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But did you do the light leakage test using a completely black background to confirm that there is positively no light leakage? You can't see any light leakage during normal usage, like in windows.

yes with black background, dark pictures and movie

and no problem, no leackage

i'have very good eyes and i'm graduate in design art and used to have many different display

thanks

yes i'm like you and i'm very sensitive about the quality of the display so i will apprecied your pics

also i understand the nparrett's feedback ... because i saw it too

it's like bad lay down film/coating on the display but sony does for improve the quality of the display ... black more black, etc. ... it's a new generation concerning Xblack process

but some ar's display are worst with it (or if you have your eyes on it)

Well, you guys are lucky. Sony Taiwan does not cover LCD for AR series. They say it's a very expensive LCD so it was all tested/checked before coming out of the factory, so unless the LCD does not work, they do not fix or replace it, no matter the reason, ie. leakage, bad pixels....

Looks like we are looking at complete different displays, are there 2 manufactures for this? The one I saw, can't speak for the blackness,
but the white is not white.. get yourself one of the previous A-series
and you will understand how bad the "new generation" becomes..

it happens w/ every laptop man. it really is not the manufactoring problem. its when they design the laptop the engineers need to make certainty about the light leakage problem cuz again its the lcd inverter problem. maybe when they use different batch of lcd's or inverters, some lucky ones strike. but majority its all up to the development team to make sure there is no leakage.


awesome laptop man and awesome pics

Dude it's for that i don't understand some feedback about the new ar ...

because i already compared the last A vs AR

but the AR won ... with the black more black & the white more white and with less leackage

sorry


seems to have many different quality of the AR ... and some of my friends got the worst too

so i'm lost ...

I don't know about the A-series, but Sony's notebook used to be made by Asus. But since Asus is trying to push their own brand, Sony has moved its orders to Quanta computer.

Both are top tier OEM for notebooks in Taiwan (but productions are in China).

well i went to the local sonystyle store and looked at the display AR190G model they had on the floor. I put the Windows XP screen saver up and i noticed the same amount of light leakage found in my display. Perhaps the US and the EU models have different problems. Maybe someone from the EU with the AR can take some pics and compare them with the ones i take. Unfortunately Sony didn't ship out my laptop till yesterday, so i won't get it until Monday. But once i get it back i'll take some more pictures.

asus works for apple now


yes maybe we have different more or less problems here ?!

the thing is we have a dvbt & analog tv tuner and pal not ntsc + different keyboard

so for that we do not have the same, maybe it's meaning an another process too

and we have the more expensive ar here with the ar11s

3000€ in sonystyle's france


but like you it's still a big lottery to get one perfect ... it's a shame

Well i ran some more benchmarks today, and here are the results:

HDTune


SuperPI


I also took some pictures of the RAM bay and the HDD bay for those of you who are curious about upgrading:

Single 512MB 533MHz (factory)


Two sticks of 1GB each at 667MHz


RAM and HDD Drive doors open

Hey, you were able to get 667 to work? Mine crashes when I tried to use 667 instead of 533. And also, the recovery utility won't work correctly when using 667, ie. not all software will be recovered.

I would like to change the HD to 7200rpm however, wonder if it will work.....

Re-Amemiya - forgive me if I overlooked it, but I didn't notice any commentary on the build/transit time for your custom notebook. I'm looking at the AR too, but the one that I would want would have to be one of the configurable ones...I don't want to wait weeks and weeks for it to be built though. Also, do you have any idea what your "premium casing" is? I know i've read they are made from lightweight magnesium or something similiar...i'm wondering if the standard resolution screen with the non premium casing has a plastic housing/chassis instead.

Thanks in advance...and thanks for the great pics and review.

My 2GBs of 667MHz work without any problems. Pop them right in and the computer boots up. I don't know why your 667 RAM isn't working.

No problem kgbeezr1...it's a long review and i can't imagine too many people actually reading it...but in the first line of the second paragraph i said:

I ordered a custom config AR170G and it only took a total of 5 business days including the day i ordered it and the day i received it. But keep in mind, although i ordered it with free ground shipping, they shipped it via Fedex Standard Overnight on Friday, that's how i got it on the following Monday.

I still have no idea what premium casing is. The only thing that i can think of is if they use a different material because of the video card. It's possible they needed more cooling with the 7600GT as opposed to the 7600. But maybe a call to a sony rep would help clarify what they mean by "premium casing."