Sony has always placed an emphasis on design, so it's no surprise that the Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F/S ($799 from Staples) stands out from the mainstream laptop crowd with its unique, textured plastic chassis. The VAIO NW270F/S features an extra-wide 15.5-inch widescreen display that's a beauty for both movie watching and Excel spreadsheeting. Also helping separate the VAIO NW270F/S from the sub-$1,000 laptop pack is its ability to play Blu-ray discs. Aside from its funky design and BD-ROM drive, however, the Windows 7-equipped VAIO NW270 is a fairly typical mainstream laptop, delivering a configuration and performance that are in line with the competition.
Design
Stroll down the laptop aisle of Staples or any major electronics store, and you'll be greeted with gleaming brushed aluminum (faux and real) and piano-black surfaces and chrome edging. The Sony VAIO NW270F/S bucks this trend, featuring a chassis of textured, silver plastic. Small grooves run horizontally across the lid and keyboard deck, looking vaguely like a tight wood grain. The keyboard deck slopes gently downward just above and below the keyboard, so that the keys are slightly recessed. The overall effect of the VAIO NW270's appearance is a pleasing one. It's a simple design that offers a unique industrial design without being distracting.
Stroll down the laptop aisle of Staples or any major electronics store, and you'll be greeted with gleaming brushed aluminum (faux and real) and piano-black surfaces and chrome edging. The Sony VAIO NW270F/S bucks this trend, featuring a chassis of textured, silver plastic. Small grooves run horizontally across the lid and keyboard deck, looking vaguely like a tight wood grain. The keyboard deck slopes gently downward just above and below the keyboard, so that the keys are slightly recessed. The overall effect of the VAIO NW270's appearance is a pleasing one. It's a simple design that offers a unique industrial design without being distracting.
The keyboard mimics that of the Apple MacBook, with white, individual keys. It's one of the better keyboards you'll come across; the keys offer great feel with just the right amount of travel. Given the roomy display and the lack of a dedicated number pad, the VAIO NW270 affords plenty of room for the keyboard layout. No keys are shortened—even the four arrow keys are full size. The touchpad, too, is roomy and comfortable to use. It has a rough, textured feel to it, which might take some getting used to. After an introductory period, however, I bet you'll come to appreciate it because of the accuracy it provides; I was able to make very precise cursor movements with it. The mouse buttons also offer good feel, though they are a touch on the loud side, clicking when pressed.
Two design demerits: The lid and screen flex a bit more than I'm comfortable with—the plastic used for the lid feels very thin, lending a cheap feel to an otherwise solid-feeling laptop. Second, despite ample room, Sony doesn't outfit the laptop with any multimedia shortcut keys. There are three buttons above the keyboard, however, in addition to the power button. One to mute the volume, another to turn off the display (while leaving the laptop running), and a third labeled Web that let's you open a Splashtop browser without having to boot to Windows first.
The VAIO NW270's display measures 15.5 inches diagonally, features a 1366 by 768 resolution, and a cinematic 16:9 aspect ratio. Its size, aspect ratio, and glossy coating make it a good fit for watching movies. It also provides ample space for multitaskers. While testing the NW270, I quickly grew to like Windows 7's ability to automatically resize two windows to share the screen side by side.
With a 15.5-inch display, the VAIO NW270 is a mainstream laptop that borders desktop replacement territory. The laptop measures 14.2 inches wide by 9.4 inches high, and along the back edge it's a trim 1.2 inches thick and that figure shrinks to 1 inch along the front edge. Given its width, the VAIO NW270 may require a new laptop bag purchase, but at 5.6 pounds, it's a touch lighter than the 5.8-pound, 15.6-inch HP Pavilion dv6-1353cl-b. Do note that the Dell Studio 1555 (4285MBU) features a 15.6-inch display and a long-running 9-cell battery and is only a tad heavier at 5.9 pounds.
Features
The headliner in the features department is the Blu-ray player. The Sony VAIO NW270's optical drive can read Blu-ray discs and write to DVDs and CDs. The display falls short of 1080p playback, but the laptop features an HDMI port so you can enjoy Blu-ray movies on an HDTV. In July, we reviewed the Sony VAIO VGN-NW120J model also found at Staples for $799, and it supplied only a standard DVD burner.
The headliner in the features department is the Blu-ray player. The Sony VAIO NW270's optical drive can read Blu-ray discs and write to DVDs and CDs. The display falls short of 1080p playback, but the laptop features an HDMI port so you can enjoy Blu-ray movies on an HDTV. In July, we reviewed the Sony VAIO VGN-NW120J model also found at Staples for $799, and it supplied only a standard DVD burner.
Next to the HDMI port on the laptop's left edge is a VGA port, should you feel the need to connect to an older, analog monitor. The other ports and connections include three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire (Sony calls it iLINK) port, an Ethernet jack, and an ExpressCard/34 slot. Two media card slots sit on the front edge, supporting the MemoryStick and SD formats.
The VAIO NW270F/S's Webcam is a bit lackluster. At only 1.3 megapixels, its resolution trails the 2.0-megapixel Webcams found on many laptops, including the $749 Dell Studio 1555 (4285MBU), also available at Staples.
Likewise, the laptop's 320GB hard drive is smaller than the 500GB drive found in the Dell Studio 1555. The drive comes loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium and an assortment of Sony's own media apps that more or less duplicate the functions Windows 7 and the preloaded apps from Intervideo and Roxio. I recommend finding the app you like best for managing your photos, videos, and music and uninstalling the others. Sony was once an egregious offender in terms of shovelware, but it's kept to a minimum here with trial offers installed for Microsoft Office, Norton Internet Security, QuickBooks Simple Start.
Performance
There are no surprises with the Sony VAIO NW270's core components. The laptop pairs a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB of RAM, which offers competitive performance. Its benchmark scores were slightly better than the nearly identically outfitted Dell Studio 1555 (4285MBU) and up to 22% faster (on PCMark Vantage) than a preceding Sony model, the VAIO VGN-NW120J released midyear. With integrated Intel graphics, the only games that will show up on the laptop's roomy display are low-impact 2D titles and flash-based games played in your browser.
There are no surprises with the Sony VAIO NW270's core components. The laptop pairs a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB of RAM, which offers competitive performance. Its benchmark scores were slightly better than the nearly identically outfitted Dell Studio 1555 (4285MBU) and up to 22% faster (on PCMark Vantage) than a preceding Sony model, the VAIO VGN-NW120J released midyear. With integrated Intel graphics, the only games that will show up on the laptop's roomy display are low-impact 2D titles and flash-based games played in your browser.
Thanks to its use of a standard 6-cell battery, the Sony VAIO NW270 offers only average battery life. It lasted 3 hours 33 minutes on MobileMark 2007, which is 3 hours shorter than the 6:37 of the Editors' Choice Dell Studio 1555 (4285MBU), a similarly sized laptop that costs $50 less and weighs only a few ounces more.
While its size and weight might be too great for daily travel, the Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F/S is a stylish laptop for entertainment and productivity pursuits at home. We recommend it for its fetching design, roomy display, and Blu-ray player. You'd be hard-pressed to find a cheaper laptop capable of playing Blu-ray discs.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS: Check out the test scores for the Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F/S
Spec Data
Type General Purpose
Processor Name Intel Core 2 Duo T6600
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor Speed 2.2 GHz
RAM 4 GB
Weight 5.6 lb
Screen Size 15.5 inches
Screen Size Type Widescreen
Graphics Card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Storage Capacity (as Tested) 320 GB
Rotation Speed 5400 rpm
Networking Options 802.11n
Primary Optical Drive DVD+/-RW (Plus Minus), Blu-Ray Disc
Tech Support 1 year
PRICE:$611.49
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