Once again Sony’s design team has come up with a well-balanced combination of style, performance and superb ergonomics. And today we are going to talk about this notebook series in our new review.
People who say “size doesn’t matter” know nothing about notebooks. The notebook’s form-factor is the parameter that largely determines the scope of its capabilities and usability. Tiny sub-notebooks can travel long distances together with their owner but their ergonomic properties and performance are sacrificed for the sake of the ultimate mobility. Desknotes can rival desktop PCs in terms of performance but are poor travelers as a rule.
There is a golden mean, however. I’m talking about notebooks the size of an A4 paper sheet, within 2 kilos of mass, with superb ergonomics and high enough performance. Having a screen diagonal of 13-14 inches, they provide a large enough display area while not becoming a burden on long trips.
The Sony VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B represents such a reasonable compromise between optimal size/weight parameters and high performance delivered by the refresh Napa platform with a 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 processor and an Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 discrete graphics core. The notebook is equipped with all the widespread wireless interfaces, thus being doubly mobile. It comes in strikingly different colors, from black (the version we tested) to green, blue and pink, targeting different user audiences.
One color scheme will suit a businessman while another may match the color of your car or even of your blouse. The color is indicated by the last letter of the model name (e.g. B stands for Black).
The VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B will be opposed in today’s tests by the VAIO VGN-FE31HR, a representative of another notebook series from Sony that has a very similar configuration.
Package and Accessories
Elegant black boxes with Sony notebooks do not change over time and the VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B carries this tradition on. The name of the series is printed on the blue band on the larger sides of the box; the manufacturer’s name and the VAIO logo can be seen everywhere on it. Only the top and bottom of the box have the color of ordinary cardboard.
Sony has never included too many accessories with its notebooks. It’s hard to tell if it’s good or bad for the end-user. It’s nice to find the accessories you need already in the box, yet it’s no good to pay extra for accessories you won’t ever use. Anyway, the box is not exactly empty, containing, besides the notebook proper, a 5200mAh battery, a power adapter with an indicator, a card-reader, and a heap of paper booklets:
- Notebook setup poster (describes the entire process from unpacking to turning the notebook on)
- Troubleshooting guide
- System recovery guide
- Legal documents
- Booklet describing accessories for your VAIO
- Warranty coupon
- Microsoft product identification
The card-reader goes into the ExpressCard slot instead of the plastic panel and supports nearly every existing flash memory format: Secure Digital, Multi Media Card, xD-Picture Card, SmartMedia Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and Memory Stick Duo.
There are no system recovery discs in the box. The system prompts you to create them on your turning the notebook on for the first time. Just follow the step-by-step instructions that appear.
Besides the preinstalled operating system Windows Vista Home Premium, Sony offers a traditionally extensive software pack:
Audio:
- SonicStage CP 4.2
Video and TV:
- DVgate Plus 2.2
- WinDVD 5.0 for VAIO
Image processing:
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0
Burning CD-DVD:
- Easy Media Creator 9
- Click to DVD 2.6
Office applications:
- Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.0
- Adobe Reader 8.0
- Microsoft Works 8.5
Security etc:
- Norton Internet Security 2006 (with a pack of updated antivirus programs for 90 days)
- VAIO Recovery Utility 2.6 (for system recovery using a hidden disk partition)
- Google software suite
Exterior Design and Ergonomics
Most manufacturers of notebooks prefer rounded-off and curvy shapes but Sony’s machines often have an angular outline which doesn’t make them less elegant, though. The VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B carries on this design tradition of the Japanese brand. The display seems very narrow like in most other Sony notebooks. Instead of a silvery line that usually separates the lid and the bottom in other notebooks, the VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B has a brown molding there (it goes around the touchpad as well).
The chrome VAIO wave is in the center of the lid; the manufacturer’s logo is near its edge.
There are two things that catch one’s eye on the front panel: a Wireless switch designed like a silvery slider and a Memory Stick Pro/Duo slot on the right.
The screen lock is missing but the stiff hinges keep the lid steady and firm in both closed and open positions. The lid fastening mechanism is designed in Sony’s style: the hinges go out of the screen bezel, making it impossible to unfold the notebook by a full 180 degrees.
The color scheme is continued inside and matches the notebook’s exterior. The brown edging of the body adds some originality to this design without making it too frivolous. This computer is all classic inside and out. I’m talking about the black color scheme, of course. The other schemes aren’t serious at all.
There is a built-in single-channel microphone in the bottom part of the screen bezel, to the left of the Sony logo.
The VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B is equipped with a widescreen 13.3” matrix with a max resolution of 1280x800 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:10 (WXGA). The matrix is manufactured using the exclusive dual-lamp Sony X-black LCD technology that ensures higher contrast, wider viewing angles and better image brightness and sharpness. The point of X-black LCD technology is in replacing the traditional anti-flare coating of the screen with a special anti-flare filter and a brightening coating. There are four layers in the filter, each with a thickness equaling one fourth of the light wavelength. According to the manufacturer, the reflection is eliminated even before the light falls on the screen, which ensures high image sharpness. Image brightness is improved by a number of optical inserts between the backlight and the LCD screen. They focus and intensify the light, thus increasing the overall brightness.
However, the “glassy” matrix isn’t as good as the manufacturer claims and there are flares on it under sunlight or from a bright light source behind your back. It means you still have to take care about proper ambient lighting when you sit down to work with this notebook.
Configuration
The Sony VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B is based on an Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 processor with a clock rate of 1.66GHz (65nm Merom core with 2 megabytes of shared L2 cache).
The Core 2 Duo T5500 supports Intel’s 64-bit extensions to the x86 architecture and also features Intel Wide Dynamic Execution technology which means more decoders and execution units in the CPU core. The speed of processing SSE and floating-point instructions has been increased, too.
Besides Intel’s traditional Enhanced SpeedStep technology that gives the notebook’s software and BIOS the control over the CPU frequency multiplier (to reduce it under low loads), this CPU supports Dynamic Power Coordination (the power consumption of the cores can be independently adjusted depending on the current load; one core may even slip into Deep Sleep mode with the lowest power consumption possible) and Dynamic Cache Sizing (unused segments of the CPU cache can be turned off to save power). For more information about Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors refer to our article called Intel Core 2 Duo in Notebooks: Centrino Duo Platform Refreshed.
This implementation of the refresh version of the Napa platform also incorporates an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG adapter and an Intel Calistoga 945PM chipset. This chipset supports DDR2 SO-DIMMs, thus offering more memory bandwidth at lower power consumption, and a PCI Express x16 interface for an external graphics card. Connected to the North Bridge via a special-purpose Direct Media Interface, the South Bridge (ICH7-M) supports one Parallel ATA port, two Serial ATA ports, eight USB 2.0 ports and Intel High Definition Audio. It also offers six PCI Express x1 lanes to connect external devices. For more information about the platform, visit the manufacturer’s website.
The VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B is also equipped with an Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics processor and 335 megabytes of dedicated video memory (as specified by the manufacturer; none of our test utilities could report the amount of graphics memory). This 0.09-micron GPU consumes little power and features Nvidia PureVideo technology for high-quality HD video playback and PowerMizer 6.0 technology for optimal power management. For more information on the Nvidia GeForce Go 7400, visit the manufacturer’s website. Here’s a brief summary of its characteristics:
The notebook comes with a Toshiba MK1234GSX hard disk drive (2.5” form-factor, 5400rpm spindle rotation speed, 120GB capacity, ATA-7 interface) and a Pioneer DVR-K17 DVD-burner with the following speed formula:
Writing:
- CD-R – 24x
- CD-RW – 24x
- DVD-R DL – 4x
- DVD-R – 8x
- DVD-RW – 6x
- DVD+R DL – 4x
- DVD+R – 8x
- DVD+RW – 8x
- DVD-RAM – 5x
Reading :
- CD – 24x
- CD-R – 24x
- CD-RW – 24x
- DVD – 8x
- DVD-R DL – 6x
- DVD-R – 8x
- DVD-RW – 8x
- DVD+R DL – 6x
- DVD+R – 8x
- DVD+RW – 8x
- DVD-RAM – 5x
The notebook uses DDR2-667MHz SDRAM. You shouldn’t worry about the accessibility of the memory slots because the notebook is already equipped with the maximum amount of memory it can support, which is 2048MB.
We measured the temperature of the hottest spots on the notebook’s surfaces with an infrared thermometer after it had worked for half an hour in the Classic test mode of Battery Eater Pro 2.60 (the ambient temperature remained constant at 23°C during this test) and got the following numbers:
- LCD panel – 41°C
- Keyboard – 32°C
- Bottom panel – 40°C
The next table lists the technical specs of the tested notebook in comparison with its opponent Sony VAIO VGN-FE31HR:
Test Methods
The notebook’s hard drive was formatted in NTFS before the tests. Then we installed Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 with DirectX 9.0c, system drivers (from the manufacturer’s website; we downloaded the drivers for the C1 series which has almost the same configuration but comes with Windows XP; moreover, no other graphics card driver would work with our notebook which indicates that the graphics core is really different from the standard GeForce Go 7400), and Windows Media Encoder 9.0 with Windows Media Player 9.0. We also installed Windows Media Player 10.0 for such tests as PCMark 2005.
The following settings were used for the tests:
- Power-saving services – Off
- Audio subsystem – Off
- Network services – Off
- Maximum screen brightness
- Maximum display resolution (1280x800)
- Windows Taskbar is Unlocked
- Windows Taskbar hides automatically
- Classic Desktop theme
- No background image on the Desktop
- No screensaver
- Low security level
- Pop-ups blocking disabled
There were two exceptions: we returned to the Windows XP desktop theme for PCMark 2005 since the program required that. And for SYSMark 2004 SE to work normally, we had to roll each parameter back to its default (as they are set right after you install Windows).
Two power modes were used. First, we selected the Always On power mode for maximum performance and the shortest battery life. Then we switched to the Max Battery mode for the maximum battery run-down time.
Our tests:
- Performance benchmarks: synthetic (SiSoftware Sandra 2005, SiSoftware Sandra 2007, PCMark 2004 1.3.0, PCMark 2005 1.2.0), office and multimedia (SYSMark 2004 SE, Business Winstone 2004, Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004), and games (3DMark 2001SE Pro, 3DMark 2003 3.6.0, 3DMark 2005 1.2.0, 3DMark 2006 1.0.2, Quake 3, Quake 4, Unreal Tournament 2003)
- Battery life tests (Battery Eater Pro 2.60)
There are three test modes in Battery Eater:
- Classic (the system is under a high and evenly distributed load)
- Reader’s test (the pages are browsed through each 15 seconds)
- Idle mode
We used the first two modes as they are in Battery Eater, but in the Idle mode (when the test utility doesn’t put any load of its own on the notebook) we played a DVD movie.
Performance
As usual, we will first run our synthetic benchmarks.
The SiSoftware 2007 suite features an updated enhanced-functionality interface, runs on three platforms (Win32 x86, Win64 x64, WinCE ARM), contains 13 tests and 34 informational modules, and supports a large range of devices thanks to the developer’s collaboration with Intel, AMD, ATI, SiS and VIA. The program is supported in six languages and has a free Lite version for personal and educational purposes. SiSoftware Sandra measures the overall performance of the system as well as that of each of its subsystems.
PCMark benchmarks the computer performance in office and office-related applications and also produces performance scores for the main subsystems (CPU, memory, graphical, and disk subsystem). PCMark 2005 carries on the tradition of complex benchmarks of the series and uses fragments of real-life applications as tests. This makes it somewhat more relevant for end-users as opposed to fully synthetic benchmarks. After running a series of 11 tests on the different components of the system, the program calculates an overall performance score in units called PCMarks. PCMark 2005 can check a computer out at processing HD video and encoding audio, and offers enhanced tests of the CPU and hard disk under multi-threaded load. The overall score is calculated by the formula: PCMark Score = 87 x (the geometric mean of the basic tests), where the geometric mean is calculated as (Result 1 x Result 2 x…) divided by the number of results.
Being equipped with identical Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs, the notebooks have very similar results in the CPU tests. The numbers are lower in the battery mode because the CPU clock rate is then reduced from 1.66GHz to 1.0GHz to save power. Strangely enough, the two memory subsystems differing in the frequency and amount of memory produce similar results irrespective of the power mode.
As for the graphics subsystems, the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 installed in the VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B is claimed by the manufacturer to be somewhat faster than its namesake installed in the VAIO VGN-FE31HR and this is confirmed by the test results. The exclusive graphics solution behaves differently when powered by the battery. It tries to save more power and slows down dramatically in the battery mode, resembling ATI’s mobile solutions in this respect. We’ll see this in the graphics tests below as well.
In the disk subsystem tests the SATA drive enjoys an obvious advantage over the ATA model.
The Business Winstone 2004 test runs scripts of the following real-life office applications, several scripts at a time to simulate multi-tasking: Internet Explorer, Outlook, Word, Excel, Access, Project, PowerPoint, FrontPage, WinZip, and Norton AntiVirus Professional Edition.
The Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 test evaluates performance of a computer in the following multimedia applications: Windows Media Encoder, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere, NewTek LightWave 3D, Steinberg WaveLab, Micromedia Dreamweaver MX, and Micromedia Director MX.
The following table and diagrams show the outcome of these tests:
The Winstone benchmarks show a small advantage of the VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B over the FE series model because the former has more system memory. The results are lower in the battery mode proportionally to the CPU frequency reduction.
The notebook’s battery life was measured with Battery Eater Pro 2.60. The test was performed at the maximum screen brightness in the following modes:
- Classic (the system bears a high and evenly distributed load)
- Reader’s test (the pages are scrolled through each 15 seconds)
- DVD mode (a DVD movie is launched in Battery Eater’s Idle test mode)
The three hours of autonomous operation in the Reader’s mode is a good result for the rather hungry configuration the VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B has. On the other hand, the battery can only last two hours when the notebook is under load, which is not so long considering the “on-the-go” positioning of the product.
Here are battery discharge diagrams for the different operation modes.
Conclusion
Once again Sony’s design team has come up with a well-balanced combination of style, performance and superb ergonomics. While the VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B with its sober coloring is going to look good in a businessman’s hands, the other three C series models are sure to attract fascinated glances with their uncommon color schemes.
You can select the color of the notebook to match your car, clothes or mood. Don’t forget that a C series notebook is meant to be changing its whereabouts along with its owner all the time. And there are no compromises here: Sony’s C series combines fine ergonomics with impressive performance.
There is only one downside, typical of almost every notebook from this Japanese brand. The VAIO logo on the lid is a sure indication of a very high price.
Highs:
- Stylish design and large selection of color schemes
- Good performance
- High-quality widescreen display with X-black LCD technology
- Extensive software bundle
- Wide wireless opportunities
- Good balance between the mass/weight parameters and ergonomic qualities
- Multi-format card-reader included into the box
- Battery locks located on the battery itself
- Port-replicator connector
Lows:
- Glossy display coating
- Short battery life
- No recovery discs
- Scanty accessories
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