPS was about 5-7. With test was done with power bar on. I got tired of waiting so I cancelled it. 3dmark01, this machine scored about 4500points. So if your looking to play games move on to another laptop or visit www.sonystyle.com and configure a FS550. I wish I had this option here in Canada, I would of jumped all over it. It was slow when I was playing solitaire show down over MSN with my cousin which just uses FLASH, and at times the system would freeze, and pause, and then continue.
It comes with windows xp home edition, and it’s bloated with a lot of stuff that most of us will never use. I have everything still running and I have not yet to remove or reinstall windows BUT it came with a lot of pre installed programs!
Sound Quality: Well it’s not the best I have heard. My older Compaq 915CA had jbl speakers and that thing played music well. This laptop though it says HD sound, the volume is really low, even at full. Though the one cool thing I like when you press the FN key and the up or down volume (Fn+F4 or F5) it shows an onscreen display like a media centre sort of thing.
Battery LIFE: ITs not the best after three days of charging and draining, i am still only getting at least two hours of it.. two hours and a bit i should say. i was getting that with my amd compaq system.
Wireless Internet: Not sure what is going on here, but the connection with this laptop drops a lot, though on my other wireless machines it works fine, i have to toggle the switch on and off and it will work again. I know it is not my router because when this machine drops the others that are wireless are still workin fine.
If your not going to be playing games, and just need something portable with a great screen, 3 USB ports, one IEEE, dual layer dual format dvd writer, vga out, memory stick, wifi, and a PCMCIA slot then this laptop is for you. Though if you need Bluetooth etc and other features look elsewhere. I am not to sure if I will keep it, because at the price of 2199.99 Canadian I am not to sure if it’s really worth it. I have found Acer laptops for 1999.99 with more features than this laptop. Though I wouldn’t recommend it, I was expecting more from it. The integrated graphics really slow this system down. ONE thing it doesn’t lack which a lot of other manufactures do lack IS the LOOKS. HANDS DOWN I give this laptop a 10 in the looks, slim, and xbrite. I really like the screen though and I am hoping that we in Canada well have more options of the FS - Series.
