Sony Vaio SZ series hardware review

December 29, 2007 |

Sony Vaio SZ series hardware review

By Jonathan Schlaffer

I recently picked up a Sony Vaio over a Dell Inspiron 1420 which I had for a short time and a review of that laptop will be forthcoming. I like the laptop a lot and after the growing pains of getting it set up, it is a nice, light and powerful laptop for its size. However, unless you are happy with the default configuration, this is not a laptop to buy if you plan to upgrade it.

The version I picked up was the basic VGN-SZ640N magnesium case model without a webcam but it had an Intel T7250 processor, 13.3″ LED display with latchless lid, 1GB of DDR2 memory, an 80GB hard drive and the hybrid graphics system with an Intel X3100 for extended battery life and a nvidia Geforce 8400M GS graphics card for performance.

I’ll start with upgrading the memory. You would think this is the easiest thing one could do on a laptop but Sony is “like no other” and in that respect they tightened the screws a little too tight, so tight in fact that I nearly ended up stripping one and had to use a pair of pliers to get it out. Not to mention the fact that sometimes it feels like you have to put too much pressure on the screw in order to get it to turn, I mean, it really feels like you’re going to break the laptop.

Once you manage to get the screws out and remove the (rather flimsy) memory panel, removing and installing memory at this point is no different than other laptops but wow, what a pain to get those screws out. I installed 2GB of DDR2 memory before even booting the laptop.

After that escapade, the next thing I did was to boot the system and burn backup DVDs to restore the system since I would be using a 100GB 7200RPM hard drive with it.

Please, make sure to backup your OEM activation as this will save you from calling Microsoft after you have reinstalled.

In retrospect installing the memory was easy compared to the pain required to install the hard drive. A tutorial on that can be found here but this involves removing four screws, including one that secures the keyboard down. Removing these screws is also a pain and I managed to strip one more, so if anything, make sure you have a bunch of tiny replacement screws lying around.

In the step where it says “Push both the release keys while pulling the entire keyboard towards you.” It really should say “push both release keys while pulling up on keyboard.” The keyboard will bend a bit but its flexible, just don’t bend it too much.

After managing that feat, you’ll have to remove some palm rest screws which are not nearly as tight as anything thus far and then remove the palm rest itself, all the while being careful not to tear or rip any of the delicate ribbon cables.

Now you can just remove the hard drive screws and cage paying attention to the orientation and piece of tape on the bottom that you will want to save for the new hard drive.

I’ll just note that, contrary to the tutorial, it is possible to disconnect the SATA cable from the motherboard, just be careful when doing so and make sure that you put it back the way you found it.

I could have just skipped all this and simply said “it’s a royal pain to upgrade.” But, it really is a royal pain to upgrade. This is not a laptop for tweakers or enthusiasts, it is a laptop meant to be kept in its default configuration for the life of the machine.

Reverse the instructions to put everything back. Once everything is back in, you might have thought the recovery DVDs could be used to reinstall the system, oh, that’s just wishful thinking. You see, the backup DVDs can’t actually be used to restore the system unless the restore partition is present which it isn’t on the new hard drive.

I got the error “System drive is too small or not present” even after I formatted it with a retail Vista DVD. I assume it is in some way referring to the restore partition and the BIOS saw the hard drive just fine and so did the retail DVD.

Though the instructions say it can be used to restore a system to a new hard drive, clearly that is not the case, the “Restore C:” option and the “Restore System” option did not work, period, end of story. Note to Sony, include an actual OEM recovery disc.

It was just pure luck that I had an actual retail Vista DVD lying around so I used that to install Vista Business which is what the laptop shipped with from the factory and was able to restore the activation by following the instructions.

So the restore DVDs didn’t work at boot, I figured they might work within the operating system, they did but only partially. Driver and Program recovery failed to install the finger print reader driver, the protector suite to make said finger print reader function and the Sony Event Service which looks for hotkey events didn’t work. Several repair methods did not work and I was forced to reinstall Vista for the second time and download the “original drivers” from the Sony site and then using the “Recovery DVDs” to install the protector suite which for some odd reason is not available as a download from Sony.

Rather than bore you with more details here is a rundown… (applicable to all SZ series models)

Pros

Small, lightweight

Hybrid graphics system for performance or longer battery life

Biometric Security

Nice hardware for the price/size

Magnesium case (premium models feature carbon fiber)

Bright LED display across all models

Neutral/Con

Built almost too well, making upgrades difficult (see Cons)

Cons

Very difficult to upgrade

Backup and Recovery system irritating

May Need Vista retail DVD to reinstall

Had to manually backup OEM activation

If you are buying any of the SZ series models and planning to upgrade them, I do not recommend doing so, it’s too irritating and difficult and it may require things you don’t have lying around such as a retail copy of Vista, the means to remove stripped screws and if you didn’t backup the OEM activation things could get worse very quickly.

I feel compelled to give the laptop two ratings and this only applies to the SZ640 model…

For tweakers and those that like to upgrade I give it a 4.5 out of 10 based solely on the steps required and problems that may be encountered, this is not in any way indicative of he performance of the laptop.

For those who would be happy with the default configuration of the SZ640 then I give it a 7 out of 10 because the out of the box hardware (namely the 1GB of memory and 80GB 5400RPM hard drive) is very limiting. Any edition of Vista will do best with 2GB to 4GB of memory installed, save for Basic which can get by with 1GB.

I’ll just say this laptop is a double edged sword because I can’t think of anything else that would be fitting. There’s one last thing, it is made in the USA, not China, not Malaysia, not Taiwan, but the US of A, good on Sony for that.

I bought the default SZ640 because it was cheapest and had most of the features I wanted, had upgrading it not been difficult, this laptop would be for travelers or those wanting a small laptop that offers a lot of performance for the size. However, it is probably best to buy the SZ series in a configuration you want rather than attempting to upgrade, it can be done but between the cursing, stripped screws and pulled hair, it’s up to you if it’s really worth the pain.

Note that I said hardware review though this would have been difficult to do without mentioning the Vaio Recovery Center problems and the pain of reinstalling Vista but a follow up post will talk about the merits of its performance/battery life.