The Sony VAIO A Series Digital Studio PC is a premier notebook, designed to offer the cutting edge of technology and performance with incomparable style. The AV entertainment dock plugs you into a powerful TV tuner and personal video recorder, letting you watch and record your favorite shows. The 17" widescreen LCD display with XBRITE technology lets you enjoy crisp images and vivid colors. More than a PC, more than a TV, it's a feature packed multimedia solution.
The Sony Vaio VGN-A690 Digital Studio multimedia/TV notebook PC is designed to provide the cutting edge technology and incomparable style you expect from Sony. The AV entertainment dock plugs you into a powerful TV tuner and personal video recorder, letting you watch and record your favorite shows, or save them to DVD via the dual-layer, multiformat DVD+/-RW drive. The 17-inch widescreen LCD display with XBRITE technology lets you enjoy crisp images and vivid colors. Convert VHS and 8mm videos into professional-quality DVDs, and capture and edit high-definition camcorder video. The VGN-A690 also features a fast Intel Centrino processor, spacious 100 GB hard drive, 1 GB of installed RAM, integrated 54g wireless connectivity, and a wide selection of preinstalled Sony multimedia software.
The Basics
- Hard Drive: The 100 GB hard drive (5400 RPM) is one of the larger sizes you'll find in a notebook, and it's befitting of such an entertainment-centric PC. It offers more than enough capacity for storing documents and productivity software for road warriors. You'll also be able to store dozens of hours of recorded TV programming.
- Processor: The Intel Celeron M processor is designed specifically for mobile computing, offering a balanced level of mobile-optimized processor technology, good mobile performance, and exceptional value. It features a Deep Sleep state, which helps enable longer battery life by minimizing the power consumption of the processor during brief periods of inactivity. The 1.86 GHz speed is at the top of the speed spectrum for this processor (as of winter, 2004), and it also offers a fast 533 MHz front-side bus (FSB) speed and a large 2 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance.)
- Memory: The VGN-A690 comes with 1 GB of installed RAM (2 x 512 MB, PC-4200, 533 MHz), and it's expandable to 2 GB (2 x 1 GB).
- CD/DVD Drive: Offering the latest in DVD writing technology, the multiformat DVD/CD drive is compatible with both DVD+ and DVD- disc formats as well as dual-layer DVD+R discs, which can store up to 8.5 GB of data. For DVD-RW discs, it has a 8x write/4x rewrite speed, while for DVD+RW discs it has a 8x write/4x rewrite speed (DVDs are read at 8x). For double-layer DVD+R, it has a 2.4x write speed. For CDs, it has a 24x write/rewrite/read speed.
- Keyboard & Mouse: This notebook has a standard 86-key keyboard and electro-static two-button touchpad.
Screen, Graphics and Sound The ATI Radeon X600 SE is a high-end video card, powerful enough to run one large virtual screen across two displays. It features 128 MB of dedicated video RAM, S-Video and the higher-fidelity DVI connections out, and PCI Express x16 support, which enables graphics to process faster.
Connectivity and Expansion Slots
For expansion, the VGN-A690 has a good variety of external and video connections, including:
- 4 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players
- 1 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) port for connecting digital video camcorders and other peripherals
- 1 S/PDIF out
- 2 PS/2 ports for connecting keyboards and mice
- 1 VGA/DVI monitor port
- Composite and S-Video video/audio inputs
- Coaxial video input (VHF/UHF)
- 1 microphone, 1 headphone, 1 line-in
- 1 infrared port for remote control
- 1 RF in
- VHF/UHF TV port
- Memory Stick reader, compatible with Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and Memory Stick DUO
It also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Fast Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems).
Preloaded System and Software
This system comes with the Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 operating system with Advanced Security Technologies, which helps to reduce unwanted downloads and pop-ups while surfing the Web. It also comes loaded with a bevy of Sony multimedia software: Click to DVD (DVD creation), PictureGear Studio (digital photo), SonicStage (digital music), Vaio Media (network file sharing), and DVgate Plus (digital video). Other preloaded software includes Quicken 2005 New User Edition, Microsoft Works 8.0 (with word processing, spreadsheet, and calendar), Norton Internet Security (with 90-day subscription), Intervideo WinDVD, Sonic RecordNow, and SpySubtract.
Dimensions and Weight
Due to its multimedia nature, this notebook is on the heavy side at 8.8 pounds. It measures 16 x 1.8 x 11 inches (WxHxD).
Power
It's powered by the PCGA-BP2EA lithium-ion rechargeable battery, which produces a battery life of 1 to 2.5 hours.
What's in the Box
This package contains the VGN-A690 notebook PC, power cord, AV entertainment dock, two speakers, and remote control. It is backed by a one-year limited hardware warranty.
1 Great laptop if you're willing to spend the money.
I was planning on picking up a laptop at the end of 2004 or early in 2005, but learned about Intel's new mobile chips that feature more cache. So I waited and picked this up from Sony, which has the Intel M 750 at 1.86 Ghz and 2MB of cache. It also has Intel's 915PM chipset, which is Intel's better chipset for mobile applications. It has a great screen and plenty of power and memory.
I also like the fact it has a new 128mb video chip from ATI (X600) that supports PCI Express. This laptop has 1GB of memory, which I would recommend since 512MB is barely enough today. The hard drive also has plenty of space at 100GB and seems to be fast enough running at 5,400 rpm with SATA interface.
The Sony software for audio and video and editing seems pretty good and I haven't had any problems so far. One thing, I have Office Professional, so I deleted the lame 60-day Office trial package that came with the computer before I could fully access all the programs in my Pro suite.
One of the big selling points of the computer is its excellent 17" wide screen. Out of the box, it looks very good and I haven't even tried to optimize it yet. I'm thinking that the ErgoBright technology, while good for certain areas since it automatically adjusts brightness, compromises maximum picture quality. This feature could be defeated. Generally speaking, these types of auto adjustment features are best left inactive when viewing movies. I find this to be the case with widescreen TVs also. The docking station and speakers are also a plus. Sound from the speakers built into the laptop is only average. I haven't tried headphones yet or the speakers that come with the docking station and I can't yet vouch for the quality of the laptop's internal sound. However, I might pick up an Echo Indigo IO audio pc card. Laptop sound quality is generally average at best, and this add-on card could be a nice upgrade.
This computer is also very quiet, relatively speaking, which is very important to me since I don't like noisy computers. Overall, it is a well thought out design and Sony definitely didn't skimp on the components.
