Digital Trends

Sony VAIO VGN-A160

August 18th, 2004 | by Ian Bell

Performance

The Sony VAIO VGN-A160 has a lot to offer in terms of compatibility, but just how fast is this system? Well keep in mind that even though this system is physically larger than Sony's others notebooks, its still Centrino based. This means that the Pentium M 1.5GHz processor is the same as the CPU used in Gateway's 200XL for example. The Gateway 200XL is an ultra-light computer that weighs just over two pounds compared to the A160's 8 lbs.  In our 3DMark 2001 tests, the A160 outperformed the competition boasting a score of 7318 at 1024x768, 16-bit resolutions. This is because the A160 uses ATI's Radeon 9200 graphics adapter versus the Intel Extreme integrated graphics adapter found in other Centrino based systems. But when it came to CPU benchmarks, the A160 was stuck in there with the other notebooks scoring a CPU Arithmetic score of 4861. That's because it has the same processor and memory as the other systems. For complete test results please click on the performance tab and link above and below this review.

We found the integrated 802.11b/g adapter worked well in our offices, even though multiple walls. Reception was good and we did not encounter any drops while it was in use. Battery life was also admirable lasting 2 hours 13 minutes — long enough to watch a DVD on a plane flight.

Some disappointments we had with the Sony VAIO VGN-A160 included the lack of a scroll wheel on the system. Using a touchpad is already more difficult than using a regular mouse, and when you take the scroll wheel away, you better have your fingers in shape. We had to constantly hold down the left touch pad button while dragging our cursor down the side of the webpage so we could scroll down the page — that got old real fast. We were also upset to see that only Sony's Memory Stick is supported on the system. Photographers may be annoyed that their flash storage card may not be supported. We understand that Sony wanted to promote their own products, but don't alienate users for the better good, in the whole process.

Conclusion

The A160 is a desktop replacement that is different from those sold by other companies. It is not designed to replace a workstation, it doesn't feature a full-fledged Intel Pentium 4 desktop processor and it only has 80GB of storage space. The A160 is a notebook that appears to be designed to replace your home's desktop system rather than an office workstation in most instances, although it would make an adequate computer for the office.

We didn't give the A160 an award for a couple reasons. There is way too much preinstalled software and junk on the system and it can ruin the user experience. Sony also didn't add a media card reader (other than their own Sony Memory Stick) and they didn't include a scroll wheel. These should both be a given in a desktop replacement system, and why they left these out is beyond us.

On the upside, the AV Entertainment Dock that Sony packages with the A160 is simply amazing and includes every conceivable port and connection you can think of; this alone separates the A160 from its competitors. And instead of trying to market the A160 as having audiophile quality sound using integrated speakers and subwoofers, Sony throws in a pair of nice external speakers so that when you are plugged into the docking station you are not stuck with the systems internal speakers.

Lastly, we have to give Sony credit for designing a system that not only features a 15.4-inch widescreen display with Xbrite technology, but does it all in a chassis that is slimmer than the competition. We are on the fence about whether they should have gone with a desktop processor instead of the Centrino chipset and Pentium M CPU though. The bottom line though is that the Sony VAIO VGN-A60 is a masterpiece that fuses cutting-edge technologies with a breathtaking design. Sony fans should be more than happy with their latest offering.