- Excellent Range of Wireless Connectivity Options
- Integrated DVD Burner
- Full Gigabyte Memory
- Expensive
- Fairly Small Keyboard
- Sprint Only Option for Cellular Wireless Carrier
- Intel Core Solo U1400 Mobile Processor
- 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 Memory
- 80GB 4200rpm ATA Hard Drive
- 8x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
- 11.1" WXGA (1366x768) Widescreen LCD and Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics
- v.92 56Kbps Modem, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wireless, BlueTooth, Sprint Cellular WAN
- Two USB 2.0, One FireWire, Type II PC Card and SD/MS Slot
- 10.7" x 7.7" x 1.2" @ 2.9 lbs.
- Windows XP Professional, MS Works, Norton Internet Security
2/13/07 – The big feature of Sony's TX series of ultraportables is their connectivity. Most notebook computer now have 802.11b/g wireless LAN adapters built into them. Sony has decided to include a Sprint cellular wide area network modem into it. This lets the system connect to the internet in many areas that one might not be able to find a wireless LAN. Of course, users are restricted to only the Sprint cellular network and cannot use other providers. In addition, they have included a Bluetooth adapter to allow connecting peripherals and even a cellular modem to the notebook.
Like many ultraportables, the TX15N sacrifices performance for battery life. Rather than using the Core Duo processors, Sony has chosen to use the ultra low voltage Core Solo U1400. This draws very little power but also limits the multitasking ability as there is only a single core. Sony makes up for this by including a full gigabyte of memory that should let it go through most programs without problems.
While many small ultraportables tend to use an external optical drive to save space, Sony has included a dual layer DVD burner. This makes the TX15N a great portable multimedia platform for travelers. The 80GB hard drive is also quite sizable for such a small notebook computer.
The small size of the TX15N does have some drawbacks though. Most notable of these is the small keyboard size that will cause problems for some people. In addition, the small 11.1-inch LCD display can be hard to read for those with less than perfect eyesight.
Even though the TX15N is Sony's entry level ultraportable, all of the features that they pack into this small system make it fairly expensive to similarly sized notebooks.
