March 24, 2003
xfdws LAPTOP-WITH-DUAL sked Emerging Markets Datafile
March 24, 2003
NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES
MALAYSIA
ENGLISH
Laptop with dual battery capacity, NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT
TIMES
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SONY VAIO PCG-GRZ20 NOTEBOOK Manufacturer: Sony Corp Enquiries:
Sony Malaysia Sdn Bhd Vaio Customer Hotline Malaysia (Tel:
1-300-88-1233) Price: RM6,888 SONY'S products have a reputation for
stylish design. Whether you like or not its products, it's hard not
to be bowled over at how cool the casing looks.
One case in point is the Vaio PCG-GRZ20. This grey, black, and
purple desktop replacement tips the scales at more than three
kilograms. Its case dimension is a throwback to a time when huge
notebooks were commonplace.
It's solidly constructed, and benefits from an unyielding metal
lid designed to protect the screen when the notebook is being
transported. One of this notebook's most distinctive features is
its expansive 15-inch screen.
The Vaio PCG-GRZ20 relies on the highly capable ATI Mobility
Radeon 7500 graphics accelerator with 32 megabytes video memory to
drive this big screen at ultra extended graphics array (UXGA)
resolution (1,400 by 1,050). While that leaves lots of room for
working in two or more programs, fonts and graphics sometimes
appear quite small.
The contrast and colour gamut are noticeably better than any
other liquid crystal displays (LCDs) we've seen. Black level is
outstanding.
Sharpness is about the same as other LCDs, but there is no
visible pixel structure. We love the screen and it's going to make
it hard to give it back to Sony. With 4X AGP ATI Radeon 7500 Mobile
Video card, it is more suitable for gamers or power users who would
not mind utilising the extra battery life to play games while on
the road.
The unit comes with an 86-key Qwerty keyboard (three-millimetre
stroke and 19mm pitch) and electrostatic touch pad as a standard.
The keyboard's quick access function buttons are placed in a
convenient position, allowing easier access and navigation. The
touch pad is fairly sized and sensitive enough to be comfortable to
work with. The demise of the floppy drive is really getting
underway now, so we weren't all that surprised to find that despite
its huge size, the GRZ20 doesn't have one. If you still need to use
it, you can buy Sony's external universal serial bus (USB) floppy
drive separately.
For some, the size and weight of the Vaio PCG-GRZ20 will be
offset by its top-shelf components. You can choose from one of
Sony's ``ready-to-ship'' models that range depending on the
features.
This Vaio includes Pentium 4 mobile processor at 2.4 gigahertz
(GHz). It can also function as a great portable player for digital
versatile disc (DVD) movies, especially models with the 15-inch
display.
Movies look crisp on the big, bright screen, and a pair of
speakers above the keyboard delivers relatively good audio. But you
won't find quick-launch application buttons above the keyboard or
anywhere else on this notebook, an odd omission for a system in
this class.
The first notable thing about this unit is its amazing battery
capacity.
Loaded with the average workload applications (word processing,
Internet, etc), the battery life (when fully charged) is about four
hours, which is more than enough when you are on the road or away
from the fixed power source.
The other amazing fact about this model is its dual battery
capability.
If you are going to be on the road and expecting to use your
laptop for more than three hours before recharging, you can remove
the standard optical drive that comes with the unit and use the
expansion slot for a second battery (dual battery) to extend your
battery life. By doing this, the time you can use the laptop
without recharging is another four hours.
With the prolonged battery life, you can afford to wind down a
bit and watch a movie or two, play a game or listen to your music
while still having more than enough resources left to complete
almost any project no matter how demanding it is.
Additionally, if you are planning to be away from the fixed
source of power for more than extended periods of time, you will
quickly learn to appreciate the long-lasting power capacity of this
model.
As far as standard features that come with the laptop, they are
quite on par with the competition if not exceeding some of the
competing units.
The Vaio PCG-GRZ20 offers three USB slots. You'll also find an
iLink (FireWire) port, connectors for a modem, Ethernet, an
external monitor and a printer port, jacks for audio-out, a
microphone and headphones, two Type II (one Type III) PC Card
slots, and the obligatory MagicGate Memory Stick slot.
You won't, however, find a PS/2 mouse/keyboard port, serial port
or wireless networking built-in. The audio chip and speakers are
quite average. They are decent from laptop user's perspective,
having in mind that some quality and quantity of the sound will be
lost to accommodate the portability which is a necessary feature
for any laptop.
The sound produced is acceptable enough for general mobile
executives and gamers while on the road.
All in all, we are happy with the Vaio GRZ20, and many should be
considering it a viable option.
Copyright 2003 NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES all rights reserved as distributed by WorldSources, Inc.
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