Sony Vaio VGN-AR31M

...I must say that my Sony has met and exceeded all my expectations. I will attempt to run through the main features and explain how I personally have found them to of some benefit.

DISPLAY:
Superb 17" screen TFT (1440 * 900) Sony have yet again proven their market leadership in visual technology. The display is a black tinted one and is superbly crisp with true to life colour reproduction. The display especially comes into ...
...than just the one. Admittedly Sony are not on their own with this practice, I would assume that using 2 x 1GB instead of 1 x 2GB is a cheaper option .

HARD DRIVE:
A massive 160GB, With this sort of capacity, I think you will have to go some way to even use half during the laptops lifetime. It does amaze me how so much storage capacity can be crammed into such a small space. The first laptop I ever had (admittedly about 7-8 ... more

This is the first time I have ever done a review on anything, so I hope this is of some use to someone. I have just recently (within the last month) splashed out on one of these and since no-one else has done so yet, I thought I would share my experiences.
Initially my intention was to spend around the £500 mark and buying a laptop as a secondary device. Then I had the idea of doing away with my desktop all together. Consequently I needed a laptop that would do all the things my desktop could do, but with the portability of a laptop.
I must say that my Sony has met and exceeded all my expectations. I will attempt to run through the main features and explain how I personally have found them to of some benefit.

DISPLAY:
Superb 17" screen TFT (1440 * 900) Sony have yet again proven their market leadership in visual technology. The display is a black tinted one and is superbly crisp with true to life colour reproduction. The display especially comes into its own when watching DVD as it is widescreen. This is also helped by the GeForce 7600 128Mb graphics card installed as standard

OPERATING SYSTEM:
Comes pre-installed with the new MS Vista Home Premium edition. For me personally the jury is still out on this one. Maybe it's because I am so used to using good old Window XP.

CPU:
Intel Centrino core duo 1.8Ghz. This is my first experience of dual core technology, to say the least I am impressed. I tend to have several applications open at the same time. With my old PC this often resulted in me overloading the system and ending with the machine freezing. I have yet to experience this with my Sony, it still remains quick and stable no matter how much demand I place on it.

RAM / MEMORY:
Comes supplied with a whopping 2GB as standard. Again this was a first experience, as it uses the newer DDR II at 667Mhz. The difference is noticeable and yes it is very fast. If you wanted to upgrade this, the AR31M will take up to 4GB using 2 x 2GB sticks. This is where an upgrade can cost a lot. The laptop is supplied with 2 x 1GB, consequently to upgrade to the full 4GB you would have to purchase another 2 sticks of 2GB rather than just the one. Admittedly Sony are not on their own with this practice, I would assume that using 2 x 1GB instead of 1 x 2GB is a cheaper option .

HARD DRIVE:
A massive 160GB, With this sort of capacity, I think you will have to go some way to even use half during the laptops lifetime. It does amaze me how so much storage capacity can be crammed into such a small space. The first laptop I ever had (admittedly about 7-8 years ago) was the size of a breeze block and only had 0.5Gb of hard drive space. The read / write speed of the drive is also quite fast, although this is certainly obtained by the combination of both a fast dive, good processor and fast memory.

OPTICAL DRIVE:
Fitted as standard with DVD +/- RW. I have used this to copy a full DVD and it did so with amicable speed. The drive has an impressive write speed of 8x DVD+/-R and 6x DVD+/-RW. There is an option to have the new Blu-ray drive fitted if required. Personally I think there is too much of the old Betamax / VHS syndrome at the moment to justify this option.

COMMUNICATION:
Supplied with the usual 56Kbs dial up modem and Lan port. WiFi enabled, this I think is a must, as it eliminates the need to have cumbersome PCMCIA cards sticking out the sides of the laptop.
Blue tooth, I haven't used this yet, but I do tend to send games / ring tones etc. to and from my mobile. Blue tooth for this is a real bonus as it saves fiddling about connecting data leads

INPUTS:
3 X USB. Very useful as most things now such as digital cameras printers etc etc use this type of interface.
Mic / Headphone jacks. useful if you want to use applications such as Skype.
1 x PCMCIA this is useful if you want to add a data card allowing you to use a mobile sim card for internet access.
Fire wire, I have never used this type of connection, but I understand that some video camera's use this type of interface, so again a bonus if you need it.

EXTRAS:
The laptop has a built in card reader capable of reading SD and various formats of memory stick. I have yet to use this feature, but can see the advantages when away from home. Photo's and videos can be instantly transferred from your camera to the large laptop hard drive saving you a fortune on buying numerous memory cards.
S-video out. As the display on the Vaio screen is so good, personally i couldn't see the need arising for this, but its there if you want it.
Remote control, seems more of a gadget to me, it is still in the wrapper.
Integrated camera. This in my view was the let down, the quality of it is very average, and in low light next to useless. The spec on the camera is a mere 0.37mp with a resolution of 640 x 480. It appears as though it was added for the sake of it or just as an after thought. To my mind if you going include this type of facility, put one in that will do the job.

I have shown the main points that I have found useful or not as the case may be. I have not listed the full specifications as these are available in all the brochures should you wish to seriously purchase one. Sony as a brand are not by any means the cheapest supplier on the market, but in my opinion the quality of their product justifies the cost. I hope that this is of some use to any one currently in the market for a higher end laptop. Simply going by the short experience I have had with my Sony, I can only say that I am extremely impressed and would recommended this product. 

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