Sony Vaio AR61ZU

Sony is well known and respected in the laptop arena for having a no compromise strategy that leads to some superb pieces of kit. Although the prices might be high, the spec is normally top-notch – and nothing has changed for this laptop; the 17” AR61ZU.

Firstly, let’s get the main sticking point out of the way first; price. Hovering between Ł1600 and Ł1800 online this is not a machine for the feint of heart or the light of wallet, but chances are if you’re still reading after seeing those numbers, price probably won’t be an issue if the kit is worthy.

Our review unit came in with a 2.4GHz T8300 Core2Duo processor from Intel, a rather surprising 3GB of RAM (that the OS has access to anyway), a 500GB HDD (of which you can use 454GB of) and a rather swanky 512MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card. It also sports a nice bit of WiFi, Bluetooth and DVB digital TV tuner; all hooked up to a rather fabulous 17” display.

The first thing you notice about the unit is the glossy black paintjob. This means you need to be a bit prepared for the onslaught of fingerprints it’ll pick up (especially around the clasp when opening), and the ever present threat of a dust attack. Although to be fair, it’ll be open most of the time, so therefore the lid won’t be seen, and the inside is a nice matt finish.

Once on the inside, you’ll notice the distinctive keyboard that the laptop sports. I suppose it’s the average size for a 17” laptop with media keys beside it, but it felt strange to a constant notebook user like myself (nothing time and a little patience wouldn’t fix. I merely point it out so that a prospective buyer doesn’t get frustrated in the beginning).
The touchpad is good for a touchpad, but that isn’t really saying a lot to honest and we’d highly recommend to anyone (not just this machine as it does it better than most) to buy a mouse if they intend to use it daily – which you’ll want to.

Upon switching the beast on, you’re greeted with the somewhat unwelcome sight of Windows Vista, however, we can’t fault it as Vista is the new standard whether we like it or not. Let’s just say that trying to play slightly older games on it proved to be an absolute nightmare as I refused to pander to it’s will to constantly connect to the net (you might not believe it, but some people’s internet setup isn’t compatible with Vista, so it was either a toss up between hardwiring it with Ethernet cables or not having access at all).
Anyway, as said, it’s not its fault it was born at a time when Microsoft decided to replace a perfectly OK operating system with an incompatible monster.

The main appeal of this machine though, is its multimedia capabilities, including TV playback on that gorgeous screen. Watching clay-court tennis on it was a delight as the dark oranges and whites were brought out crystal clear across the whole screen.
As I’ve found with my own laptop with TV tuner, it doesn’t seem to pick up channels like a regular digibox, as it only saves a channel when scanning if it has a perfect image, whereas a regular box might get just enough signal to be able to save the channel location. Not a major problem if you get excellent DVB reception, but if not then you might have to invest in a booster aerial to plug in.

Picture playback on the screen is also immense as well with crisp, sharp colours seemingly perfectly rendered to the viewer. Couple this with the size of the screen, processor and graphics card, and you get an absolutely stonking media workhorse.

At the expense of these abilities though, it weighs a ton (not literally, of course). This isn’t a machine to be lugged far and wide across the world, or even up the stairs, although smaller and more compact than most ‘desktop replacement’ laptops, that is definitely what we would recommend this laptop for. Perhaps even the perfect solution for well-off students or people with small apartments where convergence is king.

So all in, this is a bruiser of a laptop with supreme performance on games (the few in the collection that are still compatible), picture-perfect screen and a swish design. If you’ve got the cash to spend, then you could do a lot worse than this (somewhat ironically called) laptop.