I’m thinking of buying a brand new TR5AP before stocks of them dry up. Is the value of the TR5AP still worth it in the ultra-light arena? I’d plan to use it for web/email/music/dvds (on the road), plus I’d like to see how it plays games like World of Warcraft (to which some others here have tried, and found “decent”.

Basically I’ve always liked the units, but I don’t want a large laptop.

Well, I just bit the bullet and got one from ecost for 1999 U.S. I had the T and did not like the form factor as much.  The DVD is -r and only 2x, but he T is not much better at 2.4x +/-.  The T looks easier to upgrade down the road and (60 gb hard disk) and comes with 1gb ram.  Also, speed with the T’s Dotham is minimally better at best (and runs hotter, thus more fan noise).  The tr5 is quieter than the T in my opinion.  Either way, the TR5 or the T150 can be had for the same price, so it really depends upon which you want. Either will do what you requested with ease and both are overall good subnotebooks. Incidently, I also had the fujitsu P5000d before migrating to the original TR1 and the quality was laughable compared to the Sony TR (although they use standard hard drives which are bigger).  I think the TR feels more solid than the T also, having owned both.

On a final note, if you are not interested in the DVD RW burning capabilities, NewEgg has the TR3 for $1429, a pretty good price.

If you want to play WoW, or any directx 8/9 3d games, you might want to wait to see if the new T models are full Sonoma or not.  Sonoma Centrinos have better integrated graphics, which supposedly give you about twice the performance of the old “Extreme” integrated graphics (as used in the TR and 2004 T series).  I don’t think the Japanese sonystyle page specifies which chipset the new Tx1 models are using.

Sonoma isn’t scheduled for the ULV chips in the T series until the second half of the year. Going to Sonoma won’t do that much for game performance anyway. You’re probably better off just going to the S series with a descrete graphics chipset if you have your heart set on usable mobile gaming.

Thanks for the advice so far. I’m certainly not looking for the TR as a gaming machine, believe me I know it’s not up to snuff in that department.

Honestly, I don’t feel that drawn to an S series, it’s like the middle child of a family, when you can’t decide if you want ultra-portable or desktop replacement…

I’ve always liked the TR design, the T series doesn’t “do it” for me though as a TR replacement.

[quote author=“Mr. E”]

Honestly, I don’t feel that drawn to an S series, it’s like the middle child of a family, when you can’t decide if you want ultra-portable or desktop replacement…

Are you referring to the S as a desktop replacement if yes then your badly mistaken. At 1.8 kgs its hardly a dr and is the lightest and the smallest in its range with a fast processor and 64 MB card.

what else would you want ?

Nope, I meant that the S series is the middle child in a family between the TR (now T) ultraportables and the much larger A series.

Whats your source on that?  And do you mean the new 1.2 Ghz T series in Japan isn’t Sonoma? (i.e. Just a faster Dothan in old Centrino chipset).

Edit: Looks like the new T-91s in Japan aren’t sonoma after all:
http://www.dynamism.com/vgn-t91/specs.shtml
Would be using Intel 915 chipset if it were sonoma.

sorry. dazed ... jetlag