Sony Vaio VGN-TZ12VN

Notebook Specifications

Reviews for the Sony Vaio VGN-TZ12VN

67% Sony VAIO VGN-TZ12VN/X
Source: PC Pro
If the TZ12 looks familiar, that's because it's the spitting image of the TZ11 (web ID: 117830), which graced these pages just two months ago. We can't complain, as this version is as desirable as the original, but Sony has made a major change under the covers. Gone is the 100GB hard disk of the TZ11, replaced by a 32GB Samsung solid-state disk (SSD) - one of the very first laptops to contain what some consider the death knell for mechanical hard disks. We're yet to be convinced by that, but SSD does have a number of advantages over mechanical disks, which, for all their tried-and-tested years, still rely on precision moving parts. As they're prone to physical stress, extra layers such as head-parking software (as used by the Toshiba R500, opposite) become necessary, and a single, heavy blow can render the whole disk extinct. Also, seek times are higher because of the need to get a physical head to a specific place on a disk. And, in a product where battery life is the name of the game, SSDs take up significantly less power than their spinning equivalents.
4 von 6, Preis/Leistung mangelhaft, Leistung hervorragend
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 08/24/2007
Rating: Total score: 67% price: 50% performance: 95%

Comment

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 is an integrated (onboard) graphic chip on Mobile Intel 945GM chipset. It is a faster clocked version of the GMA 900 and supports no hardware T&L (Transform & Lightning) accelleration (which is required for some games).

Only older games can be played fluently with these graphics chips (if they were not too demanding). Shared memory graphic cores in this category got the advantage of less heat production and longer battery runtimes. For office, internet, image processing, and video editing tasks these graphics chips are still useable without any restrictions.

Intel Core 2 Duo: This is the Core Duo and Core Solo successor with a longer pipeline and 5-20% more speed without more power consumption. As an addition to the Core Duo design there exists a fourth decoder, an amplified SSE-unit and an additional arithmetical logical unit (ALU).

The Core 2 Duo for laptops is identical to the desktop Core 2 Duo processors but the notebook-processors work with lower voltages (0.95 to 1188 Volt) and a lower Frontside bus clock (1066 vs 667 MHz). The performance of equally clocked notebooks is 20-25% lower than Desktop PCs because of the lower Frontside bus clock and the slower hard disks.

U7600:
>> Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

11.1": This is a quite small display format for subnotebooks, which is not very common.
The advantage is, that the subnotebook can be small dimensioned and can be carried easily. Further the tiny display has the advantage, that it needs few current, which improves the battery runtime and in consequence the mobility. The disadvantage is that the reading of texts is very exhausting vor the eyes. High resolutions can hardly be used.
>> To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

1.2 kg: This subnotebook is one of the most lightweight of all notebooks and can be carried very easily. There exist hardly any models in this extreme class of weight. 7-9 inch displays are normal for this class of weight.

Sony: Sony is a notebook manufacturer of medium size according international market shares. There exist a lot of reviews about Sony notebooks. The total ratings and price/value ratings are good above average.

Sony reviews

67%: This rating is bad. Most notebooks are better rated. This is not a recommendation for purchase.

>> Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.