The VAIO AR Series marks another industry milestone for VAIO in terms of both design and capabilities. With its high-resolution widescreen display, dual-core processor and... more
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A review by davidwilkes on Sony Vaio VGN-AR31M May 4th, 2007
Author's product rating:
Speed
Very fast
Look & Feel
Excellent
Comfort & Portability
Excellent
Robustness & Durability
Excellent
Value For Money
Good
Advantages:
Very fast, very stable, well thought out design
Disadvantages:
Built in camera is a joke
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
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.
More Reviews
Quick review of Sony VAIO AR31M - Core 2 Duo T5600 1.83 GHz - 17\ Review ofSony Vaio VGN-AR31Mby
hawkeye2602
GOOD POINTS:
the keyboard is in a nice position as its placed away from the front and you can rest your wrist on the front.
comfortable to use on your knee siting in a chair
17" screen is very easy on the eyes
fully loaded laptop all you need without carrying extras
wireless has a very good range without using boosters
built-in camera and mic
BAD POINTS:
the paint is coming of close to the card reader
the tv is difficult to set up
although i said it was a good point but the front can scratch if you wear a watch
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
helpful
17.08.2007
Quick review of Sony VAIO AR31M - Core 2 Duo T5600 1.83 GHz - 17" TFT Review ofSony Vaio VGN-AR31Mby
Al_StAlbans
Bought VAIO AM31M T56000 17 in April 2007 for £1272.49.
Aug 20008 - Key fell off the keypad and webcam stopped working.
Eventually paid £189.26 to get these fixed.
Webcam broke within a month.
Then lines started to appear on the screen. By Dec 08 there were 6 narrow vertical lines on the screen.
Sony wanted £700 to be agreed to repair - in case the mother board needed to be replaced!!!
Does anyone know if this problem can be fixed? I'm not paying Sony anything more. Their after sales support is very poor and frustrating.
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: when they are good they are very very good Disadvantages: when things go wrong they are horrid
We already owned a sony viao, which is now 6 years old, when we decided to upgrade to this model. We did not have a moments problem with the old model - unfortunately this was not the case with the new one. It was purchased and delivered at the end of May this year, with the new vista operating system. We then moved home and only really used the laptop to answer emails. When we did start properly using it we noticed several problems. Firstly the ... ...It was sent back to Sony a total of four times and came back every time with the same faults. We sent it back initially on the 28th August and only received a refund today. In the meantime we have had to revert back to using the old laptop and have wasted upwards of £35 in phone calls to sony. Their customer service was shocking - patronising, imbeciles on the phone who quite clearly did not care whether our laptop worked or not. To add insult to ...
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Advantages: Excellent for watching movies and gaming and speed Disadvantages: Not so good for portability if u prefer small laptops
...specs and the vista op system. If u are also looking for a system that copies to all types of cd's and dvd's this is the one for you.
So if u want to get a great laptop with all the goodies and specs go for the sony vai. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Advantages: 2GB Ram and 160GB hard drive for lots of storage Disadvantages: none
This is a brilliant laptop, for one it has a great sized screen which is 17" TFT, also you will love this because it has a 2024 Ram and an amazing 160gb hard drive, so that means that you have alot of room for storage of things such as games, pictures, music and office work etc.
it is also great in the way that if you wanted a film, you could download it and save it onto a dvd and the same with music, it also will play your dvds, because it has ...
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Max Resolution: 1440 x 900 ( WXGA+ ), 1920 x 1200 ( WUXGA )
Widescreen Display: Yes
Features: X-black
Video
Graphics Processor / Vendor: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 GT, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400
Video Memory: 128 MB
Max Allocated RAM Size: 256 MB
Multimedia functionality
TV Tuner Type: Digital and analogue TV, Digital TV
Digital TV Reception: DVB-T
Radio Tuner Type: FM radio
Audio
Audio Output: Sound card
Compliant Standards: Microsoft WSS 1.0/2.0, High Definition Audio, DirectSound3D, High Definition Audio
Audio Input: Microphone
Notebook camera
Camera Type: Integrated
Sensor Resolution: 0.37 Megapixel
Capture Resolutions: 640 x 480
Manufacturer's product description
The VAIO AR Series marks another industry milestone for VAIO in terms of both design and capabilities. With its high-resolution widescreen display, dual-core processor and integrated Blu-ray optical drive (optional), the AR Series is more than just a powerful mobile computer.
Input device(s)
Type: Keyboard, touchpad
Keyboard - Localization and Layout: UK QWERTY
Telecom
Modem: Fax / Modem
Max Transfer Rate: 56 Kbps
Protocols & Specifications: ITU V.90, ITU V.92
Networking
Networking: Network adapter
Wireless LAN Supported: Yes
Wireless NIC: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Data Link Protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g
1 x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45
1 x audio - line-out/headphones - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
1 x audio / video - input
1 x video - S-video output
3 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type A
1 x display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)
1 x video - S-video input
1 x audio / video - HDMI - 19 pin HDMI Type A
1 x audio - SPDIF output
1 x remote control - infrared
Miscellaneous
Included Accessories: Remote control
Features: Security lock slot (cable lock sold separately)
Power
Power Device: External
Battery
Technology: Lithium Ion
Installed Qty: 1
Operating system / software
OS Provided: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium - English, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Software: Microsoft Office 2003 Student and Teacher Edition (Trial), VAIO Edit Components 6.0, VAIO Recovery Utility 2.6, Microsoft Works 8.5, Google Software Pack, Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0, Adobe Reader 8.0, Norton Internet Security 2007 (90 days subscription), Roxio Easy Media Creator 9, Sony Click to DVD 2.6, Sony DVgate Plus 2.3, Sony SonicStage CP 4.2, Sony SonicStage Mastering Studio 2.3, WinDVD for VAIO 8.0, Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.0, Skype 2.5
Manufacturer warranty
Service & Support: 1 year warranty
Service & Support Details: Limited warranty - 1 year
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