of course i am having trouble phsychally seeing the S series.

i am assuming is it similar to the 12” apple powerbook, maybe less tall because of wide aspect screen?

i just recently purchased the S Series and it runs great.

1.7 ghz dothan
512mb ram
9700 ati mobility radeon
40gig

the laptop runs really fast with the 1.7 dothan.  So far, i havent experienced any serious lag or crashes.  Of course there still might be some if u like 20 programs opened at the same time.
as for pleasure, my warcraft3 runs really smoothly with 9700.  i can alt tab out without much difficulty.
the only thats slow on my laptop is the 40gig because it’s only 4200rpm. (but thats the same as the TR).  I plan on doing an upgrade to a hitachi 60gb 7200rpm.

sorry i have been away so long but i am back!  i have been so so busy.  i picked up the s150 today for the wife and i have to say that i love it!  the screen is better its bigger so in my mind better!  the machine is bigger obviously overall but its small and looks very sleek.  i think its a winner along with the tr as well.  either way you cant lose its just a matter of what you need.

wabbitt

In some review, it said that plugged into the mains and running at full speed the fan comes on and is noticeably noisy. Is It?

Thanks.

I’m wondering if the Type S comes with the Intel Performance Balancer so you can adjust the “silence” of the system like on the TR (which is almost always silent).

At any rate…I’ll know in a week or two…muhahahahaha.  :wink:

I forgot to mention this in the initial post, but the S series kind of harkens back to my days with my SR17K. The processor fan is definitely audible, especially when on AC. It’s not hairdryer loud like the SR, but compared to my quiet TR it’s quite a difference. There’s less hard drive noise though, which is nice but not enough to balance out the fan. Most of the time the computer is quiet, but processor intensive ops will make it spin up aggressively. This is probably why the machine can stay so cool. There’s also no PowerPanel software, which I kind of miss. I’ll look for the Performance Balancer later (posting on TR from work) if someone hasn’t. Looking forward to your impressions, gr00vy! 

We’re definitely spoiled by the ULV Pentium M moving to regular Pentium Ms. My buddy who ordered the 2Ghz version said it was definitely louder than his older Z1 but he said it was noticeable but definitely not annoying.

I guess the TR doesn’t need to run the fan as much since it has greater thermal allowances…so, it can get warmer since it only gets as much as 7W hot whereas the new Dothans P-Ms go up to 21W (which is less than before ~22-25W).

I wonder if that one freeware SpeedStep-like (i forgot what it was called) program can control the new Dothans…

I wonder if Waterfield has custom bags for the Type S already…haha…

tried out an S (1.6 mhz, 512 ram) is sony store.

without going into ergonomics too much, i was struck by how much larger the screen seems, and the keyboard than my TR2, but it was very light.  much lighter than i thought..i checked to make sure the battery was in.

performance i must concede was night and day…or day and night if you will.  programs opened immediately.  pages refreshed instantly.

my little test:  on control panel, add/remove software:  “please wait while the list is populated” .  On my TR it takes 10 seconds..on this S it was instant.

i don’t know if i have just totally corrupted my TR..but it is quite sluggish.  more than when i bought it.  i really want a 2.0 mhz S, with 9700 radeon and 1 GB ram.  what i really want is those specs in a TR!!

bad thing is fully configured S costs over $4k..and my TR2 is prob worth $1500 tops…..

no matter how good the s could or would be ... i am definetly staying with my tr :mrgreen:

Robster1958, what kind of apps are you running to crap out the TR like that?

What’s up wabbit!?  Long time, no post. :D

You new it was only a matter of time but ATI has announced the Mobility Radeon 9800 series. The interesting thing is that it’s not like a desktop 9800 but rather it’s based on the X800 architecture with 8 pipelines (compared to the 4 in the Mobility 9700) and has 4 vertex pipelines (vs. 2 in the Mobility 9700…i think). So, it’s potentially twice as fast. They claim it’s 75% faster…of course, it’s a much larger part than the 9700 so it probably won’t see any daylight in a ultraportable subnotebook. When you have a notebook that requires two heatpipes (one for CPU and one for GPU) then you’re looking at poor battery life.

It also has a 256-bit wide memory bus putting it on par with desktop designs (compared to the 128-bit m-9700).

So, it’s nice to see the progress. Of course, it makes us envious knowing that there is a more powerful part available. Since this isn’t actually shipping in any actual product we can be happy with the 9700 part for at least a few months.

Anyways, having a “real” DirectX 9 part with the 9700 should still be a good thing. The Type S should actually run Doom 3 fairly decently. Even most desktop system won’t run Doom 3 all out. I read yesterday that people with video cards with 512MB of memory will see Doom 3 in its full glory.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17463

You may notice a somewhat humorous typo when they refer to the power savings techniques used. I won’t mention it directly but you’ll know it when you see it.

That makes perfect sense. Base it on the current card, but call it the same model name as the previous generation. Marketing people suck.

Totally. Actually, they started this with the previous generation. The Mobility Radeon 9700 is actually based on the desktop Radeon 9800 part…and not the original desktop Radeon 9700 part.

I don’t see why they don’t create a Mobility X800 moniker. It just confuses everyone.

[Robster1958] my little test: on control panel, add/remove software: “please wait while the list is populated” . On my TR it takes 10 seconds..on this S it was instant

This tests is not meaning full, regarding the fact that it depends on how many programs you have installed on your computer, it can take different times to load. Also, I notice that with some specific programs it takes really long times to refresh.

By the way, I went to Sony Center to see a Sony Type s, I agree I really like the screen, I mean the size is good, sometimes I found my TR2 screen a bit too small, but I can’t blame it, because it’s really convenient for carrying it. Also, the things I don’t like about Type s, is that when you touch even keyboard or the whole laptop, I feel like bad quality product, maybe because it feel light weight regarding the size, I don’t know I got really strange feeling.

At the first, I was upset because I bought my TR2 just two months before the Type S, so I was thinking I take the wrong one, but now I am not so sure that if I had the choice I would have take the Type S, I am still thinking..

Just one question, how put the name of the author in a quote tag ?

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]
At any rate…I’ll know in a week or two…muhahahahaha.  :wink:

So you like the S series over the NEC Lavie?  On your review you sounded excited about it… That is what I am gonna try and go with…I am really liking the design…just need to checkup and see if they are now offering a Dothan processor version…Anyone know?  My Japanese is like non-existent right now so I’ve been having to use a translator that is just as bad as my Japanese… 

I’m surprised that there is almost no talk about the Lavie here…12” ultraportable with quite a bit of power…what’s with that… :?

UPDATE:  O shucks…just realized it had Intel Integrated Graphics…HOW DID I MISS THAT!!!  :evil:  :? 
DAMN…I guess I’m gonna have to go with the less exteriorly attractive S   ... I was loving the look of the Lavie :drool: