Sony VAIO CS review specs, price

The VAIO CS is a 14.1” multimedia notebook from Sony that offers a light bar that pulses with the music you are playing. This sleek colorful notebook is offered in a wide range of colors including Sangria red, Glossy or Matte Black, Cosmopolitan Pink, Seashell Beige, Copper Brown, and Dove White.
Bringing the design up to date is new processor technology, in the case of the model we tested, an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, which promises good performance and better battery life. Also onboard is an uprated graphics chip, moving from an ATI Radeon X2300 to an ATI GeForce 9300M part.

Sony VAIO CS VGN-CS220J/T Specifications

* Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 64-bit)
* Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6400 (2.00GHz, 2MB L2, 800gMHz FSB)
* 14.1" WXGA Glossy LCD display at 1280x800
* Intel X4500 Integrated Graphics
* Intel 5100AGN Wireless
* 4GB DDR2-800 SDRAM (2GB x 2)
* 320GB Hitachi 5K320 hard disk drive (5400RPM)
* Pioneer DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive
* 1.3MP MOTION EYE webcam, stereo speakers, music lights
* 76W (19.5V x 3.9A) 100-240V AC Adapter
* 6-cell 48.8Wh Lithium Ion battery
* Dimensions (WxDxH): 13.2” x 9.6” x 1.14” – 1.57”
* Weight: 5lbs 6.4oz, 6lbs 2.5oz with AC adapter
* 1-Year Standard Limited Warranty
* Price as configured: $879.99

Pros

* Good paint quality
* Solid keyboard and chassis
* Cool pulsing light bar
* Decent battery life

Cons

* None of the plastic used feels durable
* No HDMI or eSATA
(Source: notebookreview)
The Sony VAIO CS looks great sitting closed on your desk. Our review unit has a luxurious copper finish with gold-colored trim around the edges of the screen. Opening up the notebook you see the same glossy copper paint around the palmrest and keyboard bezel, with a matte black inlay for the keyboard. Even the touchpad uses a metallic copper finish, albeit matte instead of glossy.



Build quality is relatively solid, if a little plasticky overall, and not helped in our experience by the unusual Scrabble-piece keyboard style - now copied by Apple - with its large spaces between keys. These flat-top keys have limited travel and don't quite imbue the VAIO with a feeling of high quality as you type. The trackpad works well, and left/right mouse click buttons are well positioned for relaxed use, even if they require a little force to operate.

Sony VAIO VGN-CR240E/B review

The VAIO CS has a glossy 14.1 display using the 1280x800 16:10 aspect ratio. Colors appear bright and vibrant with very good levels of contrast thanks to the glossy surface. Black levels could be a tad deeper, but this is normal for a notebook in this price segment. Backlight brightness levels are adequate for viewing in bright office conditions, but with the glossy surface outdoor computing is limited to late at night.



The keyboard is a VAIO-style chiclet layout (a similar keyboard layout is used on all Apple notebooks) that is comfortable to type on, but awkwardly sized compared to a normal notebook keyboard. Even with the 14.1” frame Sony condensed the keyboard slightly, making finger placement for blind typing difficult at first. Once you get used to it there are no problems, but it does have a slight learning curve.

Battery life with the 6-cell battery was pretty good for a 14.1” multimedia notebook. With Windows Vista set to the Balanced profile, wireless active, and brightness set to 70% the VAIO CS managed 3 hours and 51 minutes before turning off. Sony also offers a higher capacity battery option for this notebook, but we were unable to test this battery in our review.