How about a test of AVCHD / H.264 high definition files in 1900×1080 resolution, at 13 mbps and 60 fps? This could be the “standard” for compact high-def media devices 5 years hence, in part because they are compact enough to share by the next generation of broadband Internet. The most compact high-def videocams already use it. There is already a need for a notebook PC that can handle the files for editing and playback in native format. Does the FZ180 play them without stuttering or stalling?

Too bad the reviewer did not plug the FZ180 via HDMI to a big HDTV to see if it performed well as a Blu Ray player. A Blu Ray in a versatile notebook might be preferable to a stand-alone, non-portable, passive Blu Ray player that costs $500 or so by itself.

How hard is it do remove the bloatware / adware? Does Vista have an add / remove utility that would allow one to zap the junk quickly? Does that operation improve the performance?

$2,000 may not break the bank, but it is a lot to lay down for a device that fails to perform robust media tasks. Also, if it gets so hot, does this mean the life of the hard drive or other innards might be gravely shortened? Is there no fan? Is heat generation one reason this model uses a relatively slow hard drive?

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/pages/458117.aspx

It’s kinda hard to tell but it looks like current scores are out of 5.9. They aren’t really “out of” anything but 5.9 looks like the highest possible at the moment as “6.0 is reserved for future hardware.

Rates displayed at this order: [Processor - RAM - GRAPHICS - GAME GRAPHICS - PRIMARY HD].
My desktop scores [4.3 - 5.6 - 5.9 - 5.8 - 5.7] respectvilly running Vista Ultimate.
My Sony Vaio SZ430N scores [4.9 - 4.5 - 3.0 - 3.0 - 4.8] running Vista Business at STAMINA mode, and [4.9 - 4.5 - 3.6 - 3.2 - 4.8] running at SPEED.

By the way, SZ430N has a 13 inches display with 1,280 x 800 pixels resolution.

My Vaio has the same Intel Core 2 Duo T7200, 2GB Ram and 150GB HD. At STAMINA it runs with Intel Graphic Cards, and at SPEED it runs with nVidia GeForce Go7400. (64MB dedicated, and 271MB shared). Don’t have a Blu-Ray reader, but has a lot of “crapware” too…

I would like to know if the information on this post are correct.

Thanks, Glauco Lins.