With the Sony VAIO VGN-P530H, Sony continues its long and oddly proud convention of making expensive, underpowered, utterly useless netbooks. The netbook audience has always been a tiny niche market, principally targeting people for whom a portable is too big and a PDA is too tiny. Given the Sony P’s poor design and limited functionality, it measures up poorly against its competitors ( particularly since it is costlier ) and is destined to finish its shelf life in the bargain bin.
The 1st hint of possible problems happens when one looks over the spec for the VAIO VGN-P530H. It features a 1.33 GHz CPU, two GB of non-upgradeable RAM, and 60 gigabyte SATA drive, and Windows Vista. Wait Windows Vista? On a computerComputer that only has an one-gigahertz processor and two gigs of RAM? Accept it or not, yes. Here’s where the Problems begin, and they only snowball from there.
Before we criticize this computer any further, we should take the time to address its good points. The Sony VGN-P530H has good portability and convenience, and its tiny size doesn’t interfere with typing and usability. A weight of just a pound and a half inhibits fatigue while carrying it. The commercials may say it fits in a back pocket, but we won’t quite do it. We did find it carried well in a purse or briefcase, though. Plus, the outside is good looking. It’s what’s within that’s the issue.
Folks who own this small PC have one central complaint, and that is the power problem. You want a GB of ram and a Gh of processing speed to run the operating system on this computer, according to Microsoft. While this PC meets the technical directions, it does not run well. There are lots of speed issues as quickly as you start up any other program, since the netbook has enough power to run the operating system itself.
The solution that’s’s obvious is to just get rid of Vista and put something else on it. However , that sure is a lot quicker said than done. There’s no CD-ROM drive on this or most other netbooks, so installation of a new operating system might be pretty trick. To make things worse, the machine’s video card is on a new chipset that doesn’t provide XP drivers. You could install Windows 7, that has drivers for this card.
of course, removing Vista also removes some functionality. Lots of the Sony P’s most useful features, like its wireless net connection ( which operates on wireless 802.11b / g / n, ethernet, and Verizon’s 3G Mobile Broadband ( for a cost ) ) require Sony software to work. This software usually just runs on Vista, so changing to a different OS costs you a lot in the way of functionality. Naturally, if you stick wiht Vista, you’re sacrificing twenty GB of precious hard drive space to Vista and the exclusive Sony software.
To make matters worse, the video card that comes with this little netbook lacks dedicated video memory, instead allotting up to 760 MB of system memory for this purpose. This might be fine, if it weren’t for the fact that memory on this machine is in short supply. That implies that it’s all taken up running the operating system, resulting in flickers, slow downs and skipping while watching DVDs. Popular streaming video sites like YouTube are almost unwatchable.
The Sony P is not meant to be a first PC, but a secondary one, where portability is the top priority. If you’re searching for something that’ll do simple roles, like warehouse inventory or school room notetaking, this could be the PC for you. However , if you’re trying to find a netbook for any other purpose at all, you are going to need something more powerful and more cost-effective.
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