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Sony Vaio VGN-TZ31VN

Notebook Specifications

Sony Vaio VGN-TZ31VNNotebook: Sony Vaio VGN-TZ31VN (Vaio VGN-TZ Series)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7700
Graphics Adapter: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
Display: 11.1 inch, 16:9, 1366x768 pixels
Weight: 1.2kg
Price: 2600 euro
Links: Sony homepage
 Sony notebook section
 Vaio VGN-TZ31VN (Model)

 
Average Score: 80% - good
Average of 1 scores (from 1 reviews)price: - %, performance: 40%, features: 90%, display: - %
mobility: 80%, workmanship: 95%, ergonomy: - %, emissions: - %

Reviews for the Sony Vaio VGN-TZ31VN

80% Sony VAIO VGN-TZ31VN/R
Source: Techradar English
The Sony VAIO VGN-TZ31VN/R (£1799 inc. VAT) is one of the slimmest and lightest laptops around. While pure power is below average, its feature-packed specification is outstanding for such a small laptop, making it a great choice for a life on the move. The 1.3kg chassis is truly ultraportable, so you'll barely notice the weight when travelling. Build quality is excellent, but the thin screen panel is more fragile than its rivals. The 369-minute battery life helps add to the impressive mobility. The keyboard takes a unique approach. All the keys protrude individually though holes in the casing, which prevents too much detritus falling between them.
4 von 5, Verarbeitung ausgezeichnet, Ausstattung sehr gut, Mobilität gut, Leistung schlecht
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 04/22/2008
Rating: Total score: 80% performance: 40% features: 90% mobility: 80% workmanship: 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.


>> Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

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.

U7700:
>> 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

80%: This rating is not convincing. It must be considered, that there exist hardly any laptops, which receive a rating below 60%. This notebook is evaluated below average, this is not really a recommendation for purchase.

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


 

Author: Stefan Hinum, 2008-05- 2 (Update: 2008-10-28)