Product Reviews

I usually anticipate an uncompromising price tag when I think of Sony notebooks, so it was refreshing to discover that the new VAIO PCG-FX301 costs a mere £850. It's the latest in a succession of low-priced FX-series machines and takes over where the PCG-FX201 left off (see Labs, issue 83, p92), with several enhancements.

There's now a faster 800MHz AMD Mobile Duron, assisted by 128Mb of RAM rather than the FX201's 64Mb, and this time you get a DVD-ROM drive as standard instead of a plain CD-ROM. Still, the essential nature of the beast hasn't changed. Like the FX201, it's intended to be an affordable, general-purpose portable appealing to both business and private buyers who don't want the clutter of a desktop PC.

Sony is known for eye-pleasing design and meticulous attention to build quality, but I wasn't expecting miracles for £850. That said, the VAIO doesn't suffer from a style lapse. In fact, although it's visually restrained, it has an overall coherence that wouldn't disgrace a more expensive notebook.

The main body is soundly constructed, although it has a slightly cheap and plastic feel. It's also quite thick, reaching a maximum of 45mm at the back with the lid closed. To keep costs down, this model has a plastic lid, rather than magnesium alloy, and is thus more vulnerable to screen damage, especially if you're likely to take the machine on the road regularly.

The keyboard is sensibly organised and comfortable, while the screen appears to be the same good-quality 14.1in XGA resolution TFT panel used on the FX201. Once again, graphics are adequately catered for by an 8Mb ATi Rage Mobility-M1.

The removable floppy drive is locked in place securely, but I could see the easily opened battery cover popping off by accident. To be fair though, the preview sample was a pre-release machine and the factory-assembled

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product may not have this potential problem.

Some machines are designed to make removing the hard disk easy, but it costs more for the extra parts to make this possible, and I wasn't surprised to find that removing the Sony's disk involves some fiddling. It's found underneath the keyboard, and several screws need to be removed to free it. Memory, on the other hand, is conveniently kept under a panel in the base, and the standard 128Mb comes on a single SODIMM, leaving another socket free for an upgrade.

Serial ports are disappearing from notebooks these days, but the VAIO still has one, which might be a factor to consider if you have a peripheral that requires it. There are also two USB ports, and digital camera/camcorder owners will doubtless already know that the FX301 is equipped with an i.LINK port (Sony-speak for FireWire). It also has a mini-jack TV output (an RCA adaptor cable is supplied), which could be handy if you plan on utilising the DVD-ROM drive for movie watching.

The eight-speed Toshiba DVD-ROM drive is fixed, but the floppy drive comes out of its bay and can be replaced with a second battery pack, although this will add to the weight and make the VAIO unwieldy to carry round.

Having said that, the main issue with the FX201 is its short battery life and this is substantially worse with the FX301, which lasted just 33 minutes in our battery test. This is partly attributable to the power-hungry Duron, but can mainly be laid at the door of the battery, which is rated at only 1,700mAh (milliamp hours), instead of the more common 3,600mAh. This is a measurement of the battery's capacity, in terms of how much current the battery will support over a given period of time.

The usual selection of Sony software tools for still and video capture and editing is supplied, including DVGate Still, DVgate Motion, PictureGear, MovieShaker and OpenMG Jukebox. However, you should bear in mind the limitations placed on the aspiring video editor by the 10Gb hard disk.

While the enhanced performance from the 800MHz Duron and the extra memory make the FX301 fast for its class, the Achilles heel of battery life and the basic one-year return-to-base warranty prevent it from sweeping the competition aside. However, if you want a fast, well-featured notebook for under a grand, and you don't plan on using it frequently away from the mains, the Sony PCG-FX301 is certainly worth considering.