Sony’s line of Vaio laptops, especially those at the higher end of the price range, offer some of the most capable media playback you can find on portable computers. The Sony Vaio FW480J/T is one of the best machines in the FW line, offering Blu-ray playback, mid-range graphics and a sleek chassis.
As a multimedia-centered laptop, the FW480J/T offers solid movie playback. While it can process Blu-ray movies with ease, it’s a feature best enjoyed connecting the HDMI out to an HDTV, as the notebook’s display can’t handle 1080p. For media playback, the notebook includes a dedicated set of buttons that, unfortunately, aren’t backlit (forget about touch-sensitive). As such, they’re not the most ideal to use for low-light conditions. Onboard speakers are more than sufficient for viewing with one or two people, but will easily drown out when a larger group is on hand.
On the specs end, the FW480J/T fits a 16.4-inch display, a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo P7350, 6GB of DDR2 RAM, a 400GB HDD and discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 graphics. It sports the same attractive aesthetics that you can expect from a Sony Vaio laptop and weighs a decent 6.3 lbs. Material is mostly plastic, but the layout and build lend it an overall high-end appeal. Both the raised flat keyboard and smooth touchpad are well-designed and comfortable to use.
The display panel is top-notch, offering one of the most beautiful viewing screens among laptops in the same class. It can manage a native 1,600 x 900, which is the perfect widescreen ratio, resulting in a good viewing experience, despite the lack of 1080p graphics.
Surprisingly, the Vaio FW480J/T doesn’t come with the same bloatware Sony has been known to pile into their machines for some reason. I do feel odd, however, for being thankful about not having a problem that consumers aren’t supposed to be subjected to in the first place. Battery life is pretty good, lasting over three and a half hours playing the best video quality we can get on it.
Overall, the Sony Vaio FW480J/T is a solid portable multimedia computer. While it might be slightly overpriced at $1,199 compared to similar notebooks with the same specs, it does carry Sony’s long-held tradition of building quality laptops and that, alone, can make a compelling case for it.
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