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Reviewed by: Michelle Thatcher
Reviewed on: 11 September 2006
With the newest configurations of the XPS M1710, Dell adds Intel's Core 2 Duo processor to its market-leading gaming machine. (Also new with this iteration is a built-in Draft 802.11n wireless adaptor -- some versions of the XPS M1710 will ship with a compatible 802.11n router.) The new processor brings remarkable application speed to the already-powerful XPS M1710 and extends its battery life -- both good things. But with the same graphics card as its predecessor, this new version of the XPS M1710 doesn't realise any gains in gaming performance.
Design
Aside from our test unit's Special Edition Formula Red cover (it's also available in Metallic Black), the XPS M1710's design is nearly identical to that of the previous model, the XPS M170, and very similar to the more multimedia-focused Inspiron E1705. (Except for the glowing lights: the XPS M1710 can emit shafts of light in any one of 16 colours from its lid, side vents and speaker vents.) Crafted out of sturdy and stylish magnesium alloy, the XPS M1710 measures 394mm by 287mm by 41mm. Our test unit weighed 3.99kg (4.63kg pounds with its AC adaptor) -- a fraction more than the Gateway NX850XL, but nearly 700g more than the compact Toshiba Satellite P105. The XPS M1710 is certainly easier to move than a desktop gaming rig, and it's portable enough for room-to-room movement, but we don't recommend it for travel.
The XPS M1710 includes a full-size keyboard, though it lacks a separate number pad, as found on some other desktop replacements, such as the Satellite P105-S921, the HP Pavilion DV8000 and the Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600. The XPS M1710's mouse buttons are very big, however, and the touchpad, which features a backlit XPS logo, is adequately sized. The touchpad also has arrows running along its right and bottom edges, outlining where to place your finger when using the software-enhanced pad to scroll through documents or Web pages.
Features
Like most of the other models in the XPS and Inspiron lines, the XPS M1710 features Dell's MediaDirect software, which plays CDs and DVDs and lets you access photos and other media files stored on your hard drive without booting up Windows first. The two speakers and the internal subwoofer -- a rare feature among laptops -- deliver crisp and rich sound. Better still, because the speakers sit in the corners of the laptop's front edge, your hands won't muffle them while you're typing, and you can play music with the lid closed. Sandwiched between the speakers, a row of seven buttons lets you control disc playback and adjust or mute the volume. Though the XPS M1710 runs Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005, it lacks the integrated TV tuner found on more expensive systems, such as the Qosmio G35-AV600, the Fujitsu LifeBook N6210 and the Sony Vaio AX570G. Dell does sell an external PC Card tuner, though.
Our XPS M1710 test unit came equipped with a reasonably bright, 17-inch widescreen display. We love its superfine WUXGA 1,900x1,200 native resolution -- Dell says that the XPS M1710's display is 30 per cent brighter than the M170's. While we found it slightly brighter than the Inspiron E1705's display, we still prefer the superbright screens on the Vaio AX, the LifeBook N6210 and the Pavilion DV8000, though none of those models offer the gaming performance of the XPS M1710.
There's no dearth of ports, jacks or slots here -- the XPS M1710 features headphone and microphone jacks, VGA and DVI outputs, S-Video-out, four-pin FireWire and a whopping six USB 2.0 ports. Networking connections include a 56Kbps modem, 10/100/100 Gigabit Ethernet, optional Bluetooth and integrated 802.11a/b/g wireless. Also onboard are an ExpressCard slot and a 5-in-1 media card reader -- PC Card users, take note that the XPS M1710 does not support PCMCIA cards. (For the sake of comparison, the Toshiba Satellite P105-S921 has all of this, plus it supports PC Cards and SmartMedia cards and has an S/PDIF output, though it has two fewer USB 2.0 ports.) Finally, our XPS M1710 test unit included a multiformat, double-layer DVD drive. Dell bundles a standard software package, including Microsoft Windows XP Media Center.
Performance
Our Dell XPS M1710 test unit has identical components to the earlier Core Duo version, with the exception of the 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo T7600 processor. The configuration includes 2GB of fast 666MHz DDR2 SDRAM, a big, fast 100GB hard drive spinning at 7,200rpm and Nvidia's top-shelf GeForce Go 7900 GTX GPU with 512MB of dedicated memory. On CNET Labs' application tests, the XPS M1710 quickly dispensed with processor-intensive tasks such as encoding MP3 files and multitasking, completing the tests significantly faster than the Alienware Aurora mALX gaming laptop. On our mobile performance benchmarks, the XPS M1710 showed a remarkably long, 4-hour 16-minute battery life that more than certainly came at the expense of performance -- clearly, you'll want to save your processor-intensive tasks for times when the laptop is plugged in.
When it comes to 3D games, though, the XPS M1710's new processor alone couldn't provide a performance bump -- because it has the same graphics card, its frame rates were almost identical to the earlier Core Duo-based system. With 110.7fps on Doom 3 and 71fps on F.E.A.R., the XPS M1710's scores weren't bad, but they were also no match for the Aurora mALX's respective 133.6fps and 86fps. If you're looking to play the newest games at the highest settings (and you're willing to stretch your definition of laptop to include a 6.8kg beast), the dual-SLI graphics and slightly faster processor speed of the Aurora mALX will provide a superior gaming experience. Otherwise, the Dell XPS M1710 continues to deliver extremely strong game performance in a more reasonably sized package.
Edited by Matthew Elliott
Additional editing by Kate Macefield - Courtsey of cnet.co.uk
Reviewed by: Dan Ackerman
Reviewed on: 10 March 2008
Apple has made its first update to the venerable MacBook line since the introduction of the MacBook Air. Regular 13-inch MacBooks get the usual CPU upgrade, but the MacBook Pro line gets a notable internal overhaul -- including new Penryn-class Intel CPUs, new touch pad gestures -- lifted from the MacBook Air -- and finally a backlit LED option for the 17-inch models, something already standard for 15-inchers.
We looked at the higher-end of two 15-inch configurations. The 15-inch, 2.4GHz version starts at £1,299 and the 17-inch, 2.5GHz version retails for £1,799.
Design
Physically, the refreshed 15-inch MacBook Pro is identical to its predecessors, still only 26mm thick, but now that we've had time to get used to the thinner, lighter MacBook Air, it feels positively huge in comparison.
By now we're very familiar with the minimalist layout -- open the lid and inside you'll find only a power button, a full-size keyboard, stereo speakers, a sizeable touch pad with a single mouse button and a built-in iSight camera. Despite our love for a clean look, we've also become used to having at least a few media control keys -- attractive touch-sensitive media controls now regularly pop up on even the cheapest laptops.
Features
Possibly the biggest change is how the revamped trackpad now work with multi-touch gestures, much like the MacBook Air. Originally, you could do things like use two fingers to scroll through documents -- now Pro users can use three fingers to go forward and back in Safari's browser history, and use a thumb and forefinger to zoom in and out of documents and photos -- much like on the iPhone. We hope Apple will roll this out for the 13-inch MacBooks sooner rather than later.
The move to backlit LED displays happened in the last MacBook Pro revision, at least for the 15-inch models. This time around, the 17-inch models have it, too. The 15-inch display is 1,440x900 pixels, while the 17-inch is either 1,680x1,050 pixels (standard) or 1,920x1,200 pixels (LED). Apple touts the backlit LED displays as being both energy efficiency and mercury-free.
The MacBook Pro remains the only laptop we can think of with a FireWire 800 jack -- along with the more common FireWire 400 -- useful for digital video fans, but we still think adding a simple SD card slot would be a huge plus for the Pro -- and let's get that on the regular 13-inch MacBook, too, while we're at it.
Performance
With the newest Penryn CPUs, the MacBook Pro offers an excellent boost in performance over the previous mid-2007 Pro revision in our benchmark tests, although a pre-Penryn 13-inch MacBook from late 2007 was nearly as fast. This reinforces our opinion that Intel's Penryn CPUs, while more energy efficient, don't offer much of a performance boost.
The MacBook Air was well behind -- its custom Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, designed to fit into the Air's extra-thin chassis, is slower than the typical Core 2 Duos found in most laptops.
The Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card allows for some basic gaming -- although if you plan on playing games on the MacBook Pro, you'll probably want to install Windows on a separate partition through Boot Camp.
Running Quake 4 at 1,024x768 pixels, we got 88 frames per second, compared to only 65 frames per second from the 2007 version of the MacBook Pro. Both systems had identical graphics cards, so we credit the CPU.
Despite some initial concerns that the revamped MacBook Pro offered less battery life, we got an impressive 4 hours 23 minutes with our battery drain test -- that's 47 minutes more than the older version of the MacBook Pro, and 20 minutes more than the MacBook Air.
We're still not fans of Apple's nearly obligatory extended warranty upsell, so much so that we've simply copied this complaint from our last MacBook review. The default warranty for the MacBook is one year of coverage for parts and labour, but telephone support is limited to a mere 90 days -- well short of what you'd typically find on the PC side -- unless you purchase the £279 AppleCare Protection Plan, which extends phone support and repair coverage to three years.
Conclusion
As we've come to expect, the new configurations hit the same price as the now-discontinued ones. More power for the same money is always welcome, but at £1,599, we still think the cheaper 13-inch MacBook is a better overall value, outweighed only if you need either the larger screen or Express card slot, or you can't live without the touchpad gestures.
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday - Article courtsey of cnet.co.uk
Reviewed by: Will Head
Reviewed on: 16 April 2008
Laptops aren't generally known for their gaming performance, but if you haven't got room for a full-size PC and still want to do the odd bit of simulated action, then the MSI GX700-204UK may well be able to satisfy your virtual desire for around £900.
Strengths
The GX700 isn't a super cheap laptop, but if you're looking for a desktop replacement with both a large screen and enough horsepower to play games, you could easily spend twice as much. Comparatively, it's a bargain.
It sports one of Intel's newest T8300 Core 2 Duo processors, running at 2.4GHz, and comes with a rather generous 3GB of DDR2 RAM. As a result, it managed an extremely high PCMark05 score of 5,580, which is almost unheard of for a machine with a sub-£1,000 price tag.
It's no slouch when it comes to gaming either, thanks to its Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT MXM graphics chip, scoring just shy of the 3,000 mark with a 3DMark06 score of 2,994. It could be an extremely good deal for gamers with shallow pockets.
The processor and graphics chip may be the standout items, but it's not bad when you consider its other components. The 250GB hard drive may be small compared to some other machines, but in reality, it's more than enough for the casual user.
Weaknesses
The GX700 can certainly hold its own when compared to other desktop replacement models, but there are areas where its budget roots start to show. The 17-inch screen provides a large working area, but it only stretches to a resolution of 1,680x1,050 pixels, which is short of the 1,920x,1080 pixels required to show 1080p high definition content without downscaling. There's also no HD optical drive included, with just DVD on offer.
Like all desktop replacement models, the GX700 is far happier when it's safely indoors and isn't really equipped for a life on the road. Disconnect it from the mains power supply and you won't be able to get that much done before it complains about running out of juice. It managed to keep going for just 1 hour 15 minutes running the intensive Battery Eater test and only fared slightly better at 1 hour 57 minutes when faced with the more leisurely Reader tests.
When you first get it out of the box, the black glossy casing looks great. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes tarnished with greasy finger marks. If you like to keep your technology looking its best, you'll have to get used to giving this laptop a wipe down every now and again.
Conclusion
MSI has created an extremely capable machine with the GX700 -- especially when you consider its low price tag. It can't full take advantage of HD content, but in the performance and gaming stakes it's more than capable. Battery life is poor, but no worse than other desktop replacements and the rest of the spec is reasonable for the money.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday - Courtsey of cnet.co.uk
Reviewed by: Rory Reid
Reviewed on: 27 June 2008
The Samsung R410 -- not to be confused with the r410 mobile phone -- is a budget all-round laptop with a 14.1-inch display. It's the smallest in Samsung's R series, so in theory, it's ideal for anyone that wants solid performance in a chassis that doesn't weigh the Earth. More importantly, however, it's dirt cheap at around £499. Let's see what you get for your dough.
Design
The R410 is very ordinary in its design. We've lost count of the number of times we've seen laptops with glossy black lids and matte black interiors -- particularly from Samsung -- so forgive us if we yawn momentarily. As with all laptops with this sort of design, the lid is prone to collecting smudges, so unless you're willing to carry the bundled felt cloth everywhere you go, it'll be permanently dirty.
The R410's 14.1-inch display should mean it saves weight over the more common 15.4-inch laptops that litter the market. In truth, its 2.4kg chassis isn't that much lighter than a similar 15.4-inch machine. In fact, it's slightly heavier than the 15.4-inch Lenovo T60, which clocks in at 2.3kg. Its 335 by 34 by 247mm chassis isn't all that small, either -- it'll just about fit into a rucksack.
Connectivity shouldn't be much of an issue in large laptops, but that's one area the R410 doesn't impress. It only has three USB ports, one of which lives on the right side and will usually be occupied by a USB mouse. The remaining two might be enough for most people, but Samsung has positioned these around the rear of the machine, making them awkward to reach. Don't even think about using the R410 on a plane with USB devices connected to the rear: it probably won't fit on the seatback tray.
Features
Samsung should be applauded for kitting out the R410 with a good core specification. We don't normally expect much for £499, but it packs a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive, all of which are components you might expect in a slightly more expensive machine.
It's not all good news, though. The graphics adaptor in the R410 is a rather inept ATI Radeon Xpress 1250, which doesn't have any dedicated memory. Instead, it leeches 256MB off the main system memory, leaving you with 1,790MB for the operating system and applications. The graphics card will allow you to watch movies, surf the Internet and edit images, but gaming really isn't its strong point.
The R410 is only average when it comes to helping you enjoy your media. The problem is mostly down to the screen -- it's certainly large enough, but the 1,280x800-pixel resolution is pretty low by today's standards. It also has a glossy coating, which means you can't see the display properly when using it outdoors. On top of that, the vertical viewing angle is rather limited, so you'll need to position the screen so it's just right or the picture will look distorted.
It's also worth noting that the R410's integrated speakers aren't very good -- even by laptop standards. It's barely loud enough to let you hear dialogue properly and the situation is exacerbated if you open a window and let in ambient noise. Get yourself a set of external speakers or some headphones or it'll drive you nuts.
Earlier in the review, we said we weren't overly impressed with the connectivity on the R410 and it's worth mentioning again. In light of the fact the screen isn't particularly great, it would have been nice if Samsung provided a digital video output port. It hasn't. Instead, you get an ordinary, analogue D-Sub output, which isn't too hot by today's standards.
The R410 comes with an 802.11b/g wireless adaptor, though there isn't Bluetooth. You also get a 1.3-megapixel webcam -- great for the exhibitionist in us all -- and a pre-installed copy of Windows Vista Home Premium, which features the Media Center interface.
Performance
The R410 isn't particularly quick, but neither is it particularly slow. It failed to run our PCMark 2005 benchmark, but the 1.8GHz CPU should be adequate for most users and provided you aren't doing anything particularly CPU-intensive -- such as video encoding -- then it's zippy enough not to cause frustration.
One thing it won't handle very well is games. It scored a paltry 630 in 3DMark 2006, which is indicative of a machine that will run a mile before it'll run Far Cry.
Battery performance wasn't great, either. It lasted just 50 minutes in our BatteryEater render test, which is very poor. This, we believe, is mostly down to the battery having a relatively low capacity -- just 4,400mAh. Even an Eee PC 901 has a 6,600mAH power cell.
Conclusion
There's no denying the R410 is very good value for money. We'd recommend it to anyone looking for a second, semi-portable PC or to students on a tight budget. It's not very versatile and it has its problems, but if you're a tightwad who can't put up with the tiny screens of an Eee PC, then the R410 isn't a bad bet.
Edited by Shannon Doubleday - Article Courtsey of cnet.co.uk
Reviewed by: Sandra Vogel
Reviewed on: 3 July 2008
Panasonic's Toughbook range covers a spectrum of toughness, from military-grade fully ruggedised laptops to drop- and spill-resistant business ruggedised systems. In the middle sit a number of semi-ruggedised laptops, including the wide-screened CF-52, available for around £1,350.
Design
Despite its 'semi-ruggedised' classification, the Toughbook CF-52 is a seriously solid-looking laptop. When closed it looks more like a slim briefcase than a portable computer, thanks to its hard outer shell and built-in carrying handle.
The shell comprises a lid section made mostly of magnesium alloy with a black plastic section towards the top that adds visual interest and provides space for the Panasonic branding. The rest of the system is encased in hard black plastic.
The handle is built in to the front of the laptop. It's hinged to the left and right, allowing it to be laid almost flush when not in use. Unlike the handle on the Getac P470, this handle does not lock into a snug position when not in use.
The upper and lower sections of the Toughbook CF-52 are locked in place when the laptop is closed by a very sturdy clasp. There's almost no chance of the two sections being prized apart by anything other than your fingers.
Its ruggedised casing is one factor contributing to the CF-52's weight -- at 3.3kg, it's unlikely you'll want to carry it very often or very far. It's also large, measuring 356 by 52 by 287mm.
The good news is that the 15.4-inch screen has a wide aspect ratio and stretches almost to the boundaries of the space on offer. The display has a native resolution of 1,280x800 pixels and can easily support two document windows open at once. It's also up to the job of displaying complex graphics -- as might be needed in the field by architects or engineers, for example.
The keyboard looks a little lost in its wide surroundings. The Qwerty keys are full sized and responsive, however, and we had no problems with touch-typing. The space bar is a little shorter than we would like and the Enter key could be bigger, which takes a little getting used to. A full-width row of half-height function keys above the number row gives access to various functions, including screen brightness and volume control.
The two-button touch pad, which sits in the wrist-rest area, looks relatively small in its surroundings. It incorporates vertical and horizontal scroll bars along its right and bottom edges, which we found a little temperamental to use at times. The entire keyboard area, including the touch pad, is splash resistant.
Features
The Toughbook CF-52 has a 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 processor. This includes 2MB of L2 cache and an 800MHz frontside bus. Our review sample came with 1GB of RAM, which can be upgraded to a maximum of 4GB.
You may need extra RAM if you intend to run Windows Vista Business on this laptop. Ours came with Windows XP Professional, for which 1GB is quite sufficient.
Bluetooth and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi are both integrated, along with Gigabit Ethernet. Graphics are handled by the GMA X3100 module integrated in Intel's GM965 Express chipset.
The Toughbook CF-52 has several ruggedised features. We already noted the splash-resistant keyboard and solid shell. The 80GB hard drive is mounted in shock-absorbing foam and connected to the motherboard by flexible cable. Panasonic says it will withstand a 90cm drop. The whole laptop should survive a fall from a height of 76cm, roughly the height of an office desk. Note, though, that this test assumes the laptop is not switched on.
Many of the ports and connectors ranged around the sides of the casing are protected by covers. This is not the case for the SD card slot or the multi-format DVD drive on the left-hand side, though. The front-mounted audio sockets are not protected either, and nor is the physical switch that turns Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off.
On the right-hand side, a Type II PC Card and a single ExpressCard slot are layered one above the other and protected by a hinged cover. A second cover protects a pair of USB 2.0 ports and a FireWire connector. At the back there are two further USB 2.0 ports, again protected by a hinged cover. Further covers protect the external 15-pin monitor connector, Ethernet and modem ports and a 9-pin serial port.
All of these hinged covers feel robust and have a 'spring-back' action that, while not locking them in place securely, at least ensures some measure of protection when a peripheral is removed.
As far as options go, the most important one is HSDPA connectivity, which will boost the base price of £1,291 to around £1,549. Other optional components include a fingerprint reader and a smartcard reader.
Performance
We tested this laptop's battery life by running Battery Eater and it delivered a total battery life of 2 hours 32 minutes, which we found disappointing, especially given Panasonic's own estimate of up to 7.5 hours.
Battery Eater is a demanding test that provides a minimum estimate of a laptop's battery life, and the CF-52 does have a large 15.4-inch screen to power. Even so, we'd expect more from a machine designed to spend much of its life on the road. Run Wi-Fi for long and you're likely to need access to mains power at least once per working day, unless you carry a spare battery.
Conclusion
The Toughbook CF-52 is a very solidly built laptop, with a hardened outer casing, shock-mounted hard disk and covered ports. Although the 15.4-inch, wide-format screen is nice, this 3.3kg system isn't the most portable of its kind -- even with its carrying handle. Battery life also falls a long way short of Panasonic's claims.
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday - Courtsey of cnet.co.uk
WHICH KIND OF LAPTOP IS RIGHT FOR ME?
To choose the right laptop -- one with the right set of features at the right price -- you'll need to work out how you'll use your machine. Match your needs to one of these user profiles to get started.
Home user | Student | Frequent flier | Business power user | Multimedia author or gamer
Home user
Home users are increasingly turning to laptops as second or third PCs for the home. Laptops can offer similar performance and features to those of a desktop PC, but they can be easily moved from room to room. Two types of laptops are suitable for home users: mainstream laptops and desktop replacements.
KEY FEATURES:
Mobile Celeron, Pentium 4-M or desktop (Pentium 4) processors
At least 128MB of memory
Large hard drive for storing digital photos and video
14-inch display or larger
Fixed or swappable CD-RW and/or DVD drives
Wired and wireless networking
External keyboard and mouse
Microsoft Windows XP Home
Microsoft Works Suite
Student
Students and others on a tight budget should look for a laptop that delivers the most bang for the buck. In particular, students need a notebook that is small and light enough to lug back and forth across campus, but rugged enough to withstand bouncing around in a rucksack.
KEY FEATURES:
Mobile Celeron, Pentium 4-M, desktop Pentium 4 or PowerPC G4 processor
At least 256MB of memory
Expansive hard drive to hold all those MP3s
CD-RW drive for burning audio CDs
Wired and wireless networking for network-equipped classrooms
Microsoft Windows XP Home or Apple Mac OS X
Microsoft Office XP Standard Edition or Office X for Mac OS
Frequent flier
If you spend a lot of time on the road, size and weight are the two most critical factors in choosing a new laptop -- even if it means sacrificing a little on performance and features. The smallest and lightest laptops, 'ultraportables', weigh less than 2kg and are no thicker than a spiral-bound notebook.
KEY FEATURES:
Pentium III-M processors
At least 128MB of memory
A 12-inch display
Wired and wireless networking
Extra battery for those long-haul flights
Media slice or external USB CD-RW/DVD drive
Port replicator for the desk
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Office XP Professional Edition
Business power user
If you rely on the same laptop at work, at home and on the road, you need a well-balanced system. And it has to deliver the performance to keep up with a wide range of applications. A 'thin-and-light' is just the ticket.
KEY FEATURES:
Intel Pentium M processor
256MB of memory
Midsized hard drive
A 14-inch display
Swappable, combination CD-RW/DVD drive
Wired and wireless networking
Extra battery
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Office XP Professional
Multimedia author or gamer
If you demand more from a laptop, you'll need a true 'desktop replacement'. Whether you're designing a Web site, editing home movies or mowing down aliens, your notebook will demand a powerful processor, plenty of memory, great graphics and a healthy hard drive.
KEY FEATURES:
Fastest Pentium M, Pentium 4-M or desktop P4 or PowerPC G4 processors
512MB to 1GB of memory
A 15-inch display or larger
Advanced graphics accelerator with 32MB or 64MB of its own memory
The largest and fastest hard drive available
Swappable CD-RW and DVD recordable drives
Multimedia connectors, such as S-Video, FireWire, S/PDIF
External keyboard and mouse
Microsoft Windows XP Home or Professional or Apple Mac OS X
Microsoft Office XP Premium, Adobe Photoshop
Tips courtsey of cnet.co.uk
Reviewed by: Rory Reid
Sony's Vaio VGN-AR11S is the first laptop to use an integrated Blu-ray drive. It's also the first laptop we've seen that uses a 1080i-capable display with HDCP decoding capability, giving it full high-definition readiness.
Design
The VGN-AR11S is a large and bulky 17-inch laptop. It doesn't quite match the bloat of the 20-inch Dell XPS M2010 or the Acer Aspire 9800 but at 3.8kg, you won't want to take it much further than your desk. The lid of the laptop is finished in a glossy black colour, though the rest of the unit, including the hinges, is matte black. Although it looks fine for the US market, UK consumers might not like the generous use of chrome around the laptop's outside edge.
To open the lid you'll need to slide a single switch at the front lip of the unit. This worked fine during our test period but felt flimsy to the touch. The bezel of the screen has a glossy finish but this can be forgiven as the screen itself is coated in Sony's glossy X-Black varnish -- intended to help improve the appearance of colours and heighten contrast. The lower section of the bezel has a backlit Vaio logo and a pair of speakers, one on either side. At the top of the screen there's a 'motion-eye' webcam, but don't be confused by the name -- it won't track your movement around the room like the Creative Live Cam Voice does.
The keyboard half of the Vaio VGN-AR11S is nice to look at. We did, however, take issue with the oversize keys -- they take some getting used to and we found ourselves making regular errors.
There's no dedicated numerical keypad, but Sony has installed eight hotkeys to the top right of the keyboard to aid manipulation of the laptop's various multimedia modes. There are buttons for changing the TV (it has an integrated TV tuner which we'll discuss in more depth later), recording television broadcasts, playback controls and for switching the AV mode. A set of standard shortcut hotkeys are located to the left of the keyboard. These let you adjust the system volume, launch two user-definable applications and eject the Blu-ray drive tray.
One major concern was the position of the mouse buttons. The touchpad is logically placed in the centre of the wrist rest but the buttons sit some distance away on the very edge of the front. This means you'll need to stretch your thumb an unnecessarily long distance to reach the left or right mouse buttons, which isn't exactly ideal.
Features
As part of Sony's AR or A series of laptops, the VGN-AR11S inherits a strong specification. It doesn't use a CPU from the next-generation Core 2 Duo range of processors, but it has the second-fastest of the current Intel Core Duo CPUs -- the 2GHz Intel T2500. This is supported by 1GB of DDR2 533MHz memory and an Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics chipset with 256MB of dedicated RAM.
We were also happy to see a pair of 100GB hard drives installed in a RAID configuration 0. Both Raid 1 and Raid 0 setups are available for selection at the time of buying. The former, also known as mirroring, makes an identical copy of all the files you create on both hard drives, so if one fails there's a good chance you'll have the other as a backup. The latter, Raid 1, interleaves data across the two drives in order to improve disk access speed and is sometimes referred to as striping. We'd recommend selecting a Raid 1 setup as Raid 0 effectively limits your amount of storage to 100GB as the other 100GB is being used as backup.
The VGN-AR11S's excellent storage options are cemented by the integrated Blu-ray drive on the left side of the laptop. The Panasonic-developed Matshita BD-MLT UJ-2105 allows you to burn up to 50GB of data to a single Blu-ray disc, which is five times more data than can be stored on an ordinary single layer DVD. This has the obvious benefit of letting you backup the entire contents of the laptop onto just eight discs, but it also means you can play Blu-ray movies. The only drawback of this is the current price of Blu-ray media. It's new, so it's expensive: a single 25GB disc costs around £10.
Impressively Sony has fitted a WUXGA TFT panel into the laptop's 17-inch screen area. This gives it the ability to display resolutions up to 1,920x1,200 pixels, which includes 1080p (1,920x1,080 pixels) -- the Holy Grail of high-definition video. The high resolution of the laptop makes it difficult to read some on-screen text. Sony hasn't modify the number of dots per inch for the default font scheme in order to increase the font size, so we'd recommend doing so yourself if you don't like squinting.
Despite its penchant for making desktop fonts look tiny, the screen is of a very good standard -- we were able to watch 1080p video with no hassle. The laptop showed no sign of struggling with the video playback, and images looked excellent thanks to a high level of contrast and colours that seem to come to life. The 17-inch screen area hinders the viewing experience, particularly if viewed from a distance, but up close it looks spectacular.
The VGN-AR11S comes with an integrated hybrid TV tuner and an aerial socket tucked away at the rear of the laptop. This lets you watch analogue or digital (Freeview) and it'll also let you watch one channel while recording another. The conveniently positioned channel changing and TV recording buttons above the keyboard come in very handy here.
The laptop is well-kitted out with a good number of input/output ports. We like the fact Sony has supplied both DVI and HDMI digital video ports, both of which support high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) -- the copy protection system that'll be used by most Blu-ray movie discs. The presence of this technology means the laptop will have no trouble playing Blu-ray movies internally and on large external televisions.
There are only three USB ports, but there's a a gigabit Ethernet (1,000Mbps) network adaptor, and being a Centrino laptop, it has an 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi adaptor so you can connect it to your home network or surf the Web without using cables.
As with most Vaio laptops, the VGN-AR11S comes with a decent software bundle. You get Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition plus Norton Internet Security Suite antivirus software, SonicStage Mastering Studio and DSD Direct, which lets you convert audio from cassette tapes to digital CD or MP3 versions, and Roxio Digital Media SE, which lets you create DVD movies, photo presentations and other entertainment content.
Performance
The VGN-AR11S's performance is strong, if not mindblowing. It fared slightly better than the excellent Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi in our PCMark 2005 test, racking up 4,320 versus the Acer's 4,236. There's not much in it, but both laptops are strong all-rounders.
3D performance was less impressive but the GeForce Go 7600 card helped it clock up a respectable 3DMark 2006 score of 2,859. Obviously it's not in the same league as the score of 5,905 clocked up by the Aurora mALX, Alienware's six-toed ninja gaming laptop, but the VGN-AR11S will run with most games -- albeit at modest resolutions.
It's interesting to see how the VGN-AR11S fared when burning data to Blu-ray media. We managed to copy 25GB of data to a single-layer Blu-ray disc (BD-ROM) in 82 minutes. That's ages in comparison to how long it would take to copy the same data to an external hard drive, but it's not so bad considering an ordinary DVD drive takes around 15 minutes to burn 4.5GB.
Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Kate Macefield - Article courtsey of cnet.co.uk
Reviewed by: Michelle Thatcher
