Product Listing

The Sony VAIO AW-17GU - Awwwww!

By Aloysius Low - 5 Nov 2008

Awww, Shucks!

Awww, Shucks!

From its glossy cover to its elegant interior, the VAIO AW, like all VAIO models exudes a classy elegance that screams of a huge price tag. Then again, this is to be expected, given the specs of the unit and and the fact that the VAIO brand isn't exactly known for being cheap either. So if you're wondering whether the AW-17GU is worth its weight (all 3.95kg of it) in gold, well, let's take a closer look shall we?

Even the insides of the AW-17GU looks and feels classy. Also, having a huge 18.4-inch screen only means there's plenty of space for a full keyboard (with numeric keypad).

The 18.4-inch panel of the AW-17GU isn't quite the same 16:10 widescreen panels that current notebooks use. Instead, the VAIO unit like the VAIO Z that we've previously reviewed, uses a 16:9 panel like those found on high definition TV panels. The net result is a gorgeously bright and clear 18.4-inch panel with 1920 x 1080 resolution for you to watch Full HD movies from the Blu-ray drive of the notebook.

Sony's Motion Eye is a 1.3MP camera.

We have hardly any gripes with the keyboard, as there's plenty of room with the VAIO AW. The only irk we have lies with the trackpad, as we found our palms accidentally touching the trackpad more often than usual and this of course, led to our mouse cursor jumping all over while we typed. Not our idea of fun, and we're guessing it's not yours either.

The full sized keyboard and numeric pad uses the same "isolated" design found on the new VAIO notebooks.

The trackpad experience was good, though we do wish there was a button to lock the trackpad when we are doing heavy duty typing.

Audio quality was fine and the volume was generally loud enough at max. Strangely enough, when the volume gets turned down to 50 per cent, we found ourselves straining to hear the output from the now extremely soft speakers. Bass was also slightly brittle, more so when we cranked up both the volume and the bass performance via the Dolby Control Center. Audiophiles may not be too pleased with this, but we're generally fine with the audio performance so far (except at 50 per cent, of course).

The AW-17GU features touch controls for controlling your media experience. Oh, and yes it does have a subwoofer, but our audio experience was nothing fantastic.

The texture of the palm rest feels like similar to those used in a car's dashboard.

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7.0
The Good
Good design
Lightest 18.4-inch DTR
Isoloated keyboard
Bright matte screen
The Bad
Very Expensive
Short battery life (if it concerns you)
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