Description:
Sporting fewer amenities than Sony's high-end mobile computers, yet easily robust enough to run most professional and entertainment software, the Vaio FXA59 notebook strikes a good balance between price and performance. Its convenient all-in-one design also makes it a great choice for those who appreciate true portability. At 1.9 by 12.8 by 10.5 inches and 6.7 pounds (with battery) or 7.1 pounds (with battery and removable 3.5-inch floppy disk drive), the FXA59 is not an overly large notebook. Yet unlike some Sony portables, it is completely self-contained. A combination CD-RW/DVD drive (24x/8x/8x, 8x DVD) is built right into the unit, as is a spacious 30 GB hard drive. Furthermore, the floppy disk drive may be swapped at any time for an optional second battery. The system is powered by a 1.3 GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ processor, a fast yet cost-effective chip featuring AMD's new QuantiSpeed architecture for improved performance, and PowerNow technology for extended battery life. Sony has paired this processor with 256 MB of SDRAM memory (expandable to 512 MB) and an 8 MB ATI Rage Mobility graphics chip. While its graphics processing speed isn't fast enough for the latest 3-D games, the FXA59 will capably handle anything from standard business applications to DVD movies, transmitting video signals to its large 1,400 x 1,050 15-inch XGA TFT display and audio to its integrated stereo speakers. The FXA59 is outfitted with more external connections than most notebook users will ever need, including an i.Link IEEE 1394 jack for fast data uploads from devices such as digital camcorders, two USB ports for plug-and-play peripherals, NTSC video-out and external monitor-out, parallel and serial "printer" ports, a microphone-in, and headphone jack. An internal V.90 modem delivers low-speed Web and e-mail access, and a 10Base-T/100Base-TX Ethernet interface supports high-speed surfing and LAN connectivity. The system's keyboard section features a standard 86-key layout and an electrostatic touch pad. Sony has not included the handy Jog Dial control or Memory Stick media slot found on other models. Pre-installed software includes Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Quicken 2002 New User Edition, Corel WordPerfect Office 2002, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and a broad range of audio, video, and still-image tools and utilities.
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