Sony VAIO VGN-TZ18GNX Notebook Review - PC Authority
PC Authority have published a review of the Sony VAIO VGN-TZ18GNX Notebook. 'If the TZ18 looks familiar, that’s because it’s the spitting image of the TZ17, which graced these pages just two months ago. We can’t complain, as this version is as desirable as the original, but Sony has made a major change under the covers. Gone is the 100GB hard disk of the TZ17, replaced by a 32GB Samsung solid-state disk (SSD) – one of the very first laptops to contain what some consider the death knell for mechanical hard disks. We’re yet to be convinced by that, but SSD does have a number of advantages over mechanical disks, which, for all their tried-and-tested years, still rely on precision moving parts. As they’re prone to physical stress, extra layers such as head-parking software become necessary, and a single, heavy blow can render the whole disk extinct. Also, seek times are higher because of the need to get a physical head to a specific place on a disk. And, in a product where battery life is the name of the game, SSDs take up significantly less power than their spinning equivalents.'