Sony laptops have a cult following second only to Mac laptops. Unfortunately, a lot of Vaio users have recently switched sides and bought themselves the exorbitantly priced Mac books. Manufacturers like Dell, Hp and Lenovo on the other hand have chosen the simpler and cheaper route of making ‘affordable’ laptops. The Sony FW31J laptop is perhaps one of the few laptops on the market capable of making even the Mac book look puny. Unlike conventional laptops, the FW31J comes with a 16.4 “ WGA+ screen, and boasts of a Bluray drive for additional entertainment options.
I have been using the FW31J for the past year and have found the laptop a complete joy to use. Vaio’s have been criticized for being overpriced(let’s not discuss Mac books then), but the FW31J is a value for money laptop.
Screen*
The 1600x900 resolution screen is a joy. With a vast majority of movies still available in the older DVD format, the screen a fantastic job of displaying blur free pictures and graphics. For people looking for a truly magnificent experience, watching a Bluray movie on the FW31J is a must. Although the HD standard requires a 1080p screen for full features, the 900p screen of the FW31J is more than sufficient and the wide screen aspect ratio is preserved thanks to the 16.4 “ wide screen display.
Sony claims the screen has a dual backlight and uses the revolutionary(?) X-black technology. In a nutshell, viewing movies on the laptop is a joy.
Keyboard and touchpad*
The FW31J comes with an ergonomic keyboard that takes after the Mac book. The keys are spaced apart and not crammed together like other laptops or a regular keyboard. The touchpad of the FW31J is one of the most responsive I have used, and is very easy to use(once you get used to the lower placement compared to other laptops).
Preloaded software*
Since the FW31J is labelled as a ‘entertainment’ laptop, it comes preloaded with a host of goodies which are probably worth a few hundred pounds. My FW31J was pre loaded with Adobe Acrobat, Windows Vista Home Premium, Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 and a host of Sony branded video editing software. All in all, for the £800 price tag, the laptop comes fully loaded with software.
Hardware*
The laptop comes with the ATI Radeon 3470 HD with 256 MB dedicated to the video card. The laptop also has 4 GB DDR SD2 RAM and a 400 GB hard drive. The processor is a Intel Centrino Dual Core processor running at 2.0 GHz(T6400).
The laptop is equipped with 3 USB ports, a standard VGA out port, an express card slot, a Fire wire port, SD and MemoryStick(with Magicgate) port. The crowning glory of the hardware is without a doubt the external HDMI port that(thanks to the video card) can output videos in Full HD to external displays, effectively eliminating the need for an external Bluray player. The standard networking ports are also available. The FW31J also comes with Wifi and Bluetooth integrated.
Accessories and sundries*
What is truly disappointing in the whole affair is the lack of carry bag. Like most laptop manufacturers in Europe. The Vaio does not come with a carry bag(which cost me an additional £44).
The battery life of the FW31J is far from impressive and watching a English movie on the laptop is a little stretch. Having said that; the exceptionally large screen does not add to the battery life in anyway. The laptop also has tactile buttons instead of the trendier touch buttons. All in all the FW31J is much like any other Vaio when it comes to accessories.
Conclusion*
The FW31J is no Mac Book, it’s probably better for what Sony is asking for the laptop. A Mac Book with similar specs is worth around £1500 pounds and can offer probably a few more features that one can do without(backlight keyboard and light sensors).
The only disappointing aspect of the laptop is the battery life and the lack of accessories.