Sony's Latest Laptop Is Skinny and Light, But Omits Key Features
In the fashion world, the old saying is that you can never be too thin. But is the same true in the world of laptop computers?
For the past week or so, I've been testing the thinnest -- and lightest -- laptop I've ever used, the new Sony Vaio X505. It's a strikingly handsome black computer, clad in nickel carbon and protected by a thin, sleek slip case.
From an aesthetic standpoint, the X505 may be as big a deal as Sony's classic Vaio 505G laptop in 1998, which became a cult item.
I tested the X505 on the road this week, and it turned heads everywhere. On Amtrak's Acela Express from New York to Washington, railroad employees huddled around my seat to admire it, and another passenger made his way down the aisle to get a look.
But the X505 costs a fortune, and its tiny size results in some functional compromises that diminish its value. The price is $3,000, and that doesn't include a CD or DVD drive, even an external one. There's also no dial-up modem, so if you check into a hotel without wired or wireless broadband, as I did this week, you can't get online at all. And there are some keyboard issues, which I'll outline in a minute.
You can buy an external CD or DVD drive, and a plug-in modem. But that would make a pricey laptop even pricier. For comparison, two other ultrathin, ultralight laptops, the International Business Machines ThinkPad X40 and the Toshiba R100, start at $1,499 and $1,999, respectively. And each comes with an internal modem.
Of course, next to the X505, these two excellent, thin laptops actually look large.
Sony Vaio X505
At 10.2 inches wide and 8.2 inches long, the X505 doesn't have a much smaller desktop footprint than other little laptops. But its weight of 1.85 pounds, with battery, is amazing. By comparison, the Toshiba and IBM ultralight models cited above weigh 2.4 pounds and 2.7 pounds, respectively. And the Sony is just 0.38 inches thick at its narrowest point, compared with 0.6 inch at the narrowest point for the Toshiba and 0.94 inch for the IBM.
The screen is small, at 10.4 inches, but it's vivid and has decent resolution. And it is very short, vertically, when opened on an airplane seat tray. I tested the X505 in one of the new, narrow regional jets that ply the East Coast these days, and the Sony remained upright, even when the person in front of me reclined.
A decent 512 megabytes of memory is onboard, but it can't be expanded, and up to 64 megabytes of the total is drained off by the integrated video system. The processor is an Intel Pentium M running at 1.1 gigahertz. The hard disk is a minimal 20 gigabytes in size.
The X505's ports are minimal, too. There are two USB 2.0 ports, a 1394 port for camcorders, and a headphone jack. There's also a special connector for an included external dongle that contains the network jack and an external video jack. There's no room for internal wireless networking, so Sony throws in an external Wi-Fi card.
There's also no room for a slot for digital-camera memory cards. So the X505 comes with an adapter that can accommodate various types. There's also an included external mouse that has a Sony Memory Stick slot.
The tube-shaped battery fits between the lid's hinges, and to save space, Sony engineers put the AC adapter jack and the power button on the ends of the hinges.
In my harsh battery test, where I turn off all power-saving features, crank up the screen brightness, turn on the Wi-Fi and play an endless loop of music, the X505 logged just over two hours of battery life. In normal use, with power saving on, you'd probably approach three hours -- impressive in a machine this thin and light.
The X505 performed fine at every task I threw at it. Microsoft Office is preinstalled. I used the external networking dongle to jack into an Ethernet line at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass. And the Wi-Fi card worked perfectly in my home and office. But, at the Hotel du Pont, in Wilmington, Del., which, incredibly, had no high-speed Internet in the rooms, I was out of luck because of the lack of a modem.
The X505's keyboard is a big negative. The letter and number keys have fair spacing and travel. But I kept hitting the Insert key when I tapped on Backspace, and the Delete key, the arrow keys and the space bar are all very small. Sony should have scrapped the marginal Windows keys and the Print Screen key on this model.
More importantly, I found the track-point mouse substitute hard to use. The clicking buttons are narrow strips at the very bottom edge of the keyboard, and they are too close to the track point for comfortable operation. If you bought the X505, you'd likely be forced to use the external mouse all the time, which obviates some of the size advantage.
The Vaio X505 is primarily a style item, a good choice for those with deep pockets who want something cool. It's beautiful, but the feature omissions and keyboard issues would lead me to choose something like the ThinkPad X40 instead, at half the price
索尼Vaio X505 外观夺目，内留缺憾
在时装界有句俗语：你怎么瘦都不过分。那么，在笔记本电脑的世界里道理是否一样呢？
在过去大约一周，我一直在测试索尼(Sony)新款的Vaio X505笔记本电脑，这是我所用过的最薄、最轻的笔记本电脑。这部电脑外观是极漂亮的黑色，使用镍镀碳纤维涂层，装在一个超薄、平滑的手提包内。
纯粹从美学的角度来看，X505可能堪与索尼公司于1998年推出的经典名作Vaio 505G相媲美，后者曾经风靡一时。
本周我在路上测试了X505，结果到处引来关注的目光。在Amtrak从纽约到华盛顿的Acela快车上，列车乘务员都围聚在我的座位旁欣赏它，而另一位乘客甚至不辞辛苦地穿过过道，来一睹它的风采。
但X505造价不菲，而且过于追求'瘦身'也导致它不得不在某些功能上采取让步，因此降低了它的价值。这部电脑的售价为3,000美元，机身上还不包括CD或DVD驱动器，甚至连一个外接的驱动器也没有。它也不包括拨号的调制解调器，所以，如果你像我本周这样住进了一家没有有线或无线宽频网络的旅馆，那么你根本上不了网。键盘也有些问题，我马上就会谈到。
你可以买一个外接的CD或DVD驱动器，以及一个插入式的调制解调器。但这就会增加这部本来已经相当昂贵的笔记本电脑的造价。让我们来比较一下：另外两款超薄、超轻型笔记本电脑──国际商业机器公司(International Business Machines)的ThinkPad X40和东芝公司(Toshiba)的R100首推价格分别为1,499美元和1,999美元，而且它们都带一个内置的调制解调器。
当然，那两款不错的超薄型笔记本电脑看上去有点大，这方面比不上X505。
X505宽10.2英寸，长8.2英寸，和其他超薄型笔记本电脑比起来，机体小不了多少。但它带上电池的重量才不过1.85磅，令人感到惊奇。与此对照的是，IBM的ThinkPad X40和东芝R100重量分别为2.4磅和2.7磅。X505在最薄的地方仅0.38英寸，而ThinkPad X40和东芝R100的最薄处分别为0.94英寸和0.6英寸。
X505的液晶屏很小，10.4英寸，但画面生动，分辨率很高。如果在飞机座位上，把X505的液晶屏竖立起来也不嫌高。这些天，我在乘坐一架往返东海岸的地区性小型喷气式飞机时测试了X505，即使当前座的人躺下来的时候，X505也能保持液晶屏直立。
X505使用了512M板载的内存，但不能再进行扩充，其中64M的内存是用于主板集成的显卡。处理器为英特尔(Intel)的奔腾M 1.1G。硬盘采用的是体积最小的20G硬盘。
X505在端口设计上也缩减到最低限度。机身上有两个USB 2.0端口，一个用于摄像机的1394端口以及一个耳机插孔。但X505留有一个特殊的接口，可以连接随机附带的外接式dongle，含网络接口和一个外接的视频接口。由于机器已经没有空间内置无线网络设备，所以X505采用了外接的Wi-Fi卡。
同样，X505也没有空间留给数码相机记忆棒(Memory Stick)插槽，因此它采用了一种可以兼容各种类型记忆棒的适配器。X505随带一个外接式的鼠标，鼠标上内置索尼记忆棒插槽。
管状的电池放置在机器合页之间，为了节省空间，索尼的工程师把AC适配器接口和电源开关都安置在了机身合页的两端。
我对电池进行了近乎苛刻的检测。我关闭了所有节省电力的功能，把屏幕的亮度调高，启动Wi-Fi功能，无休止循环播放音乐，在这种情况下，X505的电池只维持了2个小时。在正常的使用情况下，开启电力节省功能，X505的电池大约可以坚持3个小时左右，这对如此超薄的电脑来说，已经相当不错了。
对于我发出的每条命令，X505都执行得很好。电脑里已经预装了Microsoft Office软件。当我入住马萨诸塞州坎布里奇的Charles Hotel旅馆时，我插入了一条以太网线实现了上网。在我家里和办公室里，Wi-Fi卡相当好用。但在特拉华州威尔明顿的Hotel du Pont旅馆，那里竟然令人难以置信地没有高速互联网接口，因为机器上没有安装调制解调器，我就没能上网。
X505的键盘是个较大的弱点。字母键和数字键的距离还行，但当我敲击Backspace的时候，总是敲到Insert上。另外，Delete、方向键和空格键也都很小。索尼公司在这款机器上本来应该舍弃用的较少的Windows键和Print Screen键。
更重要的是，我发现键盘上的触摸板很难用。左右按键是键盘底部边缘的窄形条，它们离触摸板太近了，以至于无法自如地应用。如果你购买了X505， 你很可能要被迫长时间地使用外接鼠标，这就影响了电脑形体轻盈的优势。
Vaio X505主要是一款时尚化的产品，对于那些追求个性化的人来说是个不错的选择。它看上去很漂亮，但缺少一些功能，键盘缺陷也可能会促使我选择ThinkPad X40一类的机器，因为毕竟那些笔记本电脑的价格只有X505的一半。
