Detailed Close-up Photos & Review: Sony Vaio Laptop Model: VGN-NW240F/P With Windows 7

by: jamie dolan
11/15/2009 8:52 p.m. cst

In late October, I started to look at new laptops.  I had been using a Gateway Laptop that was about 4 years ago.  The Gateway was fast enough for most of my needs, however, it did not have a LCD display and I was having a lot of trouble reading the screen.  I also found some of the keys were getting more difficult to use due to wear.

My goal was to find a laptop that had a bright, easy to read display, and a keyboard that was easy to type on.  I compared a number of units and decided on the Sony Vaio VGN-NW240F.  In comparing laptops, I did not consider any laptops that had “wide screens”, as I wanted to stick with the standard 15″ size laptop.  I feel like the “wide screen” laptops are far too bulky for my needs.  While the Sony Vaio I choose is far from a ultra light weight laptop, at 6 pounds, it is a comfortable weight for me to deal with.

The Sony Vaio Model VGN-NW240F was released on October 22nd 2009,  with Microsoft Windows 7 installed.  After comparing many laptops, I purchased the unit from Best Buy for the sale price of $649.  I am extremely impressed with the laptop both in terms of quality and function.  I am not quite as impressed with Windows 7, but that is a Microsoft issue.

I have been using the unit for over 3 weeks now and will highlight a few items of interest.

Screen – The high resolution LCD is easy to read and is bright and crisp enough that you don’t have to strain your eyes to read small text.  I find this size of screen to be quite comfortable to work on and have no problem working on it for many hours at a time.  The display is considered a 15.5″ display with a resolution of 1366X768.  It has a Intel 4500MHD Graphics Media Accelerator.  The graphics card works well for a laptop, but as is often the case, it is much less powerful than the graphics cards commonly found on desktop computers.  The vast majority of times videos do play well, screen transitions are smooth, there is no noticeable ghosting or other refresh problems.  The only problem I have noticed is with videos not playing smoothly if I have many memory intensive programs running, this may in fact not even be related to the video card, but is very hard to tell since the video card shares memory with the system.

 

Keyboard – The keyboard feels a bit different than most laptop keyboards.  The keys are slightly spaced out, which seems quite odd at first.  However, once you do get used to it, at least to me, I feel like I have less errors from accidentally hitting the wrong key.  The keys are easier to press than those on some other units I have tested, but not as easy to press on the keys on the Apple Macbooks.  I compared side by side this unit to the Apple keyboard on

several Apple laptops.  I did find that I liked the Apple keyboard a little better and it would be my first choice.  The reason I didn’t even seriously consider the Apple was due to price, a Apple unit that is fairly comparable to this Sony Vaio is over $1,000 more than this Vaio ($1,699 for the Apple Macbook with 15″ screen, it does have a processor that is one step faster, but this is the least expensive Macbook that has a 15″ screen as of today based on the models and prices shown on apple.com).  Due to the way this keyboard is designed, with the keys spaced out, the edges of the keys are smooth and I don’t get my fingers caught on them.  On many other laptop keyboards, I find that when I am typing very quickly, if I drag my fingers just right when moving from one key to the next, I will get my finger caught under the corner of one of the keys.  That problem is non-existent due to way Sony designed this keyboard.

 

Touch Pad – The touch pad on this Vaio is different than other touchpads I have used.  This touch pad is considered an electro-static touch pad and has a textured surface.  The surface of the touch pad feels almost sticky at first.  I’ve found that the best way to use this touch pad is with a very light touch.  It takes a while to get used to.  The buttons work well, and click easily from anywhere on the button.  At this point, I still prefer the smooth touch pad, versus this new textured touch pad.  I currently have a external mouse connected to the laptop, which I find to work very well.  The only draw back to this, is that I find the USB ports to be in a poor location, they are on the sides of the computer towards the front(to either side of the touch pad).  I looked at a Bluetooth mouse, however since this laptop does not have built in Bluetooth support, an Bluetooth dongle is still required.  Fortunately, there are Bluetooth dongles available that are very small and only stick out of the USB port less than 1/2″.  One of these tiny dongles will enable the use of not only a Bluetooth mouse, but any compliant Bluetooth device.

 

 

DVD Drive – The laptop have a built in DVD / CD drive on the right hand side of the computer as is shown in the photo.  It supports the + and – DVD disks including the rewritable disks.  I tested the drive by making a couple system backup disks when I first the unit.  I verified the DVD’s after burning them and they were error free.

 

 

 

 

 

Sound – The sound quality is fairly decent, and a reasonable volume for listening in a somewhat quiet room.  The speakers built into this unit are not going to blow you away, so if high end built in audio is a requirement, this unit isn’t for you.

 

Overall, this is a very impressive unit for the cost.  Despite the lack of Bluetooth support and  the less than ideal touch pad, the unit is a great value for your money.  It would be an excellent desktop replacement for the average home user.

I hope you enjoyed this review and the photos.

Regards;

Jamie Dolan

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