SONY VAIO FW SERIES VGN-FW198U REVIEW

VAIO FW – Giant leap by Sony

The VAIO FW is a brand novel Centrino 2 platform laptop from Sony, offering a much required facelift, as well as a 16.4" widescreen. Our complete review gives you all the details you require to find out if this laptop is right for you.

Design
The fit and finish of the Sony VAIO FW is magnificent, and the on the whole design is stunning. The laptop has a streamlined sculpted gaze, and when opened has a palm-rest and keyboard encase that seems like the elegant sloping surface of a car hood. The surface begins out flat, has a diminutive dip, and then elegantly slopes down to the screen hinges.

Performance
System presentation was extremely good for most errands not involving 3D graphics. Working along with office-productivity software, surfing the web, encoding video, or just looking through your iTunes library worked quite well devoid of any lag. The disappointing part was demanding to play semi-modern games such as Half-Life 2 or Portal, and availing very deprived frame rates. The ATI 3470 graphics accelerator didn’t really help with much besides offloading video decoding while enjoying a Blu-ray movie. I would encompass much rather seen a 3650 series graphics card, considering laptops like the Toshiba A305 which fall into the identical price category offer this.

True HD screens are principally what you have in your living room or TV room if you possess an HDTV. 720P or 1080P displays are to some extent shorter than what you generally find on a computer. For instance on a WUXGA laptop has a resolution of 1920x1200, where as a Full HD 1080P screen is 1920x1080.

Staying away from a power outlet was not a pleasurable activity with this configuration that incorporated a 4400mAh battery. In the unbiased profile with the display brightness set to 60%, I clutched out 2 hours and 39 minutes before the laptop shut itself down.

Conclusion
The VAIO FW is an enormous step forward for Sony, and a praiseworthy competitor to the Dell Studio 15 or even the Toshiba A305. The design is huge, but more prominently the build superiority is outstanding. It feels rock-hard, with a logically firm screen cover and keyboard that feels as if a child could walk across it.

Pros
+ Grand design
+ Concrete build quality
+ Extra Widescreen
+ Comfy keyboard once you get worn to it

Cons
- Battery life with less significant battery is poor
- LCD backlight disproportion
- Speakers sound rather insipid