Review: Sony's flash-based notebook -- a road warrior's dream
What's notable about this almost-weightless workhorse is that there's no traditional platter-spinning 2.5" hard drive
November 26, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Sony's VAIO TZ191N notebook proves that good things do come in small packages. Inside the black carbon fiber case is an Intel Centrino Duo processor (a 945GMS chip running at 1.2GHz) with a bus speed of 533MHz, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM and a double-layer DVD-writer. The 11.1" WXGA active matrix TFT color LCD screen (1366 x 768 resolution) is amazingly sharp and drew oohs and ahhs from colleagues. In terms of size and weight, it's a road warrior's dream: it measures 10.9" wide by 7.8-inches deep by 1-inch high and weighs in at a mere 2 pounds 10 ounces (with battery) or 3 pounds 6 ounces (if you throw the power cord into your travel bag).
What's notable about this almost-weightless workhorse (and what makes its small size possible in part) is that there's no traditional platter-spinning 2.5" hard drive. Instead, Sony's loaded this laptop with a 32GB Ultra ATA flash drive. Given the drive's lower power demand and its lack of traditional moving parts, I expected cooler and quieter operation, long battery life, and faster performance. I got it all.
The machine runs quiet and cool; there is no mechanical whirring (or other noises) when you're saving a file, particularly large Word or PowerPoint files. The only heat comes from the motherboard and is released through a small vent on the side of the unit.
Battery life from the Lithium Ion battery is also impressive. I ran the benchmarks once for each of three battery power settings, then connected the system to AC power to make sure the battery setting didn't greatly influence performance. I enjoyed 3.75 hours of battery life when I used "High-Performance" power mode. Power Saver mode, as its name implies, was stingy with power: it provided almost 5 hours, 35 minutes use and was acceptably fast for word processing and spreadsheet tasks. Though slightly sluggish (but still perfectly acceptable) when surfing the Web using the built-in 802.11n wireless (there is no Ethernet port), I found this mode all right for everyday work.
Sony claims that you can get up to 7 hours using the Power Saver mode, but that assumes you'll accept the dim screen display which I found to be too faint for everyday work. Setting the screen to an acceptably brighter level took a toll on battery life, but overall I was pleased with having more than five and a half hours of uninterrupted use. A word of warning: by default, Power Saver mode also puts the system into sleep mode after just three minutes of inactivity, which then resets brightness level back to "low" when the system awakes. You can easily override these settings.
Overall, I preferred the setting that Sony sets as the default. In this "Balanced" mode, the system provided 4.5 hours of battery life with a bright, readable screen that didn't consistently and annoying drop into sleep mode.
I wondered what kind of performance I'd get from the flash drive. I was pleasantly surprised.