First impressions of Sony VAIO TR1A

[Ioman]

Well, I recieved the Sony VAIO TR1A today for review and have had a chance to play with it. My initial reactions are that this is going to be an instant hit. Everything you can think of is packed into this little system including a camera (ala Sony picture Book). The screen resolution is extremely high and small so if you have bad eyes, this is certainly not the laptop for you.

The LCD display is incredibly sharp and bright. The material they used for the glass/screen on the LCD display is the same as the PCV-W20 it makes the display look enhanced, and sharper for some reason. There is an exposed USB port on the right hand side of the unit, as well as another USB/FireWire port on the left side behind a protective cover.

The battery is 4300mAh which is incredibly large for a notebook computer of this size. Because it comes with a Centrino 900MHz CPU, I am guessing the battery life will be incredibly long, only testing will tell. Despite being a relatively slow processor, the system feels relatively fast no doubt due to the 512mb of memory.

The keyboard is OK, a tad small (to be expected) and smooshy, although I have been able to type "designtechnica" without looking at the keyboard or without spelling errors, so that is a plus hehe.

One gripe is that while trying to open the TR1A laptop, I slipped on the camer integrated into the disply and flipped it around lol. Poor design, the camer should be locked somehow while the lid is closed. No biggie though...

Here is the TR1A next to my VPR Matrix 200A5

[Ioman]

Another picture:

[sonyman]

Ioman

Have you tried using the camera for a picture yet?
Also, what are the pictures stored as? jpeg, bmp?
Lastly, does the laptop seem practical for everyday use in and out of a bag, etc? In other words, will this laptop hold up over the course of a year?

[Aku]

Thanks Ioman....

This makes me even more anxious to receive mine....

[Ioman]

Originally posted by sonyman
Ioman

Have you tried using the camera for a picture yet?
Also, what are the pictures stored as? jpeg, bmp?
Lastly, does the laptop seem practical for everyday use in and out of a bag, etc? In other words, will this laptop hold up over the course of a year?

I have not tested the camera yet (charging the battery now) as I literally recieved it this morning. I am pretty sure it will save the picture in JPG format as I have yet to see a digital camera that will save a picture in BMP format.

I took this laptop to breakfast with me this morning and I literally put it into a laptop bag and threw it in the car seat. I think the TR1A will be a durable little laptop. It feels pretty sturdy and solid from what I can tell. There is very little in the way of loos parts or covers other than the CD-Rom drive so I do not see why it would have problems. The display glass cover and keys suggest this laptop can go through pretty rough use. The keys are a hard rubber versus plastic and the display screen is pretty thick compared to most laptops.

[sonyman]

Thanks Ioman. Nice work as usual.
Keep us posted on your testing experiences, please. I considered pre-ordering this unit, but I wanted to obtain a little 'real world' feedback first. Does your test version have XP Home or Pro?

[sonyman]

One more question....How many gigs of free hard drive space shows up? I just want a barometer on how much space the pre-installed software takes up on this particular model.

[Ioman]

The TR1A comes with Windows XP Home Edition.

What is very interesting is that the hard drive is partitioned into two 14GB partitions. There is 8.9/13.9GB free on the main partition and 13.9/13.9 on the second partition. They are both in the NTFS file format. Only reason I can think of is that Windows XP does not support drives over 30GB without SP1 installed (I think that is correct).

[Aku]

Man, on Sony's SonyStyle site, the TR1A's shipping date has been moved back to August 25th.....

[sonyman]

Don't quote me on this, but I think there was such a high demand for the TR1A that Sony could not fill all the orders. I actually contacted Sony and they told me the only way to obtain a TR1A would be to pre-order and then the ship date would be July 11th. Since then, the website does not even list a price for the laptop. I don't know if Sony was expecting such a response. While at first glance the numbers may not seem impressive on the unit they are very sufficient, if not more. I seriously doubt anyone will buy this 10.6" lappy for gaming. With that being said, most will use it for a very light and portable business machine. IMHO, the processor and memory are actually ideal for MS Office, occassional net browsing, and writing and reading.
I am anxious to hear what Ioman has to say about the battery life on the TR1A as well. Keep us informed Ioman!