Sony Vaio VGN-TX2XP/B

...I decided to buy a SONY VAIO VGN-TX2XP in DIXONS in Manchester Aiport Terminal 3 prior to my check-in outbound to Boston. Since it is tax free, the notebook's price is £1,497.86 (high street price is almost £1,700), inclusive of 1 year warranty. Well, it is not a surprise for me to see you frowning or seeing you with a surprise facial expression for knowing that I paid that much for only a laptop. Please dont argue about this, it is my personal choice ...
...why I settled down with SONY VAIO VGN-TX2XP (black)!

***SONY VAIO VGN-TX2XP SPECS AND FEATURES***
1. Memory, Capacity and Processor/System
This is the primary consideration in buying a notebook which really affects the market value of the unit. The installed type of processor is: Intel Pentium M753 Processor Ultra Low Voltage, with 1.2 GHz processor speed and front side bus speed of 400 MHz, 0.99 GB of RAM, and 2MB of ... more

AFTER SO MANY ADVICES from close friends/colleagues and several visits to various on-line distributors/manufacturers and high street stores, I decided to buy a SONY VAIO VGN-TX2XP in DIXONS in Manchester Aiport Terminal 3 prior to my check-in outbound to Boston. Since it is tax free, the notebook's price is £1,497.86 (high street price is almost £1,700), inclusive of 1 year warranty. Well, it is not a surprise for me to see you frowning or seeing you with a surprise facial expression for knowing that I paid that much for only a laptop. Please dont argue about this, it is my personal choice for having an 11.1 inches laptop that match with my working attitude. Most of the comments that I received after hearing the cost of the unit is that I could probably have 2 units of the same brand for that money! My only valid reply is: this TX2XP does not have a screen as big as the PC monitor or plasma screen and does not need a 'big' hand case to carry while travelling. In other words, this unit provides me comfort and easy handling, and not to forget, it is a 'head turner'!

Before I will be carried away, I will briefly explained how I did manage to use it right at that very moment when I purchased it from DIXONS. Initially, I arranged the purchase thru telephone using the store's on-line support a day before my departure from Manchester Airport. Knowing that if I purchased it only when I get the airport, I will need a power source to use while waiting for my flight or inside the plane. The store has accommodating staff to take my request, I was able to arrange a 12 hours charging time as a requirement to fully recharge the battery for a new unit. And having this initial charge, I coud use it the airport while wating for my connecting flights to the US without really bothering to look for an electrical outlet which is always a problem in the airport. On my departure day after finally done my check-in requirements, I was really excited to proceed to DIXONS which is very accessible towards the waiting lounge areas. I just presented the boarding pass to pay/claim the unit. To avail the duty-free purchase of laptops which I think applicable to the rest of the airport electronic stores, every passenger has to present his boarding pass to ensure that you are really travelling abroad.

By the way, the US model comparable to this unit is VGN-TX750P/B which has a suggested retail price of $2,299.99 (approx £1,700), w/o tax. There might be people (from UK) who want to buy it in the US; I recommend buying it here or in Europe for warranty services and the right system for the DVD player (wherein UK has different region classification from the US, thus DVDs from here will not work with DVD players brought from the US, or vice-versa). Due to my desperation of buying a DVD from the US, I tried to familiarise with the function mode of the unit and eventually I was able to change the type of region that match with the DVD I bought.

Prior to my purchase, I already came up with basic requirements that suit my computing needs. These basic considerations include portability, speed, upgrade ability, the processor/hard drive, wireless feature, and the DVD/CD functions. So now, I will list down the reasons why I settled down with SONY VAIO VGN-TX2XP (black)!

***SONY VAIO VGN-TX2XP SPECS AND FEATURES***
1. Memory, Capacity and Processor/System
This is the primary consideration in buying a notebook which really affects the market value of the unit. The installed type of processor is: Intel Pentium M753 Processor Ultra Low Voltage, with 1.2 GHz processor speed and front side bus speed of 400 MHz, 0.99 GB of RAM, and 2MB of cache memory; and the hard drive is 80GB with 4200rpm speed. One other thing that I could say that this laptop is really dependable without much noise coming the fan.

Having these specs, it is faster to navigate on-line, storing documents and graphics, and most especially for restoring my photos from my digital camera, and downloaded/transferred music from CDs or on-line. I could download additional software in the system as well. The pre-installed operating system includes the ff: Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003 (Service pack 2)Microsoft Works 8; - Norton AntiVirus, Norton Ghost 10, Skype, Roxio DigitalMedia, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7, Adobe Acrobat Elements, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4; And all the VAIO club members support utilities.

The MS Office and Works is on a 60-days trial (inclusive of the trial key/code) , including the Norton Antivirus and Norton Ghost 10 with limited months. I already downloaded a back-up of MS Office processor - MS Works Suite 2004 (licensed), and it is easy to download free anti-virus software in the internet. The manuals for warranty agreement, license agreement, recovery guide, regulation and trouble shooting guides are also provided translated in 6 languages including English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian and German.

2. Display/Screen and Dimension
The body colour is black of high-tech carbon fibre chassis; total weight of 2.76 lbs (1.25 kg) including the weight of the standard battery; - dimension: 10.7"(W) X 0.83"-1.12" (H) X 7.7" (D); keyboard has 82 keys with 1.7mm stroke and 17mm pitch with touch pad; screen size is about 11.1" with razor-thin panel; total resolution of 1366X768 using a XBRITE LED technology.

Having this dimension, it is very easy to carry and place it in an ordinary bag pack or a notebook lip case (£60) which is also available in the store. The size sometimes matter especially if you are travelling abroad and hand-carry baggage is limited. Having this notebook, it does not need additional hand-carry bag; instead you can slip it in your shoulder bag or back pack. Take note, with the current security measure in the airport, this notebook will not give you a problem during inspection! I brought it during my summer trip to the US this year.

To maintain the good condition of the touch pad, I also suggest buying an extra USB port hub/terminal for the wireless mouse especially if you are working at home or office (with table and more space). But if you are working on field or just sitting down (with no arm chair), then the touch pad is much more appropriate to use. Since I really take good care of this unit, I also bought a 'cleaning kit' (anti-static, no alcohol and no ammonia type of cloth/swab) for the LCD screen and keyboard.

3. Optical Drive and Multimedia Card Reader
There are expansion slots for multimedia card reader covering various memory stick functionality (SD PRO and Duo), PCMCIA type I and II card slot with CardbBus support. For the optical drive features are listed below: Double layer DVD+/- RW(max) CD-ROM/-R read 24x CD-R write 24x, CD-RW read 12x CD-RW write 10x, DVD-R read 4x DVD-R write 4x, DVD-RW/+RW read 4x VD-RW write 2x, DVD-RW read 2x DVD+RW write 2.4x and DVD-RAM read 2x DV+R write 4x. In other words, this laptop can do record, copy and rewrite files to DVD and CD formats. It has also two lot for various types of memory/picture cards for Fuji and Olmpus camera users, and this unit makes the life of people who love to do copying of documents, videos and music/sounds from the net easier and hassle-free. Unfortunately, Im using an Olympus digtial camera which utilises a XD memory/picture card which is not compatible with the sony which somehow a little hassle for me to use the additional gadget to transfer my photos to the laptop. But this is not really an issue since I recently bought an XD memory/picture card reader to make it easy to upload images from the camera, and the same time manage to store or save any type of format files back to the card itself. Recently, I bought a new Sony digital camera and it is compatible in uploading/downloading to/from the laptop with no hassle.

4. Audio, Graphics, Input/Output and Networking
The processor is Intel Graphics Media Accelator(GMA) 900 and the video RAM is 128M using a Intel 915 GMS chipset and a dynamic video memory technology 3.0; - It has a sound card (external connector) and external connector/microphone for audio output; - It has also a modem/fax functionality with 56 kbps maximum transfer rate (built-in V.92/V.90); - Its wireless LAN feature has the ff specs:IEEE (802.11b/g std, using an Intel PRO/wireless 2200BG Network connection; Integrated wireless wide area network (WAN), Frequency band: 2.4 GHz ISM, Speed (1): max Mbps(b)/max 54 Mbps(g); and including an integrated Bluetooth technology 2.0.

Being wireless, it is very easy to have access/connection to both secured and unsecured connections like in airports and bus stations, or even coffee shops. It has also 2 USB ports (2.0 compliant) with type A connector. If you want to enhance the sound while using your media/DVD/CD player, I suggest to use an external speakers - not expensive one (approx £15-20). I havent fully tried to use the bluebooth feature, but I think it works if the laptop is connected to the internet or working on-line. So far, it is really convenient to have it while having a city shopping and have a coffee break and while enjoying the aroma of the hot drink, I can also enjoy browsing the net thru its wireless lan feature. Coffee shops are happy enough to give you the password for their network and then enjoy your stay in the coffee store until it closes. My experience using it in the airport is also satisfying in the sense that it could immediately detect wireless connections especially with the BTzones provider. It is not free, however, you can pay thru credit card depending on how many hours you want to be connected. Normally, for one-hour is cost around £1 and £10 for 24 hours connection.

5. Power/Battery
It has a maximum battery life of 7 hrs. Frankly, I was not sure about this, so I decided to use it for the whole day and it stayed for almost 7.5 hours. The lithium-ion battery is rechargeable. Other accessories include: AC adapter and power cord. One of the salient features of this notebook is that you can set the time for 'hibernation' while not in use, or just close the cover/screen and the screen automatically shut-off. It does not totally shutting down/power-off, instead you have to push the power button to reactivate the windows and the programs you previously used. If it is not plug to the power supply, the screen is a little bit dim as to save the battery life.

6. AV Mode Feature
This is an important special quality of the unit. It has an independent buttons to choice what type of functions you want to have: DVD/CD, Photos/Imaging, and Operating Systems functions. If you only want to watch a DVD or listen to a music from a CD, instead of opening or going to the power on/off mode to have access to the windows operating system, the unit has the function icon that directly allow to play the DVD/CD independently. Or even just only to browse your images/photos from the memory stick or SD memory card, the unit has a friendly set-up to do that. And more thing, the laptop allows user to make CD listening an enjoyable one by having it function either opening or closing the cover/screen. The normal mode is you can open the screen and see what tracks are playing, but at the same time you can the cover and still the music will continue playing which gives the comfort of having a earphone and enjoying the sound using the unit while being tightly placed inside the backpack. So, you can listen even Im walking! This is good for me since I dont really fancy to have an ipod gadgets.

7. CLUB VAIO Membership
This is a special support to Vaio users that other notebook/computer providers don't offer. The registration provides with personalised customer support, source of updates and in case of emergency option. This is also a place where members could find creative and imaginative people and share their interests and enthusiasms through the use of Sony Vaio. If you have queries concerning installation, operating system, donwloading, etc., you can easily get feedbacks from members. For some people, this added benefit of the membership is not really a big deal but for me, it is an opportunity to avail free on-line advise from sony itself and members, and have free downloads as well. And most importantly, I coud share my hobby in photography by uploading my images to the site and also by joining photo competition organised by Sony. Luckily, I got my first on-line recognition from Sony by being chosen as the daily winner of last year's Summer Viao competition.

IN CONCLUSION, the SONY VAIO VGN-TX2XP is really an excellent companion. This is the right choice for the right time - from wireless connectivity to high performing graphics, and powerful processors to innovative software. Acquiring a new notebook by SONY is something that I give myself a big smile! Frankly, it is my dream to have a dependable, efficient, compact, handy/portable and wireless notebook that I can bring anywhere I go especially during school vacation and long weekends. And one more thing, a notebook that can really works 'under pressure'. It is truly indeed a VALUE FOR MONEY for its excellent quality and performance. 

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