Verdict: A decent work machine and DVD player that will also be able to entertain you for an hour or two on the train
Back in the days of yore, when all of merrie England - rather than just the tabloid front pages - was ruled by royalty, you could scrape a living as a minstrel, entertaining aristocrats with tales of adventure and derring-do.
Thanks to its peach-coloured walls and shelves stacked with PCBs, the Custom PC lab bears little resemblance to your average medieval court. There isn't a gold-embroidered tapestry in sight, and the closest thing it has to a suit of armour is our replica lightsaber. The lab has, however, played host to numerous inventors who, like modern-day minstrels, stop by to regale us with stories of how they plan to slay their competitors' products.
One recent troubadour was recounting his plans for a cutting-edge computer, with a case to be fashioned from the finest materials available. Evidently, this PC wasn't going to be cheap, so we asked how much it would cost and received the reply that, while pricey, it would be 'no more than the equivalent PowerBook or VAIO'.
It's a common assumption that Apple and Sony make stylish but costly computers. However, to some extent this reputation is, as with 'ye olde England', a little outdated. The recently launched Mac Mini famously costs £340, while Sony's new FS range of VAIO laptops start at about £800.
Low prices entail fairly basic specifications and the sub-£1,000 FS VAIOs use Celerons, so they're hardly going to be steeds worthy of a Custom PC reader. But the top-of-the-range FS115Z is a different story altogether. At £1,100, the price isn't extortionate, and it weighs just under 3kg. Not thin and light, but it's nowhere near as bloated as most 'gaming laptops'.
The FS115Z's main weapon against the perils of modern computer games is Nvidia's new mobile GPU, the PCI-E GeForce Go 6200 TurboCache. The desktop version of this GPU (see Issue 18, p9) is outclassed by its more powerful siblings, but for a laptop, the GeForce Go 6200 TurboCache could prove to be a lot trustier.
As it's based on the modern GeForce 6 architecture, the GeForce Go 6200 supports DirectX 9c, including Shader Model 3 and Nvidia's UltraShadow II enhancements. It has four pipelines, and in the FS115Z is clocked at 300MHz, with the local memory running at 300MHz (600MHz effective). As this is the TurboCache version, it has a relatively stingy amount of dedicated memory, but can borrow up to 128MB from the PC2700 system memory.
Backing up this GPU is an Intel 915PM-based motherboard and a 1.7GHz Pentium M. It's a Dothan-core CPU, so it has 2MB of Level 2 cache, which Sony pairs with 512MB of PC2700 DDR RAM to complement the 533MHz FSB. Half a gigabyte of memory is generally fine for Windows XP, but annoyingly, because it's supplied as two 256MB SO-DIMMs, an upgrade to 1GB would require two new modules.
The FS115Z's 100GB Toshiba hard disk is the largest drive currently available in a laptop. It has an 8MB buffer and is made from two high-density 50GB platters - all good things that should partially atone for its lowly 4,200rpm spin speed. The DVD writer is pretty handy too, and can burn dual-layer DVDs at a respectable 2.4x.
The FS115Z is better-looking than the majority of PC laptops, although it isn't as attractive as the higher-end VAIOs. The case's swooping curves diffuse the boxiness well and, in conjunction with the slightly recessed keyboard and hinged screen, give the FS115Z a comely shape. The two-tone colour scheme is another matter entirely. Grey PCs should have been consigned to the dark ages by now, and the light grey of the FS115Z's keyboard area is particularly listless.
The floating screen joint means that when the laptop is opened, the screen bezel sinks below the back of the chassis, so all the ports have to be side mounted. As it's a VAIO, there's only a Memory Stick slot, and its Centrino status means 802.11g wireless LAN in included too.
However, the screen is gorgeous. A widescreen 15.4in TFT with a native resolution of 1,200 x 800, there's plenty of width for working with multiple web browsers, messenger clients and media players. It also uses Sony's X-black technology, so the screen is lit by two lamps, and uses a different type of coating that should offer less colour distortion.
The downside is that when viewed from an angle there are odd purple reflections present, but it's genuinely beautiful when viewed straight on. Blacks are deep, colours are vibrant and contrast is good. Games look great on it, despite the odd panel resolution, and it can keep up with fast-paced titles. Playing at 1,024 x 768 was superb, as the vertical resolution nearly matched that of the panel, and any difference in horizontal resolution was corrected by two discreet black bars.
PERFORMANCE
Sony's new handheld games console, the PlayStation Portable, might be what many gamers in the USA are making a song and dance about right now, but the GeForce Go 6200 TurboCache proves that mobile PC gaming doesn't have to involve a 'performance' laptop that requires a flatbed lorry to transport it.
Although it only managed a miserable 6fps in Doom 3 at 1,280 x 1,024 with 2x AA and 2x AF - at 1,024 x 768 with no AA and AF - the panel's near-native gaming resolution, the story was much better. The average frame rates were 20fps in Doom 3, 23.4fps in Far Cry, and 27.1fps in Half-Life 2. We wouldn't class these scores as 'playable', but they were recorded at maximum detail settings and reducing detail will make the games run smoother.
For example, head into Half-Life 2, and set the Shadow Detail to low and the game is pleasantly playable. A few more sacrifices would be necessary to make Doom 3 and Far Cry run smoothly, but the GeForce Go 6200 TurboCache offers a decent foundation for gaming. As well as the intensive first-person shooters, we played a range of other games on the FS115Z, all of which it handled with real dexterity. NHL 2005, Freedom Force vs The Third Reich and crazed racer Flatout were all lots of fun at 1,024 x 768 with plenty of eye candy enabled.
The on-board graphics also proved to be excellent at overclocking. Using Coolbits, we managed to overclock the GPU to 404MHz, which is an extra 100MHz, and the local graphics memory to an astounding 404MHz (808MHz effective). Such an amazing overclock delivered an extra 6.1fps in Doom 3 at 1,024 x 768 without any AA or AF, bringing the average to 26.1fps.
In 2D applications, the excellent 1.7GHz Pentium M continued to show just how competitive it is with a Pentium 4e. The FS115Z scored 0.95 in the video encoding test and 0.92 in the image editing benchmark, just below the 1.00 scored by our 2.6GHz Pentium 4c reference PC.
CONCLUSION
If you're looking for a mobile PC to take to LAN parties, then the FS115Z isn't for you, although we still think you're better off with a SFF PC than any laptop we've seen so far. But if you want a decent work machine and DVD player that will also be able to entertain you for an hour or two on the train, then the FS115Z will enable you to live happily ever after. The End.
