Plenty of laptops offer a vibrant, saturated picture that's pleasing to the eye, but if your livelihood depends on color accuracy above all else, most of these systems just won't cut it. Most photographers and graphic designers use external monitors to achieve color accuracy, but Sony is hoping to change that with the high-priced VAIO VGN-AW190 ($3,219 direct). Professionals won't mind emptying their wallets, however, when they find out that the color reproduction on this laptop's high-definition, Adobe RGB-compatible display is unparalleled. For the average user, though, the fully loaded HP HDX18t, priced at $2,000, may be a more well-rounded media center option.
While other PC makers are applying bolder designs to their 18-inch laptops (witness the HDX18t's embedded patterns or the Dell Studio 17's orange-colored lid), the AW190 keeps it simple with a glossy-black exterior. After all, this is a professional laptop (though its looks are not as plain as the Lenovo ThinkPad W700's). At 8.4 pounds, the AW190 is currently the lightest in the 18-inch league—including the HDX18t (8.7 pounds), the Acer Aspire 8920G (8.8 pounds), and the Toshiba Qosmio G55-Q802 (10.5 pounds)—which might be a factor if you need to carry your system with you.
The AW190's design is luxurious, yet spare. The laptop's palm rest is draped in a leatherlike material, which is elegant and makes for a comfortable typing experience. Sony first introduced the AW190's distinctive keyboard design, reminiscent of the Apple MacBook 13-inch's, in its VAIO VGN-X505ZP. Aside from the typical oversize keys—Enter, Shift, and Tab—all the keys are in the shape of a perfect square, slightly raised, with visible spacing in between. A numeric keypad, laid out in the same manner, sits to the right of the keyboard.
Sony's XBrite screens are some of the best in the laptop industry. With the movement among laptop makers to shift from the 16:10 aspect ratio to 16:9 in their production of widescreen panels, it was only a matter of time before an 18.4-inch screen showed up on a VAIO. With this aspect ratio, you're basically trading a little bit of height on the screen for some extra width, but the shape is more consistent with film formats and current HDTV displays. The 1,920-by-1,080 resolution makes it a full 1080p HD display. Even more compelling for professionals, though, is that this is an Adobe RGB (ARGB) color-compatible display. (ARGB is a widely used standard known for its large and balanced color gamut.)
I placed the HDX18t and the AW190 alongside each other, since they both have the same resolution and screen size. In the professional photos I looked at, colors appeared richer and truer on the AW190. Shades of the same color can be differentiated on human faces, and facial hair appeared finer, too. While looking at multicolor fabrics, certain weave patterns were more discernible on the AW190 than on the HDX18t. Glare wasn't an issue on the AW190, either, as its matte screen is more suitable for professionals than the reflective ones found on the HDX18t, Qosmio G55-Q802, and Aspire 8920G.
If you own a D-SLR or other camera that takes CompactFlash memory cards, you'll appreciate the integrated CF slot. SD and Memory Stick slots are present as well. The laptop's storage capacity will also be a boon to photographers, as RAW images take up more space than compressed ones. I'm a little wary of my terabyte configuration, though—the dual hard drives are each 500GB, but they spin at only 4,200 rpm. Faster drives could really improve the speed of rendering photos or offloading them to your laptop. For this, Sony has options for 7,200-rpm hard drives and solid-state drives as well, though you certainly won't get close to the 1TB capacity with either of those. (The more-expensive 7,200-rpm drives max out at 640GB of total storage space.)
The Blu-ray reader (BD-ROM) our system came with is recommended for this configuration. Blank media is still outrageously expensive, making the writer option impractical, but the BD-ROM is able to read and write regular and dual-layer DVDs just fine. If you think photos look great on the screen, wait until you pop in a Blu-ray movie. Mission Impossible 3 on Blu-ray looked magnificent on the 1080p screen. The screen is also ideal for displaying over-the-air HD content. Sony has finally brought back an internal ATSC tuner, which you can get as an option. The speakers are comparable to those of the HDX18t but don't have the boom of the Qosmio G55-Q802's.
The AW190 offers a wide selection of processors, but if you're going to spend this much money on a laptop anyway, get an Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 (as mine had) or the T9600. The Sony unit performed as well as the Aspire 8920G on video encoding tests: They both finished in 1 minute 3 seconds. At 57 seconds, the HDX18t won the video encoding battle, using a faster processor. On CineBench R10, which really tests the CPU and memory, the AW190 came in second to the HDX18t. The AW190 comes with 4GB of memory, which is fully utilized by Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. You can also opt to save yourself $150 by downgrading to Vista Home Premium, which is also 64-bit. SYSmark and MobileMark 2007 tests aren't compatible yet with a 64-bit operating system (we're waiting for BAPCo to release a software patch), so unfortunately I can't report any results here. The AW190's 53-Wh battery is the smallest when compared with the HDX18t, the Aspire 8920G, and the Qosmio G55-Q802. Based on past testing, I think you'll be lucky if you get 2 hours of battery life from this system.
The Sony VAIO VGN-AW190 is not your average desktop replacement. It has professional photographer, serious artist, or graphics designer written all over it. The hefty price you pay for this machine is in large part due to its Adobe RGB display. Eighteen-inch systems like the HP HDX18t and Acer Aspire 8920G are popping up all over the place, offering a similar movie experience, a Blu-ray drive, and fancy, media-centric features at a much lower cost. But if your job requires exacting color comparison or judging images on the fly, the AW190 is tailor-made for you.
Specification Data
Type: Media, Business, Small Business
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo T9400
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
RAM: 4 GB
Weight: 8.4 lb
Screen Size: 18.4 inches
Screen Size Type: Widescreen
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 9600M GT
Graphics Memory: 512
Storage Capacity (as Tested): 1000 GB
Rotation Speed: 4200 rpm
Networking Options: 802.11n
Primary Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW DL with Blu-Ray
Battery Type: 53 Whr (Watt hours)
3-D BENCHMARK TESTS - 3DMark06 - Native – 0X/4X: 3423
PRICE:$3,219
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