First let me start out by saying the color pattern will not be for everyone, for me it was not a problem, I'm not a spring chicken anymore and I'm definitely not trying to compete at the local coffee shop for the coolest looking fold away workstation. Sony doesn't do a very good job showing closeup photos in great detail on many of their machines, I suppose you want to keep suspense until you do your unboxing maybe. That being said, I can tell you this Signature Series is a little different. The top is kind of like the paint on a car, you'll actually be tempted to even put a wax protector finish on it to help prevent micro scratching. It looks much like an enamel based finish as opposed to most laptops that have some sort of artificial texture and material. The color on the top is a nice dark brown metallic finish. The bottom is plastic and painted dark brown which I like the color. The inside of the laptop surrounding the display is a nice looking copper bronze shade depending on the lighting. It's solid in color. Now, the main chasis color and material. The color seems to differ with lighting, sometimes it appears bright or light gold and other lighting makes it look dark gold or copper/bronze at times. The material here again, it's plastic. The fit and finish of this area is a bit different than your typical new S model that is molded out of one piece of milled aluminum, for starters is not one piece at all, it's actually a tub on the bottom of the chasis with one flat piece of what I will also call plastic that seems to snap over the bottom tub. This is a signature model so they can do whatever they want, but that is different than the typical S model design, unless this model was maybe released just before the new S model was released, I don't know for sure. At any rate, the appearance of the color and pattern on the keyboard area is a pattern of small squares or blocks that are 3 dimensional, they are not stick on designs or painted designs. The keyboard works rather well as most S models do, the keyboard lights up not only the character itself but around the entire key. Performance wise, it has a 256 gig SSD split into two "128x2" to make a raid 0 "zero" configuration which is much better than a stand alone 256. The machine boots very quickly, less than 30 seconds. It has all of the nice features on this laptop, it's loaded. The switchable graphics make it easy to dial in your demands.In summary, this is not your fathers Oldsmobile! The performance is very high end and is an equal threat to it's bigger brother the Z. If you are comparing the Z to an S like many are, I have had both. The problem I have with the Z model is the short 1mm keystroke vs. the S model's 2mm keystroke. It makes a huge difference when your a speed typist like me. What I mean is if your trying to type proficiently like every second counts, I would say your going to have a huge adjustment on the Z model compared to the beautiful keyboard this S model has. The other reason I prefer the S model here is the lack of the separate power media block that the Z requires to utilize the speed graphics card and the blu-ray player. Also the Z doesn't have enough USB ports on the laptop itself, their are only 2 compared to 3 on the S model. I need a USB slot when I'm at home relaxing in front of the tv and I have my laptop sprawled out out my wife's favorite coffee table and I don't feel like sitting at my desk. I'll have my mouse plugged into one USB slot, USB powered speakers plugged into another and my laptop cooler in the third. I realize this is drastic, most wouldn't have that many plugged in, but I rather have that option since there are more devices that might also require a plug. By the way, the speakers on the S are way better than the Z model, however, I still recommend maybe a single capsule speaker if you like to watch a lot of video's since the S model speakers are still not that great. When I bought the Z before this one, I just wanted the Z for the quality build and the beautiful appearance, I thought I could live with the 2 shortcomings I just described, I was wrong. It wasn't worth the sacrifice. The reason I found it necessary to point out the difference between the two models is that you can have all the same equipment and spend just as much on the S model as the Z, so you have to at least consider both for that big of an investment. Now, getting down to the nuts and bolts of this Signature Series, the question is the difference in this signature series vs. your typical S model milled from one piece of aluminum. The one advantage for this signature is that the material doesn't make your hands feel cold when your sitting in an air conditioned room like the aluminum would. The aluminum models have kind of an anodized paint characteristic to them which can soil from your fingers, maybe just the oil in your skin or something to that affect, however the finish on this signature series should be quite easy to keep looking the same as when you first got it. This may be small to some people, but not me. I hate when my laptop doesn't look as good as the day I got it. The other benefit to this material is that it's light, I don't know if it shows on paper, but it just seems light for whatever reason. The other thing is I really like the unique colors and even though it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it suited me just perfectly. It's kind of like combining antique colors and textures with the best technology we are privileged to use. It's a real nice change away from the same old black & silver.
Buy Sony VAIO(R) VPCSA2SGX/T Signature SA2 Series 13.3" Notebook PC Now
0 comments:
Post a Comment