Prime Notebook Computer Review

Sony VAIO VGN-FJ170 is a thin-and-light notebook designed that integrated built-in web camera and microphone. The Design is beautiful. It’s also slim with only 1.2′ thick when the lid is closed and about a 1″ base when the lid is open. with only 5lbs weight, Sony VAIO FJ170 become a portable notebook that can slide into a backpack. The lid is very strong and protective and the hinges are good. The case is made of plastic and tThe overall chassis feels a bit unsturdy. The screen is a 14.1″ WXGA glossy screen display. This LCD will give user higher brightness levels than standard displays. The screen also have the anti reflective coating to minimize reflection that eill make a beautiful clear image from any viewing angel. The horizontal viewing angle of the screen is very good, even from 180-degrees off to the side the screen is still bright and the text still seems clearly but the vertical viewing angles are not as good.

The Sony VAIO VGN-FJ170 specs :

Processor : Pentium M 740 1.73GHz
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Home
Display : 14.1″ WXGA with XBRITE-ECO
Memory : 512MB DDR2 RAM
Hard Drive : 100GB SATA Hard Drive 5400 RPM
Optical Drive : DVD +R Double Layer
Graphics : IntelGraphics Media Accelerator 900 128MB

The Sony VAIO FJ170 comes with the Pentium M 740, a 1.73GHz processor with 2MB L2 cache and 533MHz front side bus. The 1.73GHz processor still good for bussines user and students, although not as fast as Pentium M 750 Processor 1.86GHz. The speed still good since not use for playing games. The comparison results using Super Pi program to benchmark overall processor performance are Sony VAIO FJ170 (1.7 GHz) needs 1 minute 49 seconds to calculate Pi to 2 million digits. IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz) needs 1 minute 45 seconds, Dell Inspiron 9300 (1.86 GHz) needs only 1 minute 39 seconds and Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz) needs 1 minute 48 seconds.

The VAIO FJ170 has two speakers built-in that have satisfactory and slightly above average volume level. For high quality audio you can add a pair of exteranl speakers or headphone. The sony VAIO FJ170 layout of the keyboard keys is good and it is a sturdy full-size keyboard. The touchpad is fine too. The raised mouse buttons are a nice size and easy to feel. The VAIO FJ170 comes with some ports and input like RJ-11 Modem port, Monitor out port, 4pin i.LINK connector, PCMCIA slot and 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet RJ-45 port that places on the left side of the notebook. On the Right side are Headphone jack, Microphone jack, Power jack and DVD +R Double Layer / DVD +- RW Drive. There’s also 2 USB 2.0 ports on the right and 1 on left. On front side are Memory Stick Media Slot and Wi-Fi on/off button.
The FJ170 also comes with a built-in Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG card for internet connection.

The fan on FJ170 are so quiet and do good job of staying cool. The DVD is a bit loud but still tolerance. The Palm rest are get little warm during benchmark application but the bottom relatively cool. The battery life is about 1.5-3 hours that not good enough.
The VAIO FJ170 is a very stylish laptop with decent build quality. With only 5.3lbs this notebook can carrying around easily. It also have the programmable shortcut buttons, nicely integrated webcam and wireless on/off switch are thoughtful. This is a nice machine for basic high school and college students.