Sexy Sony Notebooks + WiFi

I recently picked up a Sony PCG-R505JL at a computer expo. It was a refurb. I would normally not buy a refurb anything but this deal was too good to pass up (more on that later). Luckily, the vendor was too cheap to buy power for his booth ($30 per day). So, the laptops he had were fully charged and turned off so the battery would last the whole day. This allowed me to test the battery's fuctionality while I played on the notebook for about 45 minutes. The guy wanted $899+tax for it, which I thought was a great deal. I was able to get him down to $870 without tax (cash) and with a sweet bag thrown in. OK, enough bragging.

This laptop is killer. After using it for a couple weeks, it is still working great without any issues. My only gripe is that it doesn't have built-in WiFi. I am using an Orinoco Gold PCMCIA and it totally ruins the looks of this small, sexy laptop. I saw this today:


That card is $89 at SonyStyle which I think is pretty reasonable for a Sony-branded product. As you can see, the antenna is very short and would likely look great on my laptop. Most of the info on this card is in Japanese, but someone seems to think it's an Orinoco-based card (like Sony's previous model).

I am wondering if anyone has any comments on this card. Is that antenna too short? I think it may be. I couldn't imagine getting good reception. Although, I would be able to throw the laptop in a bag without taking the card out which may be worth the signal loss.

EDIT: This card is definitely an Orinoco. The pics of the client manager in the Quick Start Guide are Orinoco. I am feeling better about this card now.

Maybe that protrusion isn't really the antenna. I'm not sure what it's purpose would be, but it's possible that the antenna is actually built around the screen of the laptop as other manufacturers have done.

Stu

That's only true for laptops that have WiFi built-in or optional. They use a mini-pci card that connects to antennas built in the screen. That is what I wish this laptop had.

That little nub is definitely the antenna.

you sob rob, thats the laptop that i want, and that price is unreal

The guy had another at the show for the same price. When I get home I will post his phone number. Maybe he has more.

Yes, this laptop is excellent. I upgraded the memory to 384MB. You have to disassemble the thing to add memory. Luckily it all fit back together again.

Having just gotten an R505 for my sister, I know what you're talking about. We've got an orinoco card in it at the momeent, and it does ruin the looks and makes it a pain to drop into the bag and go, which is the whole point of the docking station after all.

I'll be interested to hear how the sony brand card works, as i've grown to hate pulling the card out every time I want to put my laptop in my bag and leave. At the momement, I'm in a small apartment where I never have trouble getting 11mbps, so I'd be willing to take a small hit to avoid the antenna.

Matthew

PS. Didn't you just buy an 802.11a AP though?

In reply to:

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That's only true for laptops that have WiFi built-in or optional. They use a mini-pci card that connects to antennas built in the screen.

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If I remember correctly, Apple used full sized cards to work with their built in antennas.

Stu

They were PCMCIA form factor but don't have an antenna built in. They were installed internally anyway and connected to the laptop antenna. Not sure if they were even PCMCIA standard cards, may have been some proprietory Apple Airport connector.

The Airport's have got a full sized Orinoco PCMCIA card inside however.

The 3Com 802.11b card with the extendable XJACK antenna could be a work around.

- Trevor

If that's the case, I stand corrected. But, that is definitely how this one works (no antenna leads) or my old Gateway that had an Orinoco mini-pci card with dual antenna leads.

In reply to:

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The 3Com 802.11b card with the extendable XJACK antenna could be a work around.

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I have one of those cards and it works well until it gets too hot, then it quits. I think this is really a design flaw in the Compaq notebook I have (17XL360). The morons put the PCMCIA slot adjacent to the processor. When the wireless card quits working, I pull it out and it too hot to handle for more than a couple seconds at a time.

Stu

I just bought it. I will post here when I get it and evaluate its performance.

My Dell Inspiron 8000 has the slots right by the processor as well. I've never had a card quit due to it overheating though. This laptop weighs a tonne, is really massive, pumps out an incredible amount of heat and the two fans in it are loud as hell. But it was the best last year when I bought it and I've had to live with these annoying problems ever since. Bleh I want a slim Sony notebook now!

Has anybody tried out those higher power 802.11b cards? I think Senao (sp?) make one that does 200mA. Probably not a good thing to have on your lap though...

I've got a bunch of Orinoco silver cards and some PrismII clone cards. In the end I've used the PrismII clones as they do 104 bit WEP as standard and I can't actually find anybody that knows how to convert the silver cards into gold cards without a Mac. I know 104 bit WEP is pretty useless but I might as well use it anyway and it's still better than 40 bit WEP..

- Trevor

OK, here is the contact info for the seller:

PC Corner
Webster Plaza
980 Ridge Road East
Webster, NY 14580
(585) 872-9160

Apple explicitly states that the internal Airport connector, while it looks exactly like it, is not PCMCIA. At least for the toilet-seat iBook, and probably for all of the rest, since they all use the same Airport card.

I don't know about the Intel-based computers with internal 802.11b interfaces, though.

I guess they don't want people buying their cards and then frying something expensive when they put it into the PCMCIA slot. Is the antenna conenction on the main connector or is it seperate?

Most Intel ones use a mini-PCI board. The one I've got actually is a PCI -> PCMCIA bridge and then the guts of a normal PCMCIA card all put onto a single board.

I like the specifications of Apple hardware but I'm not too keen on the clear perspex that nearly all of it has. I don't like PC beige as well so I guess I'm just fussy

- Trevor

On my toilet-seat iBook, you lift up the keyboard, which is pretty simple and screwless, and the Airport card fits into a free-form ``slot'' (held in by a spring, otherwise no firm guide) and the antenna is a thin wire that snakes back up into the body of the computer, towards the screen.

And in reference to the perspex/plexiglas, you should check out the TiBook. Way sexier than the recently mentioned sexy Sony Vaios, IMHO. Or maybe you were talking about the desktop machines. I suppose you could use an Xserve as a desktop machine. You can get it with an ATI Radeon 8500 AGP.

To clarify, the antenna connector on Airport cards looks similar to PCMCIA cards with antenna jacks built into their small antenna. I'm sure the Airport slots are just slightly tweaked PCMCIA slots, to keep the cost down. (Considering Airport stuff has been around for a while now, I bought the base station because $300 was cheep back then).

And don't buy the XServe as a desktop machine. Sure, it's nice, but it's also noisy as hell being a 1U box. A bit worse then the new air sucker PowerMacs.

Didn't know the XServe was noisy. Also didn't know the new PowerMacs were, either. But, in many environments, unfortunately, the noise pollution from a desktop computer is the quietest thing in the room.

OK, The card came today. I am EXTREMELY pleased with it! See some install pr0n here. One slight downside is that there are no activity lights. No biggie.

That is sweet. I hated the big antenna sticking out of the side of my laptop (until the battery failed -- now I'm using it as a CD ripping station).

Get back to us and let us know how the range compares.

Now that's cool.

I was considering getting an Orinoco card to replace the POS Linksys card that refused to work in my wife's Vaio laptop, now I'm considering getting that one for her instead. Do you know if the card's guts are Lucent or Linksys, or something else?

I just scrolled back in the thread and noticed you said it was definitely orinoco, so odds are that's the one I'll get for her. Thanks.

Bitt:
I was expecting to see a drop in signal strength. Get this... I am seeing better signal strength! I am typing this post on my laptop in a location that would get 3-4 bars of signal strenght on my Orinoco card. I have been watching the meter for a couple minutes with the Sony card and it is holding steady at 4 bars.

Tony:
The card seems to require the provided drivers to get started. After using the CD drivers, I ran Windows Update and it listed the latest generic Agere (Orinoco) driver. I installed it and the Sony card works fine with that driver. The configuration manager (used in 2000 and 9x) is the same as the Orinoco. This card is, without question, based on Orinoco.

Now, on to more good news. With the Orinoco Gold card, it would be molten hot if you took it out after being on for a while. It was so hot, it would cause the notebook's fan to run 75% of the time while the card was in. This Sony one is cool to the touch when taken out. I think I know why too.... When you look on the bottom of the card, it lists that it operates at 3.3V and 5V. My Orinoco Gold only runs at 5V. This is probably why the Sony runs cooler. It is safe to say that I am loving this card. If it will fit in your laptop, I would fully recommend you get one!

Rob, thanks for the tip about the Vaio 802.11 card. I am currently typing this message on my back deck next to the hot tub on my wife's laptop.

(Oh, wait. Cookies are done, had to bring it inside to take them out of the oven. )

Nifty little card, and unlike the Linksys card I tried last winter, its drivers work with the wireless routers my ISP is using.

I can even print from this thing to our Windows print server, even though it's on the other side of a wireless router on a differnet subnet.

And the "anti-protrusion" antenna is THE BUSINESS.

I'm glad you like it Tony. It seems like you enjoy that card as much as I do. I couldn't be more pleased with it either.

I got one too a few weeks ago and it almost makes up for the fact that Roger's laptop is smaller than mine. Almost.

Hugo

almost makes up for the fact that Roger's laptop is smaller than mine. Almost.

Just give 'im the ol' "Mine's bigger than yours is"....