Sony VAIO VGN-A250

Sony VAIO VGN-A250 Review

Overview

The VAIO A series notebooks offer multimedia functionalities and full-size power to serve as a desktop replacement. Wrapped in a sleek and sexy two-tone grey magnesium alloy enclosure, the VGN-A250 will turn heads anywhere you take it. The most attractive feature is the 15.4-inch widescreen display with XBRITE technology, displaying bright, crisp, and clear images. Inside, the machine is powered by the Intel Pentium M 725 processor, offering speedy performance while running relatively cool and quiet. To satisfy the casual multimedia user, the VGN-A250 comes with an integrated dual-layer DVD burner, and a collection of Sony multimedia software. Weighing over 7 pounds, this isn't a laptop to carry around you all the time, especially since the battery performance is below par.

Currently, there are four-configured versions of Sony's VAIO A Series. The ' Dothan' based models include the VGN-A250, VGN-A260, and VGN-A290. The fourth model is based on the new ' Sonoma' platform, the VGN-A690. Priced at $1999.99, the VGN-A250 features an Intel Pentium M 725 (1.60 GHz), 512MB DDR RAM, and a 15.4-inch widescreen LCD display. The A260 is priced at $2,299.99 and offers the same features as the A250 with the exception of the AV Entertainment Dock, which includes a set of external speakers and audio/video connections. The high-end A290 is priced at $2,7999.99 also includes the AV Entertainment dock, but offers a larger 17-inch widescreen LCD display, faster Intel Pentium M 735 processor (1.70 GHz) and 1GB of RAM. Finally, the most recent VGN-A690 sports a 17-inch widescreen LCD and is powered by the new Intel Pentium M 750 (1.86GHz) and sells for $2,899.99. Each one of these models has unique features that will satisfy your multimedia needs.

Design

Portability
Measuring 14.8 inches wide, 10-inches deep, and 1.5 inches thick, the A250 is a large machine thanks to the wide 15.4-inch display. Since the machine weighs 7.3 pounds with the battery installed, it's not the ideal laptop to carry with you frequently. However compared to other 15.4-inch desktop replacements from HP and Toshiba that weigh 8 pounds or more, the A250 won't break your back. It took some time getting used to the weight of the A250 after carrying around the 4.2 pound VAIO S260. The new Sony fit easily in the large TimBuk2 Commute XL messenger bag, but due to the A250's larger size you want to make sure the case you choose is made for 15.4-inch or 17-inch screens. While this machine is intended as a desktop replacement, it is still feasible to carry with you.

Case and Design
This machine tops the list as having a stylish and unique design. Just like other Sony models, the two-tone color scheme has been a foundation in Sony design. Metallic gray covers the top lid, the base area surrounding the keyboard, and the bottom case. Black highlights blend in around the sides of the base and around the display. The system is all curves and the base corners slopes down at the sides to add to the system's distinctive look. The A series is very clean looking.

The chassis is solid and robust, made from magnesium alloy and reinforced plastic. The top lid (back of the display) feels very sturdy, offering protection from damaging the display when lugging the machine around. Two hinges hold the display and are connected to each other, adding more support for such a wide screen. The screen barely hovers over the keyboard and palm rest area when the lid is shut, protected by four rubber pads to prevent the screen from touching the keyboard and palm rest area.

A problem I find in notebooks from Dell, Toshiba, and including Sony is the bezel (plastic surrounding the LCD panel) is rather large, which adds to the machines' size and weight. There is almost an inch space around each corner of the A Series' screen that could be minimized to not only look better aesthetically but also reduce the weight and size of the entire machine, making it more portable.

Large plastic surrounding the screen.

Located in front, you will find the Sony Memory Stick media slot, which supports Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick PRO media cards. Next to the Memory Stick media slot is a switch to turn on or off the unit's Wi-Fi radio. In the center is the latch button, which sticks out a little bit too much that may interfere when slipping the system in a case or even cause it to break off.

To the far right, are a set of indicator lights which provide a quick glance at the system's status: power, battery, hard disk drive, and optical drive.

Indicator lights

Built into the speaker grille above the keyboard, you will find the following quick access buttons: volume, automatic brightness (more on this function later in the features section), screen magnification (to zoom in to certain areas of a program), and S1 programmable button (to quickly access your favorite programs). To the left of the mute button lies a brightness sensor hidden below the speaker grille (more on this in the features section).

Hot Keys

Design Continued

Keyboard and Touch pad
The black, full-sized 87-key keyboard contains all the essential keys, particularly the Windows and Ctrl keys at the bottom left of the keyboard, where normally some laptops contain only the Fn key instead. The PgDn, PgUp, Home and End cursor keys are also present, which eliminates the need to pres the Fn key to use these keys if they were assigned as function keys. All of the 19mm keys are large in comparison to my desktop keyboard. The Caps Lock, Shift, Alt, Tab, Backspace, and Enter keys are extra large so you can't miss them. In addition, there are function keys to adjust the screen brightness, put the system to sleep, and for switching to an external monitor when connected. When the function keys are accessed, like when adjusting the brightness, it will activate an on-screen brightness bar and makes a beeping sound. This helps you identify exactly which brightness or volume settings you want to select.

In terms of usage, the keyboard offers plenty of room and feels very good to type with. I can type quickly, accurately, and comfortably. There is a good amount of room around the palm rest area to ensure a comfortable typing experience on the wrists. The keys feel light when depressing them, which allows it to be very responsive. They depress at a comfortable 3mm of depth. In fact, the A250's keyboard feels as good as the one found in the IBM ThinkPad T42. The keyboard is also slightly tilted for more comfortable ergonomics.

The silver touchpad is a good size and works well. The flush surface is clean and smooth. It's sensitive to touch and responds accurately to my movement. It also allows for tapping to execute an action if you prefer not to use the click button. Although Sony didn't include a scroll button, the touchpad has a function to scroll vertically and horizontally with applications such as Internet Explorer when sliding the finger in the appropriate direction. A slight annoyance is that the touchpad is slightly off-center to the left of the keyboard, which gives an imbalance feeling.

Ports
All the ports are located on the left, right, and rear sides of the computer. Since there is an inset area in the left and right side, the ports are housed in so that they don't protrude (see image below). The ports on the rear are covered by a long plastic door. Sony offers a total of three USB 2.0 ports instead of the common two USB ports found in other laptops.

Left

Right

On the left-side, there is a microphone jack, headphone jack, i.LINK (FireWire) S400 port, USB 2.0 port, and PC Card slot. Sony labels the FireWire port as iLINK S400, which is a six-pin port that provides power to your device, unlike the more popular FireWire with four-pin type. This allows you to connect a Sony camcorder and certain other Firewire devices without requiring its AC adapter or battery.

Left-side

On the right-side, you will find the optical drive and modem jack, which is protected by plastic cover.

Right-side

On the back: two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet port, AV-Out jack, and VGA port.

Back

Heat and Noise
For a system of this size, the A250 operates incredibly quiet and moderately cool. The system is well ventilated and heat is dispersed through air vents located on the left, rear, and the bottom sides. During general use such as web browsing, word processing, and playing music, the system fan was barely audible. After long periods of using the computer, the internal fan activated more noticeably but never loud enough to be distracting. Furthermore, the heat build up is minimal and makes the Sony comfortable to use on your lap. It should be mentioned that the A250 includes a sophisticated power management feature that allows you to control the CPU fan noise level - more on that later in the software section of this review.

Upgrading and Expansion
Although the VAIO VGN-A250 is equipped with almost everything you need, Sony offers an optional Port Replicator for $200. This expands the connectivity options to include two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, VGA, DVI-D, S-Video out, Video out, audio-in, audio-out and optical audio out. For a full multimedia experience select A Series models come bundled with the AV Entertainment Dock, which offers four USB ports and multiple video in/video out ports allowing you to seamlessly use it with a camcorder or other home theatre components. The dock also allows you to access Sony's Giga Pocket TV tuner/MPEG2 encoder to record TV shows and other video to the system, acting like a personal video recorder.

On the underside of the A250 is the memory module cover housing the RAM. Oddly, the A250 comes installed with both a micro-SODIMM module and a SODIMM module. Each RAM module is a CL 2.5 256MB stick of DDR, totaling 512MB running at 333MHz (PC2700). There is no open slot to upgrade, but you can still expand more memory if you decide to swap each module for a larger capacity one. (Note: Micro-SODIMM is a 172-pin memory module, approximately half the size of a standard 200-pin SODIMM module, that is found in most ultraportable machines.) Upgrading the memory simply requires removing two screws, removing the memory module cover, and inserting the new RAM. As for the hard drive, Sony does not provide any instructions on replacing the hard drive but inspection of the laptop shows it would require disassembling the entire case to access it.

Features

Processor
The A200 series is the next revision to the A100 series, with the only considerable difference being an enhanced ' Dothan' Pentium M processor. The VAIO VGN-A250 is powered by the relatively low-end Intel Pentium M 725 1.6 GHz processor, utilizing the Intel i855PM chipset. It features a 2MB L2 memory cacheand 400MHz front-side bus. The clock speed and power usage can dynamically adjust based on the application demand. Essentially, the processor can either run at optimal speeds for full performance or clock down to 600MHz to conserve battery. Even with the processor clocked down to 600MHz, it is still fast enough to watch DVDs or play some games with respectable performance.

GPU
The A Series with a 17-inch screen uses the more powerful ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 GPU and the more recent X600, while the 15-4inch model reviewed here uses the aging ATI Mobility RADEON 9200 graphics chip with 64MB DDR SDRAM dedicated memory. The ATI RADEON 9200 supports DirectX 8.1 programmable pixel and vertex shaders. Another great feature is that the ATI RADEON 9200 can dynamically adjusts its power consumption based on user activity so that it can maximize battery life.

Half Life 2 running at 1024x768

Doom 3 running at 800x600 on medium image quality

I loaded Half Life 2 on this machine and was satisfied with the detail and fluidity of the gameplay. Half Life 2 ran smooth with the resolution set to 800x600. When setting the resolution up a notch to 1024x768, it still ran smooth for the most part (25-45 frames per second), but more graphically intense parts of the game caused the frame rates drop. The A250 runs better at this resolution then the VAIO S260 which uses the same GPU, but with only 32MB dedicated video memory. Although frame rates were low, Doom 3 running at 800x600 on medium image quality was actually playable and varied around 10-40 frames rates per second. Both Half Life 2 and Doom 3 does a great job of scaling the graphics to the capabilities of the graphics card.Ultimately, the A250 should be able to handle the basic gamer's needs, but more advanced game players might want to op for the more powerful Radeon 9700. More on the gaming performance in our benchmark section.

Display
The most notable feature is the huge 15.4-inch widescreen, capable of displaying ultra-crisp and bright images up to a native resolution of 1280x800 pixels. Only the 17-inch model allows you to upgrade the screen to a higher resolution (WUXGA). Sony's screens use XBRITE TFT technology, which offers vibrant colors, sharp contrast, and crisp detail. As a result, images displayed on this screen look absolutely stunning. The viewing angle is wide, more so horizontally than vertically. I can look at the screen from a wide angle and the image barely shifts. The viewing angle is marginally better than the screen on the Dell Inspiron 8600. The response rate is fast enough to keep up with games and movies without significant 'ghosting.' In addition, scrolling through a webpage full of text does not exhibit motion blur. The screen is extremely bright, substantially brighter then other laptop screens without XBRITE. It is actually brighter than its little brother the S260, which also uses also with XBRITE technology. Setting the brightness indicator setting half-way (4 out of 8) is more than sufficient. Setting it to full brightness is almost too bright!

The screen ofers a wide viewing angle.

The glossy coated screen with XBRITE displays bright and colorful images, however reflections could be seen.

With an aspect ratio of 16:10, the A250 works great with movies. The movie Resident Evil 2 played smooth as silk and color tones displayed were rich. In 2D desktop use, text is legible and viewing two Word documents side-by-side is appreciated. Due to the screen having a glossy coating, you will notice reflections on the screen. Reflections are more apparent when light is directly shining over the screen such as from sunlight or a lamp. I took the machine outdoors and did notice heavy reflection, but increasing the brightness helped minimize the glare. Some users may be distracted by the reflection on the display but I do not find it be not a major issue.

Automatic Brightness and Smart Display Sensor
An additional feature related to the display is it has an automatic brightness sensor built in called ErgoBright technology. This feature will monitor ambient lighting conditions of your environment and automatically adjust the brightness of the screen; brighter during the day, softer during the night for example. In addition, the one-touch automatic brightness button can be set to different brightness modes in relation to your surrounding environment or to conserve battery life.

The auto resolution feature, also known as Smart Display Sensor can automatically set the correct resolution of both the notebook and the video source you have connected to, such as a projector or TV. This eliminates you from manually adjusting the resolution of the display devices or peripherals.

Sound
A common problem with the built-in speakers found in most laptops is they lack bass, the A250 is no exception. Sony tries to remedy this problem by offering external speakers in their selected A Series models with the AV Entertainment Dock. It would be preferred if Sony used more advanced built-in speakers such as from JBL or Harman Kardon, as you can find these speakers in select Compaq and Toshiba notebooks. The good thing about the A250's built-in speakers is it can reach a high volume without becoming distorted. MP3 playback and movies didn't sound that bad. Of course, I still prefer to use headphones as the sound quality is substantially better.

Features Continued

Wireless
As part of the Centrino package, the Sony A250 has an integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG (802.11b/g) card. Bluetooth is available on the higher-end A Series as an added option. As mentioned earlier, the A250 includes a useful switch to turn on or off the Wireless LAN to conserve battery when either Wi-Fi is not needed or Wireless Hotspots are not available. Connecting wirelessly with this machine is incredibly simple, thanks to the bundled VAIO Wireless Utility, which takes you step-by-step through the connection process and even provides a diagnostics utility and instructions guide to help you even further.

With respect to wireless performance, reception was excellent and I never experienced a signal drop. My tests mainly consisted of connecting to Hot Spots located at a local university and there was no difficulty to speak of. Like most laptops with an integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG adapter I've used, wireless strength and speed were never an issue.

Features Continued

Wireless
As part of the Centrino package, the Sony A250 has an integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG (802.11b/g) card. Bluetooth is available on the higher-end A Series as an added option. As mentioned earlier, the A250 includes a useful switch to turn on or off the Wireless LAN to conserve battery when either Wi-Fi is not needed or Wireless Hotspots are not available. Connecting wirelessly with this machine is incredibly simple, thanks to the bundled VAIO Wireless Utility, which takes you step-by-step through the connection process and even provides a diagnostics utility and instructions guide to help you even further.

With respect to wireless performance, reception was excellent and I never experienced a signal drop. My tests mainly consisted of connecting to Hot Spots located at a local university and there was no difficulty to speak of. Like most laptops with an integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG adapter Ive used, wireless strength and speed were never an issue.

Optical Drive and Storage
As a multimedia desktop replacement notebook computer, having an integrated DVD burner is a must. Sony steps up a notch by integrating a Dual-Layer DVDRW drive capable of burning a double-layer 8.5GB disc in addition to the other DVD formats; DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW discs. The Sony Dual-Layer drive is also capable of burning CD-R/RW discs and reading DVDs. The drive loads incredibly fast, as soon as I insert a disc, the movie or application boots loads almost instantly. I was also able to burn DVDs and CDs without a single problem using the included Sonic Record Now software.

The drive supported disc formats and maximum burning capabilities are as follow:

• Double Layer +R: 2.4X
• DVD-R Write: 8X; DVD-RW: 4X
• DVD+R Write: 8X; DVD+RW: 4X
• CD-R Write: 24X; CD-RW Write 24X

Hard Drive
The factory installed hard drive in the A250 is a Hitachi Travelstar 80GN (IC25N080ATMR04) 80GB hard drive with 8MB data buffer and a slow 4,200 rotational speed. Thanks to the drive noise suppression system, the drive operates whisper quiet. When the drive seeks, it exhibits only a slight crunching noise that is still barely audible. With 80GB of storage space, this should be sufficient for the average user.

Battery
The supplied battery is a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery with a power rating of 44.4Wh. Its rated capacity and voltage is 4,000 mAh and 11.8V, respectively. I was able to watch Resident Evil 2 for the entire duration. However, the BatteryMark test (performance section) reported one of the lowest scores. This is partly due to the amount of power the screen uses. Even at the lowest (darkest) brightness setting, the screen is still bright, thus draining battery.

Located in the power options properties, Sony included its own VAIO Power Management, which offers additional power settings to modify including the LCD brightness, CPU control, and CPU fan control for when the laptop is both plugged in or running on batteries. These added options over the standard Windows power management are great for customizing the laptops operation, particularly the CPU performance and fan speed. To maximize battery life and quietness, these options are invaluable. This truly adds more user flexibility with the power scheme.

Software
Sony included a useful multimedia bundle including SonicStage 2.0 for music, DVgate Plus for digital video editing from a camcorder, Click to DVD for DVD editing, and PictureGear Studio for digital photo editing. You can also find Sonic RecordNow! 7 for burning CDs and DVDs, InterVideo WinDVD for DVD playback, and a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security. Sony also included Microsoft Works 7 and Microsoft Office 2003 60-day trial, Google toolbar in the browser and AOL trial to name a few. It should be mentioned Sony did not include any recovery discs, instead including the VAIO Recovery Wizard application for you to create your own recovery discs by burning them onto a recordable DVD or CD. The system-restore data is hidden on a hard drive partition, allowing you the option of restoring your computer directly from the hard drive. However, it is highly recommended that you burn a copy of the recovery discs, as you may not always be able to boot into Windows to access the restore data.

Performance

Setup Method
The Sony VAIO VGN-A250 was set to run at full performance (power scheme set to 'Home/Office Desk'), meaning it would not underclock from the full 1.60 GHz during the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to Portable/Laptop. This activates SpeedStep technology, which lowers CPU speed when not needed, thus increasing battery life. Screen brightness and audio were set to 50%. Wi-Fi was turned on.

Doom 3 (Version 1.1) on low settings was set to benchmark at 800x600, video quality set to medium, and AA turned off.

Half Life 2 (Source Engine 7) timedemos Coast 05 and Canals 08 from Anandtech.com with the following tests:

Test1:

• 1024x768 resolution
• Medium model detail
• Medium texture detail
• Blob shadows
• No reflect
• 0xAA
• 0xAF
• Trilinear filtering

Test2:

• 1024x768 resolution
• Highest image settings
• 4xAA
• 8xAF

Configurations

System	VAIO VGN-A250	Presario V2000	Inspiron 8600
OS	Windows XP Home SP2	Windows XP Home SP2	Windows XP Pro SP2
CPU	Pentium M 725 1.60 GHz	Pentium M 725 1.60 GHz	Pentium M 715 1.50 GHz
Bus	400 MHz	400 MHz	400 MHz
RAM	512MB DDR333 CL2.5	512MB DDR333 CL2.5	512MB DDR333 CL2.5
Hard Drive	Hitachi 80GB 4200RPM	Fujitsu 40GB 4200RPM	Hitachi 40GB 5400RPM
Video	ATI RADEON 9200 64MB	Intel Extreme Graphics 2	Nvidia GeForce FX5200 Go 64MB
Battery	4,000 mAh	4,400 mAh	6,486 mAh

PCMark04

System	A250	V2000
CPU	3123	3108
Memory	2631	2315
Graphics	1279	457
HDD	2471	2250

Overall Score

General Usage (Business Winstone 2004)

Multimedia Content Creation (Business Winstone 2004)

3DMark 2001 SE
(Default settings, Resolution 1024x768)

Doom 3

AA OFF

AA 4X: N/A Due to the supplied drivers, the game is unable to run with AA enabled.

Half Life 2

Level	Coast 05	Canals 08
Test 1 - AA/AF OFF	61.39 fps	40.25 fps
Test 2 - 4X/8X	37.35 fps	18.96 fps

Battery Performance (Business Winstone 2004 BatteryMark)

Conclusion

Pros:

• 15.4-inch WXGA LCD with XBRITE is beautiful
• Above average performance
• Ergobright sensor
• Outstanding keyboard
• Stunning and unique design
• Great built-in features: Dual-Layer DVD burner, Wi-Fi, 3 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire
• Quiet operation and runs cool
• Large storage capacity (80GB)
• Entertainment features: software and AV Dock (select A-Series)

Cons:

• Heavy and thick
• Large bezel surrounding the display
• Lacks DVI; Bluetooth only available in the customized 17-inch model
• Built-in speakers lacks bass
• Too many unnecessary pre-installed software
• Uses Micro-SODIMM and SODIMM RAM
• Hard Drive is only 4200RPM
• Short battery life

Recommendation
There isnt enough to dislike about the Sony VAIO VGN-A250 that would convince me to not consider owning one. It has one of the most unique and attractive designs found in a laptop. Although its a bit bulky to carry around, the A250 is actually lighter then other desktop replacements from Toshiba and HP. The 15.4-inch WXGA screen with XBRITE is an absolute stunner. Movies, pictures, and Windows in general appear to be richer, brighter, and sharper than non-XBRITE screens. It should also be mentioned that there are competing XBRITE technologies, such as HPs BrightView and TruBrite in Toshibas. The integrated Dual-Layer DVD burner, Wi-Fi LAN, ports, and multimedia software adds to its list of great features. The machine is above average in performance but it makes it up by running incredibly quiet and cool. The keyboard is top-notch and feels great to type with. Its unfortunate that for a multimedia notebook, Sony uses a 4,200 rpm hard drive when 5,400 and 7,200 offers much better performance. Battery life was less than ideal, lasting only a little over 2 hours. But again, this laptop is truly meant to be used on your desk with the AC adapter. This is a great general purpose notebook computer, aimed towards the avid multimedia user. For the heavier multimedia user, there are other A Series models that provide additional features and performance to satisfy your needs. At $2,000 for the base model, this is a good investment for a well-rounded notebook.

Availability/Warranty
The Sony VAIO VGN-A250 is available now for a suggested retail price of $1999.99. The VGN-A260 with AV Entertainment Dock retails for $2229.99. Sony offers an industry standard one year limited warranty and one year of technical support: free service that includes free shipping both ways and 24/7 toll-free telephone technical support. The Sony support website provides a knowledgebase and download center. Extended service plans are available.