Sony VAIO TR1A
July 22nd, 2003 | by Ian Bell
 |
Average user rating from 14 users |
Fantastic Features; Poorly Built
by runyaga on Feb 10th, 2005 at 9:03 AM:
I travel quite a bit. I have had my Sony TR1A for about 1 year. The display is already starting to flicker and threatens to go out on me at any moment. Its troubling because anytime I move the laptop screen (open, close, adjust) the screen starts flickering - shaking horizontally, having lines appear and then starts working again.
CONS:
- It uses a 4pin(?) firewire so you cant recharge your iPod.
- Linux does not work well with it
- Very expensive memory (still have not upgraded 1G)
- Web camera is useless (just like the camera in my P910)
- Very "cheap" feeling. The case and keyboard - just seem cheep
- The paint on the touch buttons go away fast.
- The A key's print has worn off completely (WTF?)
PROs:
- Looks great brand new (not after a year)
- Small and lightweight
good design, average machine
by kevin p on Feb 18th, 2004 at 10:22 AM:
I've had a sony for a year before the hard disk developed bad sectors. Also there is some sort of an electricity power leak from the body that resembles the shock you get from a static electricity discharge but lasts a lot longer.
Great design, poor manufacturing and unbelievably poor customer support. Just try and get hold of a complaints email address or phone number and you'll see what I mean.
this one has replaced all others for me
by jiggy on Oct 27th, 2003 at 11:22 PM:
i've sold my other other viao multimedia laptop, retired the desktop, and even have the clie for sale now that i have this one. it does everything this journalist, photographer, part-time web developer, and web junkie will ever need to do. who needs a boat anchor, this baby fits in my messenger bag and i hardly notice it's there. the extended battery life gives me more than enough time to do what i need to do in a day, and the screen is fantastic. the little keyboard takes a bit to get used to, but i just got an I-curve platform for it and an icekey, so not only is it comfortable to use at home, it looks so cool. but here are the downsides:
* the speakers rot
* the microphone is useless due to harddrive noise
* there is not IR nor video-out port
but that's all. a little bit of aftermarket money and ya got it covered. btw, the headphone port is FANTASTIC.
newer models now tr2 come with bluetooth and better wireless card...but i've used mine at lots of hotspots around America...works great. there is also a really good online forum for the tr1...see http://siliconpopculture.com/sonytr/
well, good luck!
re: typing (and more about the screen)
by bd on Oct 19th, 2003 at 12:51 AM:
i've had only minor problems typing on it, and i'm a touch typist that switches between 4 notebooks at home (thinkpad, ibook, hp, sony) plus a keyboard at work. your little finger quickly learns how to find that dinky shift key, like when you need to type the @ symbol for email. my stubby fingers can't handle a key pitch of 17mm -- even 18mm is a strain -- so i don't know what sony has done to the key configuration to work this magic. maybe the wideness of the screen means the keyboard can be wider.
speaking of which, the screen is gorgeous: bright but with dense blacks and saturated colors. with that high horizontal resolution (1280px) it has a high-definition hdtv feel. dvd movies just pop out of the screen. the fonts in browsers and terminal windows look even nicer than on a high-res (1440 x 1050) thinkpad, especially with cleartype. download a copy of microsoft reader and tweak the cleartype settings until it's just perfect.
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Beautiful expensive whim
by Jorge on Aug 3rd, 2005 at 4:55 PM:
Anyhow I assume my part when still i payed this amount of money for a beautiful product. Form won Function once more, and they are good at this at Sony.