We find this model hovering in the no-man's-land between desktop replacement and notebook. Its large form factor and huge screen come at the expense of weight, while the wireless and large battery do make it viable for users on the move.
This beauty is chockers when it comes to the latest hardware, packing an Intel Pentium 4 desktop 2.8GHz processor, half a gigabyte of DDR, monolithic 16.1 inch UXGA TFT and combination multi-format DVD writer/CD-RW. Also included is provision for Sony's MagicGate memory stick technology, allowing you to easily transfer data from other Sony devices, including DV cams, MP3 players and digital cameras by removable media. The hardware feature set on this unit is incredible, with a NVIDIA's FX GO5600 graphics returning seven and a half thousand 3DMarks, this is a comfortable gaming platform.
Designed for both the home and office environment this machine also offers integrated 802.11b wireless connectivity, 10/100 Ethernet and Windows XP Professional.
The usual adornment of Sony software is present, including: Click to DVD 1.2, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, WinDVD 4.1, Norton Antivirus 2003 and plenty of others, a well-balanced package for DVD writing, playback and office style productivity from a dual-purpose machine such as this.
Legacy free, this notebook doesn't feature serial or parallel ports, instead opting to include three rear mounted USB 2.0 ports and a single four pin FireWire port on the left hand side of the chassis.
Having such a large footprint allows for a spacious full-size keyboard which is comfortable for extended periods of usage.
Minor quibbles with the unit include the keypad mounted on the letter keys, with a function button needing to be pressed to enter digits: our model was inverted and needed the function button to be pressed to display letters.
This unit does get hot, making it difficult for long lap sitting sessions.
As we were unable to get a successful MobileMark2002 run from the unit, we're unable to ascertain exactly how much battery life the unit operates in full running mode. Given its desktop processor, we speculate it may not be all that long.
If you're after an ultra portable notebook, this is not for you. It's bulky and weighty, but offers a brilliant mix of notebook and desktop functionality in a single unit, if you don't mind shelling out for it.