Sony Viao TR1A Review - Sweetest Centrino Notebook Yet

[ulTimate]

Here is the review. Some quick specs:

7.4 by 10.6 by 1.5 inches
3.2 pounds
almost 4 hours of REAL WORLD battery life
DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive built in
1280x768 widescreen (10.6 inches diagonally)
900mhz Mobile P3 w/1mb cache
integrated 802.11b
30gb HD
integrated webcam
$2300

drooooool.

 

[thereds]

And why is it so expensive?

Surely it can't be the 900Mhz P3.

 

[xm0nkey]

Nope, its a 900MHz low voltage Pentium M.

 

[jonah255]

expensive because it's small, light, weight and sony i assume

 

[nanyangview]

looks good thou

but i dun like sony, too much propiertary stuff, i rather go with IBM X series.

and talk about crappy batt life of the Sony z1...

oooh yeah u want 6 hours batt? extra CDN$600 for our large capacity battery ppfffff

 

[DAPUNISHER]

If there were his and her's notebooks, that would be a her's

 

[nanyangview]

yupz...iBM is more oriented towards biziness/guys look.

Stealth black, matches most business class suitcases or the suit. Sony, Fujitsu are flashy, ladies might like their colours and curves.

never seen a girl carry a IBM thou, dunno how it will look haha.

 

[Viper0329]

1.5" is pretty thick.

 

[BeauJangles]

I like it a lot. Very cool, but, as usual for cool products, not cheap.

 

[PCboy]

any1 know what font it uses.. the tr1a i mean.. on its keys..

 

[woodscomp]

Lets get a few things straight here.

1. This is NOT a Centrino.
2. Not every Intel processor that is tagged with an M is a Centrino, the M tag is nothing more than meaning "Mobile".
3. This is a little notebook, much smaller than most.
4. This is geared towards the chicks.
5. The battery life lasted in there tests at 4 hours, which I have run a Centrino 1.4GHZ for over 5 hours with an Asus M3N.
6. So they put a higher density battery on a processor that runs at 400MHZ on battery power and it lasts 4 hours, so what!

Which brings me to why anyone would want a 900MHZ PIII in a notebook? Especially for that kind of money. There are so many better options on the market today.

 

[Flashram]

Originally posted by: woodscomp
Lets get a few things straight here.

1. This is NOT a Centrino.
2. Not every Intel processor that is tagged with an M is a Centrino, the M tag is nothing more than meaning "Mobile".
3. This is a little notebook, much smaller than most.
4. This is geared towards the chicks.
5. The battery life lasted in there tests at 4 hours, which I have run a Centrino 1.4GHZ for over 5 hours with an Asus M3N.
6. So they put a higher density battery on a processor that runs at 400MHZ on battery power and it lasts 4 hours, so what!

Which brings me to why anyone would want a 900MHZ PIII in a notebook? Especially for that kind of money. There are so many better options on the market today.

It looks like a Centrino to me, look at the pictures in the review. It has the Centrino sticker on the laptop (bottom right). You think the reviewer put that on himself?

 

[xm0nkey]

Originally posted by: woodscomp


Which brings me to why anyone would want a 900MHZ PIII in a notebook? Especially for that kind of money. There are so many better options on the market today.

For the second time in the thread: It is NOT a Pentium 3m as the original poster stated, he made a mistake.

 

[woodscomp]

I stand corrected on the Centrino, however the processor is not the targeted Centrino of 1.3GHZ and up. I don't what Sony did to make a 900MHZ work on this but they got away with it. The 8555 chipset along with the wireless mobility are two thirds of the Centrino family. I still would never pay that kind of cash for a 900MHZ anything.

 

[nanyangview]

sony put in the shittiest battery life conceivable...IBms owns it..


pfff Xbrite..another marketing ploy even if it is true, it is only 10.6 , can't do crap on it

 

[loup garou]

Very nice. A bit thick, but whaddya expect with a built in optical drive. Too expensive for me, but I'd be all over it if I had the cash. I really don't have any need for anything faster (or larger) in a notebook.

 

[TaylorD]

um, this is much cooler... http://www.dynamism.com/t90d/index.shtml

just waiting for it to come to the US

 

[SgtBuddy]

I bought it. This thing will go forever on a battery. 11" display is plenty big for on the road stuff. If I wanted a desktop replacement, I would have bought one. After carrying my 11 pound 16" monster all over the world, this was a nice change of pace. 900MHz is good enough for 39fps in Q3 default settings.

I like being able to watch two DVD movies on battery power.

 

[RichieZ]

Looks sweet but I just went ahead and ordered and IBM X31 Thinkpad instead, 900mhz is a little slow and I got a free extra battery so thats 9 hrs of real work usage!

 

[IgoByte]

Looks nice. Great for the IT person on the go/run, because it has a built-in CD burner. It's really nice to finally see mini notebooks like this with built-in optical drives.
The problems I see with this particular unit: the camera is unnecessary and the screen might be less than perfect, especially when used outdoors. The keyboard also takes some getting used to, but that's not a big deal.

I'll still rather stick with my T40 for its sturdier build and excellent performance.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: woodscomp
I stand corrected on the Centrino, however the processor is not the targeted Centrino of 1.3GHZ and up. I don't what Sony did to make a 900MHZ work on this but they got away with it. The 8555 chipset along with the wireless mobility are two thirds of the Centrino family. I still would never pay that kind of cash for a 900MHZ anything.

calm down dude, obviously Sony isn't the only one doing this with 900MHz Centrinos, Panasonic uses 900MHz Centrinos in a few of their toughbooks as well as some of the 1.3GHz+ flavors, usually the 900MHz can be found in some of the super slim laptops out there, usually the 12" screeners that are 1" thick or thinner. Not the performance laptops but the ultra portables and under 3lbs (I believe Panasonic got one of their toughbooks down to 2.2 lbs...). But I agree, 1.5" is a little too thick for such a laptop, I think that's where Sony made a big mistake on this one.

 

[ultimatebob]

No thanks, not interested. There is no way in hell that I'm paying over $2,000 for an underpowered laptop that will be obsolete 18 months from now.

 

[Tokar]

sony drivers are a pain in the ass...