Sony VAIO FE Review

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by Peter Toth

Overview and Introduction

The Sony VAIO FE is a 15.4&quot; multimedia full featured notebook. This review covers a Core 2 Duo and Nvidia Go 7600 powered VAIO FE-91S purchased in Japan.

Reasons for buying

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Over the last few months I have been spending a lot of time searching for which laptop to buy. I have never owned a laptop before, but I wanted a computer with everything integrated.  I wanted a sturdy case, outstanding performance (enough to last a long time), portable size, good battery life and of course as cheap as possible.  When I started searching I didn’t know which category size I wanted exactly, but I excluded 17 inch and 12 inch displayed sizes.  The 17 inch because it would be too hard to carry around and the screen resolution of the 12-inch size laptop would not be enough.

After a time my requirements became clear. I wanted a fast Core 2 Duo processor, a quality brand, and dedicated graphics card capable of running DirectX 9c as I use this for programming purposes. I didn’t care about the speed of the graphics processor, just the hardware compatibility with DirectX 9c.

Searching was a big problem due to the fact I’m Hungarian and the variety of laptops we have in Hungary is much narrower than in the US.  Furthermore, the price of laptops that reach Hungary are much more expensive than those in the US – often double the price.  As fate would have I found out I’d soon be moving to Japan and so decided to make a laptop purchase there instead.  After researching laptop options in Japan I finally settled on Sony’s 15.4” VAIO FE-91S.  The VAIO FE can be considered as a desktop replacement style notebook while still being portable. One cool thing is that this model in Japan even includes Sony’s FeliCa system, which can be used for money transfers using certain bank cards.

Specifications: Sony VAIO FE-91S

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 1,83GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB
• Chipset: Intel 945PM chipset
• Memory: 1GB DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM
• Screen: 15.4&quot; WXGA &quot;glossy&quot; screen at 1280x800 resolution.
• Graphics: nVidia GeForce Go 7600 128MB (up to 512MB with TurboCache) at 350/700MHz core/memory speeds
• Harddrive: TOSHIBA MK1032GSX 100 GB (5400rpm, 16MB cache, SATA)
• Optical drive: 8x Super Multi DVD±RW and DVD-RAM optical drive (PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K16M)
• MemoryStick Pro Duo reader
• Express Card slot
• PC Card slot
• Wireless: Integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 802.11a/b/g + Bluetooth
• LAN: Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
• Battery : 53280 mWh battery
• Weight: 2.8 kg

Where and How I Purchased

I purchase the VAIO FE on the Sony Japan website as I wanted to configure it to my needs.  The final cost was 214,000 Japanese Yen, which is around $2,000 US dollars. This included the computer and a Sony Protection plan of 3 years. If something were to happen with the laptop Sony would pickup the machine and return it upon fixing the problem. It seemed like a good deal for the latest technology, and a better price than I would have got in Hungary. After I ordered the laptop online it took 2 weeks for delivery.

Build and design

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As you can see in the pictures, the look of the machine is quite elegant. You can take it anywhere you go and be proud of the look – be it a meeting or coffee shop. The body is constructed of a high quality rigid plastic. It feels very sturdy, it is not like some Fujitsu laptops I’ve seen where you can push the plastic in at the front of the keyboard.

The color of the keyboard and the surrounding area is silver and black.  There is a white keyboard option, but if you select the GeForce Go 7600, then you have to go with black.

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The closing mechanism is quite unusual in my opinion, but it works well. If you close down the lid then you have to set the switch to lock mode which causes a clamp to come up and lock the lid firmly. It is comfortable even with one hand to close it. It is neither hard nor easy to close it is just optimal.

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Screen and Webcam

Before buying I was afraid of getting a glossy screen because I have seen the reflective nature of some of my friends laptop screens, some are like sitting in front of a mirror. But after getting it the glossy screen is fine, I don’t even notice any reflections most of the time and the colors come out bold and beautiful.  The screen resolution is 1280x800, which is fairly standard for widescreen displays.

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The viewing angles are pretty good horizontally, but not so good vertically.  This is a common down side, but usually we don’t watch from wide vertical angles anyway.  The brightness level of the screen is very good.

I was a little afraid of dead-pixels, as you can’t see the computer before buying it. But luckily I didn’t have any. 

I was really happy that the VAIO FE came with a webcam so you don’t have to carry a web cam around seperately. The picture quality is very good and you also get the Vaio Camera Screensaver, which is fun.

Speakers

The speakers are located above the keyboard. I think they are better than many other laptops, this is meant to be a multimedia laptop after all. They’re not loud enough to disturb your neighbors of course, you will need good external speakers to be able to do that!  The integrated sound card, hasn’t fulfilled my requirements, so I bought a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX USB external card. If I’m at home, I absolutely do not use the built-in sound system.

Keyboard and touchpad

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As I bought the VAIO FE in Japan the keyboard is Japanese, with a lot of extra buttons for Japanese language typing. If you are buying your computer in Japan, you can also get an English keyboard and English operating system for some extra money.

At first look the keyboard seems good, but after using it, it turned out not to be so sturdy. The M key does not work sometimes. The interesting thing is that the guys at Sony know about this problem, as I read an article on Sony’s website about it.

Otherwise the location of the keys on the keyboard is good, and the typing is comfortable. I only have issues with the location of the direction keys. They should have separated them more from the other keys. On the other hand, I like the large size of the Enter key.

The machine has 6 hardware buttons. There is a Power ON, Mute, Volume-up, -down key and then two more customizable program launcher keys. I setup one of these keys as a brightness switch where I can switch from maximum brightness to 2 notch brightness.

Heat and noise

I expected that this machine would be hot everywhere due to the processor and graphics card. But I was surprised, after hours of working on the computer, only around the fan outtake at the back of the machine became hot.  The keyboard was only mildly warm to cool. The under side of the machine becomes warm after excessive use, but not uncomfortable.

Noise is also not an issue with this machine. It has only one very silent fan. It only turns on when I’m using really resource hungry applications. So far I haven’t heard the fan turn on when using the laptop on battery.

Processor, Performance, benchmarks

The processor clock frequency is 1.83 GHz. This is the second lowest possible speed for the Core 2 Duo, but I didn’t want the fastest as it consumes more power. Of course the official TDP (Thermal Design Power) is 34W, but if you have a different clock frequency, then the actual power consumption is a little different.

I was not fully satisfied with the benchmark results. The machine is fast in applications (discussed later), but the slow hard drive and the junk programs on the machine ruin some of the performance. The bootup is relatively slow, which is a result of the above mentioned circumstances.

Comparison Results for 3Dmark05

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Sony VAIO FE-91S (1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Go 7600)	2,978 3DMarks
Asus Z96Js (2.0 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600)	3,842 3D Marks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv4000 (1.86 GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2,536 3D Marks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

 

I saw some tests before with the GeForce 7600 and the benchmark I got met my expectations. The results are also correct if you compare it with a GeForce 7400, as the 7600 is 50% faster, just like the amount of the pixel pipeline difference.

PCMark05

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Sony VAIO FE-91S (1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Go 7600)	3,779 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook N6420 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1600)	4,621 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus Z84Jp (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Go 7600)	4,739 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400)	3,646 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks

 

HD Tune

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I was a little disappointed with the result. I expected the average read speed to be over 30 megabytes per sec.

SuperPI

Notebook	Time
Sony VAIO FE-91S (1.83 Core 2 Duo)	1m 19s
MSI M677 (1.8 GHz Turion X2)	1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N6420 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s
LG S1 (2.16 GHz Core Duo)	1m 11s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s

 

Ports

The port selection is okay. The only problem is with the alignment of the USB ports, and their number. 3 USB port is not enough as I have an external sound card, a mouse and an external hard drive so I cannot connect my usb flash drive. The only solution is buying a USB hub. The location of the USB ports are all on the right side, which is not the best solution if you are using a mouse.

• 1 x Headphone jack
• 1 x Microphone-in jack
• 1 x RJ11 Modem jack for phone line
• 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
• 3 x USB 2.0 ports
• 1 x IEEE1394 port
• 1 x TV Out (S-Video)
• 1 x VGA Port
• 1 x ExpressCard54 slot
• 1 x PC Card slot
• 1 x Memory Stick Pro Duo slot

Left view of VAIO FE (view large image)

Right view of VAIO FE (view large image)

Front view of VAIO FE (view large image)

Back view of VAIO FE (view large image)

Battery life

I wanted good battery life, but I’m not really using it from battery very much, only sometimes if I’m on a train. The manufacturer rates the battery life from 2 hours up to 4 hours. My expectation was lower than the high limit, as these rates apply for all the FE series and this machine has a pretty hungry graphics card. While surfing the internet with wireless on and medium brightness, I got just over 2 hours of battery life. My expectations were correct, but still, it is disappointing.

Operating software and programs

The machine comes with a pre-installed Japanese Windows XP and with no other CDs. That’s quite common nowadays, but I don’t like it. Unfortunately haven’t had luck with Windows, it is always crashing after a certain amount time. I’ll probably do a clean install of Windows or another OS eventually.

The Windows image has all drivers and unfortunately a bunch of bloatware pre-installed. At work on my desktop computer I have 350 running threads. On my VAIO I have 700. That’s a huge difference. May be you think that’s: okay, I have a good machine it can handle it. But the truth is that every extra thread wastes computer resources.

On the laptop I looked in the task manager, and I figured out that the problem is with wireless drivers. The WLAN, Bluetooth and the FeliCa had 200 threads. The biggest problem is that I don’t know what I can do with these drivers. Everything has to run in order for everything to work properly. This disappoints me, I bought a powerful laptop and I cannot feel the speed due to software installed. The hard drive is a problem with slowness too due to its slow spin.

Optical drive

The placement of the drive is excellent, it is on the left of the machine. I never liked having a drive on the right side, where I usually use my mouse.

The specifications of the drive are promising, but in fact using it is not very enjoyable.  When the disc spins up it is usually comes with a lot of noise. When it is copying data at full speed the whole drive starts to shake, which suggests something about the build quality. I don’t think that this is a common problem with laptops. I wish it came with a slot loading device honestly.

Another software problem worth mentioning, I could only use the bundled Roxio software to write DVDs -- Nero didn’t work.

Wireless

The VAIO FE-91S comes with an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 A/B/G. It is connected to one of the PCI-Express lines. This is the standard wireless network connector for all Centrino Duo platform machines. I’m satisfied with this card, it works well.  Of course now you can get Intel’s next generation wireless card, the 4965agn, which is capable of using the draft specifications of 802.11n.

I’m using this card to connect to my wireless router. The router is placed one level below my room and the wireless application always reports maximum signal strength. The application is just the common Intel utility. The machine also has Bluetooth, but I haven’t tested this yet because I don’t have any devices that use Bluetooth.

Guarantee and Customer support

The guarantee comes as a 3 year Sony Protection plan. Anything that happens with the computer, even if you drop it, is covered. They will come and repair it or replace it.

Fortunately, I haven’t had to test support yet, but considering the fact that they’ll come and pickup my computer if problems occur, I feel pretty good about it.  Since I’m in Japan, every sales or help person is extremely helpful and kind. They will try everything to help you!

Conclusion

Outright I’m satisfied with the machine. There are some compromises that I had to make, such as with battery life and the hard drive. But I think the processor speed, the quietness of the machine and the screen absolutely compensates the downsides.

Pros

• Great performance (If you delete all the unnecessary Sony programs), more than enough for Vista
• Extremely silent
• Runs cool
• Superb screen

Cons

• Problems with keyboard
• Battery life
• Problems with DVD drive
• Too many Sony programs, they are slowing down the machine
• Slow hard drive

 

Great review! I like the size of the Enter key. That is a nice touch by Sony.

I am a little surprised at the Super Pi score. Its a bit longer than I would expect from a Core 2 Duo processor.

 

Great Review!

Long time reader, but I registered only to comment on the size of the enter key. When I saw the picture my initial reaction was OMG!!

Oh and the size of the space bar. It looks cramped.

Also the laptop looks kinda thick for a 15.4"

 

At Best Buy we carry a similar laptop, although it is slightly crippled with only the integrated Intel graphics. The thing that I love about Sony laptops is their screens. I believe the new ones use LED backlighting, but I may be wrong. In response to Chowdder, the FE series are actually quite thin. It may look thick in the pictures, but it is actually among the thinner of the laptops.

I definately like the new gunmetal gray color scheme, is much better in my opinion versus the older FEs that had the white/black scheme.

The keyboard does take some getting used to as the key caps are FLAT and very big. My cousin has the SZ330 which uses a similar version of the FE's keyboard, and she loves it.

As one last note, I think the exhaust vent is kinda small.... the slits are not "open" enough.

But damn, I didn't know you could get a FE with a 7600 @.@....

 

this Enter key is BIG, excessively BIG, but the space bar....
btw, i don't like the way Home, End, Page up and down are intergrated to arrow keys , and Go7600 has no Turbocache, it's all dedicated

 

That Enter key really is quite large in its size! Wow, two rows high.

Junkware is a common problem in notebooks of course, it's too bad there's so much hampering the performance of this machine.

I'm interested to hear if you've ever used that FeliCa system Sony integrated. Sounds pretty cool -- they're only doing that in Japan I know.

 

Too bad these laptops take forever to get to the US, and when they do arrive they are still behind with the GPU speed. Why is it still only 128 dedicated? Why is Sony so slow in keeping up with GPU's? There are certainly those out there who would love a Sony with some GPU gusto. Great review and much appreciated.

 

Well in my opinion Sonys are generally designer laptops. They are there for people who use their laptop for regular day to day use. That probably is why they generally dont have really powerful GPUs that are up to date when they come to the US. I mean, you probably could go customize one directly from a SonyStyle store and it might ship faster that way. however, in my case the closest SonyStyle store is all the way in san francisco, hehe.

 

Can I just confirm with somebody that the hard drive supplied with this model was a 5400rpm?

I am trying to purchase a brother of the FE reviewed, a FE14M/S/Z, but have had no luck in the UK finding anything other than a 4200rpm hard drive. Plus all the SonyStyle UK notebooks are non-customisable.

I can't read japanese either, so no luck ordering off Sony Japan...

 

It seems to be 5400rpm though I've seen equally performing 4200rpm driver; here are the specs:

http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk1032gsx.htm

Great review btw!

 

It's not that surprising. The major reason for the higher SuperPI scores you see with C2Ds is the 4MB L2 cache available on the T7xxx processors.

Still, a nice review all told. I was considering a Core Duo FE last year, but was put off by some minor niggles with build quality, the excess of bloatware and a particularly unfriendly Sony Store rep who didn't like answering questions.

 

To be honest, I've been concerned about the build quailty of this laptop and didn't know they were selling the gray on gray with the 7600 chip I've been between an hp dv600t or the 880/890.....

Absolutely great review!

 

the girlfriend has one of these and she hates the screen locking mechanism.

 

1. This computer has the lowest resolution available in a 15.4" wide-screen.
2. This laptop is readily available, with the go7600, go7400 and igma950, in the USA. However, I think that the 7600 is only available in white.
3. Asus a8j series have similar/better resolution with stronger gfx cards.
4. Sony knows of this keyboard issue? Is there a problem with the US/english keyboards, or just the Japanese ones?
5. Nice to finally see a review of one of the newer FEs.
6. Can we get some relevant performance comparisons? Other computers with the same processor/gfx card?

 

Very nice review.

Long live our FE Vaios.

 

Yikes! That Japanese keyboard looks like a nightmare. Great review btw

 

Sorry to ressuscitate this topic, but I really have to ask: my friend bought a FE20 with a japanese keyboard (he was living in japan then), but someone has spilled soda in it during a party and he's having problems with the rightmost keys.

So, he wants to buy a new keyboad to install it himself, but he can only find english keyboards on ebay. Does anybody has a clue if it will work properly? If not, where could we find a FE japanese keyboad to buy?