Sony VAIO FW139E/H User Review

by N. Mehta

The Sony VAIO FW139E/H is a 16.4" semi-desktop replacement notebook configured with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, which runs at 2.26GHz with a Front Side Bus speed of 1066MHz, 3GB of DDR2-800 RAM, an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 dedicated graphics card, and a 250GB HDD. This model is one of the first VAIO FW models to come out and is meant to be sold at retail stores.

Reasons for Buying

This notebook was primarily purchased as a PC to take to college. Now when you think college, you probably are thinking of portability. Being an Engineer major, portability comes second to power. This notebook was meant to provide up to four years of casual and heavy computing. The GPU was the important decision maker; I needed something dedicated, and the market was flooded with possibly defective nVidia GPUs. I narrowed my choices down to the VAIO FW and HP dv5t. I ended up going with the VAIO FW because of the larger screen and faster processor at my price range.

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Where and How Purchased

The VAIO FW139E/H was purchased at NewEgg.com for about $995. This was the best deal I could find, because the retail model shipped with 3GB of RAM and the Radeon GPU already included in the price and it was available sooner. I believe it was a fair deal because a similar Centrino 2 model would have been almost $200 more at the time.

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Build and Design

I'm impressed with the overall build of the VAIO FW. It's cased in Magnesium alloy, which makes it look semi-metal and semi-plastic at the same time. It is a very sturdy looking laptop; the screen hinge is perfect and stands strong, rubber feet under the laptop keep it from moving, and I have not yet been able to make a scratch on it. Design wise, it is fashionably sound. It carries the traditional VAIO look; the model I reviewed is the Titanium Grey model with black colored keys. It has a very professional look.

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The power button is located on the right side of the hinge, and it glows green when turned on and orange when in hibernation. The media buttons are located on the right side, right above the keyboard. The speakers are on top of the keyboard, as well. The keys make the laptop stand out, as well. The black spaced-out keys make the laptop look very sharp to the eye. The "Motion Eye" camera is located right above the screen.

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Screen

The screen on this model of the VAIO FW is an XBRITE-ECO LCD with a native resolution of 1600 x 900. Not only is this a unique sized screen at 16.4 inches, but it has a unique aspect ratio of 16:9. This aspect ratio is the true widescreen aspect ratio that HDTVs feature. This true widescreen size is perfect for managing windows while multitasking. You can have about four or five average sized applications on screen comfortably in the native resolution. The screen is a bit on the glossy side, but there are no reflections when there the laptop is turned on. When off, it doubles as a tinted mirror.

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Speakers

The built in speakers above the keyboard are of average quality. You can definitely tell the difference between the VAIO FW's speakers and the average external speakers.

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Headphones are a must if you want to enjoy a movie or play music. I wouldn't recommend portable speakers as a replacement; the sound quality would be equal to that of the VAIO FW. I wasn't expecting much from speakers, though. Speakers aren't the highlights of laptops, anyway.

Processor and Performance

Now for the fun part! The P8400 Core 2 Duo is remarkable fast in Vista; I have yet to experience a slowdown caused by the CPU. The bottlenecking component of this laptop is the hard drive, running at the average laptop HDD speed of 5400 RPM. The transfer of a large file via a 100Mbps network was fairly slow; this wasn't all the laptop HDD's fault, though. The laptop is capable of 1000Mbps transfers, and the file contained a large amount of subdirectories and files and slow transfer down in Windows. Bootup is fast, even when multiple startup applications are present.

Gaming wise, this laptop will be fine for last generation games. It plays Halo: Combat Evolved at native resolution and everything turned on perfectly. It also plays
Half-Life 2 with almost all settings on High (AA disabled) on the native resolution.

Benchmarks

Super Pi @ 2M: 1m 11s (20 iterations, no AC adapter plugged in)
Super Pi @ 2M: 0m 53s (20 iterations, AC adapter charging battery)

3DMark06: 2,569 3DMarks (869 SM 2.0 / 1023 SM 3.0 / 2021 CPU Score), AC adapter charging battery. No 3DMark06 benchmarks performed on battery power.

Heat and Noise

This laptop is built well to handle heat. After gaming for about 30 minutes, the laptop was still cool. It doesn't get very hot at all, and is probably one of the very good things about Sony's engineering. When not reading a disc, this laptop is silent as if not even on. When it reads a disc, however, it gets very loud for a brief 3 to 5 seconds. The fans are fairly silent when gaming, too. Heat and noise wise, it is a very well engineered machine.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The spaced keys on the Sony VAIO FW are fairly comfortable to type with. The keys are built well and they do not stick or have any flaws to them. For the serious gamer, I would not recommend using the keyboard, however. After playing first-person shooters on a real desktop keyboard, playing on the VAIO FW's keyboards (or possibly any laptop keyboards in general) are hard to get used to. But any serious gamer wouldn't be playing on a laptop, anyway.

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The touchpad is average; it feels a lot smoother than other touchpads, but that's about it. I can't say much about it as almost all laptops now feature similar touchpad technology. The user is able to change basic properties of the touchpad, from button selection to double click speed.

Input and Output Ports

I/O wise, this laptop has one ExpressCard slot, three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire (dubbed i-Link by Sony), one VGA output, one HDMI output, one headphone jack, and one microphone jack. It also features a Pro MagicGate memory card reader. The I/O ports are pretty standard among all the new laptops; one thing to note is that an HDMI output is also technically a DVI output, as well. A mere HDMI to DVI cable can allow output to a DVI monitor if you don't like using VGA.

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Wireless

The VAIO FW comes with an Atheros wireless card that can access b, g, and n type wireless networks. It also comes with Bluetooth wireless for connectivity to peripherals. Wireless can be turned on and off by the simple use of a switch located on the bottom left of the laptop.

Battery

The battery life is fair; I keep the laptop on full brightness while not charging, and it usually lasts about 2 hours. The laptop downclocks the processor when there is no external power source to conserve power. The P8400 processor should be saving about 10 Watts thanks to Intel's Core 2 Duo P**** models, which run using 25W instead of 35W.

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Operating System and Software

The VAIO FW came with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit (Sony OEM). It did come with quite an amount of bloatware, but I managed to uninstall what I did not need. Among some of the bloatware, there were applications I found useful: Sony's backup recovery software, Windows Live OneCare, a 60-day trial of Office, and VAIO Content Exporter. The backup software allowed me to make recovery disks easily, and the VAIO Content Exporter converts video file formats.

When I had initially gotten the VAIO, I planned to do a fresh install of Vista. However, I was unable to do so with what was supplied, and so I had to find a different route than recovery disks. Using an Anytime Upgrade Vista disk that is sold separately, I tried a fresh install. Everything worked until it came time for the drivers; one of the drivers gave told me it can only install on Windows Vista. I was confused as I was running Vista, and decided to call Sony ...

Customer Support

Unable to install the drivers properly, I contacted Sony support. They informed me that the user is not able to properly use the VAIO without OEM Vista, because the driver only recognizes the OEM Vista version. Slightly disappointed, I had to reinstall again using the recovery disks and once again manually uninstall the bloatware.

Aside from the OS disappointment, Sony's Customer Support was the most knowledgeable I have talked to; they knew exactly what I was talking about, it wasn't outsourced, and were quick to pinpoint the driver prerequisites.

Conclusion

The Sony VAIO FW139E/H was a good purchase for me. The features, build, and price were right, and I am content with the purchase. It is more than enough for any engineering CAD applications I will be using for undergraduate studies, and is great for multitasking and mild gaming.

The VAIO FW's CPU and FSB speed, 3GB of RAM, and Radeon GPU are a wonderful combo for mobile power. The aspect ratio of the screen is perfect for entertainment. The build quality is fantastic; Sony does not deliver anything but their best in hardware.

The downside is insignificant. For someone looking for the best battery life, being able to play the latest game on High settings, or good sound reproduction, this is not the laptop they should look into.

This laptop is fine for the mild power user who still wants portability. Of course, my vision of portability probably differs from someone who finds 6.4lbs heavy. It is nothing like the large VAIO AR, however. The VAIO FW is an FZ in size, and half-way between an FZ and AR in power.

 

Thanks for this review.

I see that there's an SD card slot below the Memory Stick slot. Is it all magnesium alloy or is some of it silver-colored plastic? It can be difficult to tell. One way is to put the computer where it gets a little cold then move it to a warmer place. The metal parts stay cold for longer.

Putting all the USB ports next to where many users will have their mouse is surprising. There looks to be room for one or two USB ports on the left side.

What is the battery life at the minimum usable brightness?

John

 

Great review, thanks!

 

It depends. I watch non-HD Videos (5 minute clips x a bunch) off the HDD (5400RPM) and battery life barely fell from 7* percent to 6* percent. This was about 45 minutes of video playback. I would assume video playback isn't as taxing as it used to be (again, these are non-HD videos. )

Battery life seems to fall fastest when installing programs and restarting multiple times.

 

Thanks for the review... nice job!

 

Well, while it's a nice job overall....you did not include the spec of the laptop. It would be really weird to have a review without the full spec.

 

They're on top.

 

2 hours? ... good luck bud

 

Yes, 2 hours.

edit = Keeping in mind that the battery meter is not accurate, of course.

 

Hm... I wouldn't call this a review, more of a "my subjective impressions", but thanks anyway.

 

hey I am going to me a CompE major at Northwestern this fall and I was just wondering about your statement "being an engineering major, portability comes second to power". Exactly what programs do you run that requires a lot of processing and graphics power?

 

Good review - I think you do the computer justice.
I own an FW too - and I love it. Does everything I need it to.
Strike X2 - I run my 3D programs easily on this - Alias and Solidworks. Just make sure you have the better graphics card in the FW.

 

Most of the 15.4'' can last up to 4 hours, even my HP 8710w can last a little over 3 hours with minimum settings. 2 Hours is not acceptable.

 

I just graduated in biomed. engr. and am continuing on for my MS... you don't need a laptop with lots of processing and graphics power. You'll be doing some programming, some Matlab, some SPICE work, and maybe some CAD, none of which require lots of power. And engineering computer labs are always great if you need the extra horsepower for something.

 

Great review! I also have the FW with the same config and I love it!

 

Cool review, thanks. I saw one of these at BestBuy and the odd screen really caught my eye.

That said, the inability to install non-OEM versions of windows really could be a pain. I hate not being able to do a clean, secure install.

Battery life seems very low.

 

thanks guys for answering my question. much appreciated!

 

Thanks for the review

Battery life looks like the biggest con of that notebook. A P8400 and an HD3470 should be lasting 2 hours 30 minutes at least. Maybe you were just doing some slightly intense applications.

 

I wasn't keeping it idle, or else it would fall asleep.

Usually it was tabbed browsing on forums, Photoshop, or non-HD video.

 

Cool, my cousin is there. It's not till the second year (or even the third) when some graphics power is helpful. 2D MATLAB is CPU-only, but 3d simulation (which is easily done on university computers) can be done on the FW.

 

You ought to be able to tell it to not fall asleep when idle under Vista power management.

You sure you meant hibernation and not standby? I forget exactly how this works in Vista with the Sleep mode, but in XP in true hibernation mode a laptop shouldn't use any power - including a power light. That's the primary advantage of hibernation over standby - it doesn't drain battery power at all.

I second John's questioning of Sony's decision to put all the USB ports on the left side. Seems like you'd be bound to run into stuff plugged in there when gaming - and it certainly isn't an ideal place to plug in a wired mouse. Although it's a good location for the USB ports if you're left-handed .

The OEM Vista requirement also seems a bit odd. A good way to push their trialware I suppose but not exactly consumer-friendly. Makes me wonder how other operating systems would react (XP, various versions of Linux, etc.).

Pricewise it's a pretty good deal but those last two design decisions take a lot off of it to me. Hard to believe someone at Sony didn't think to put a USB port on the left side or back.

 

I just got my FW190 and I LOVE IT!! It's beautiful, well-made, blazing fast, and the bloatware isn't too bad at all.

I do have one issue - whenever I play Divx or Xvid movies, they look absolutely horrible! On most movies I can actually see the horizontal lines and the jagged edges. How do I fix this? What settings should I be using?

Thx!!

 

WHOA
you can't install a Retail version of Windows?
let me guess, cant install linux either?

 

i like it .thanks

 

very good review Thanks for that

 

very good review...thanks for sharingg

 

Looks pretty solid. Magnesium alloy is awesome.

 

good job, this is a great review!

 

great reviwe

i have VGN-FW12M/B

and i think it is the same

 

I don't recommand sony anymore, I think it is much better to not buy from sonystyle.
We bought this computer, and first thing I tried, was to uninstall trial Norton (since I had one from university), and it crashed! I thought it's normal, so I went on, and installed acrobat, and ms office 2007, and we made backup and restore dvds. After 2 days uninstalling, updating, etc, when I restarted it, it did not come up, we called customer service, and they said we have to format C drive to its original factory setting (we lost our files, our time, and again it was the same thing with all crapware that I spent 2days to remove them!).
we went to the store (we had extended warranty, in which we were told that even if we break the computer accidentally they will exchange it with a new one (it was a lie, so never mind)), they refused to exchange it, and when tested it they said they did not find any problem so they "assume" it's a software problem, and they don't sell windows so it's not their problem and it's ours!!! and asked for 15% restocking fee for that defected PC.
we called customer service several times, and they said it's the store policy! so we walked out, and they asked for $200 to refund the rest. (I don’t want to talk about manager’s behavior).
In summary: don't recommand Vaio, and if you still have a soft spot for it, I think it’s better to not buy it from “SONY STYLE” with this stupid return policy, you can buy from best buy, costco, sams club,etc with a better return policy, and some customer appreciation!!