With notebook completely idle and screen at 50% brightness: 239 minutes (3h 59m)
With screen at full brightness and using notebook constantly: 76 minutes (1h 16m) ASUS X54H Battery
The sad news is that if you're watching a DVD that's much over 1.5 hours it's going to be a struggle to make it all the way through without recharging. You can get a larger capacity battery that claims 50% more battery life, but it will stick out at the back and add weight to the laptop, the cost of that battery is $299 so the buy in is steep. An extra standard sized battery might be a better option, it costs $199 so is still a rather expensive proposition. The VAIO FJ media bay is not a multi-bay, so you cannot put a battery in there like you can with some laptops. ASUS X54HB Battery

Keyboard and Touchpad

The layout of the keyboard keys is good, it is a sturdy full-size keyboard and all the keys you'll want are there and no weird key placement.

Discussing keyboard feel is always a bit subjective as personal preference comes in to play. This author finds that the keyboard provides too shallow a key stroke, meaning there's not much travel on a key when you push it in. The keyboard also feels a little on the clunky side. I prefer ThinkPad style keyboards where each key feels very individual and pushes down a long way. If you've used a Dell Inspiron before or are familiar with earlier VAIO keyboards, the FJ is similar in feel to both. I'm very particular with keyboards, I give this one an average rating, if you only care that all the keys are there and full sized then you'll be completely satisfied with the keyboard. ASUS X54HY Battery

The touchpad is fine as far as they go, the sensitivity might not suit you right out of the box but this can be configured. Double tapping can be used to register as a double click. There's no hardware button to turn off the touchpad like some laptops have, it would have been nice to see that. ASUS X54K Battery

The raised mouse buttons are a nice size and easy to feel, no complaints there.

The port distribution is good and things are easy to access. The two programmable buttons are very nice to have, you can configure them to open such applications as a browser or email with the touch of a button. The FireWire port and MemoryStick reader are appreciated, it'd be nice to have some alternative media cards as options in the reader but we all know Sony's intention of vertical integration among products here. ASUS X54L Battery

The built-in web came and mic can be great for video chat or doing such things as Skype and IP telephony. Sony is adding a feature that makes it standout with the built-in camera, not too many thin-and-light notebooks have this. The video quality it provides is definitely serviceable. Below is a picture I captured of a coke can, you can use the camera to capture still shots as well as video. ASUS X54LB Battery

This is an example of an image taken using the integrated VAIO FJ webcam, the quality is really quite good

If there aren't enough ports for you built-in, there's an optional port replicator that can be purchased for the FJ series and provides you with such things as a DVI port and printer port. ASUS X54LY Battery

Wireless

Sony provides you with a built-in Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG card so you can connect to a nearby 802.11 b/g wireless access point. There's not much to say here other than the wireless worked well in tests. There's no fancy antenna extension into the screen like with some notebooks, but if you're within a 150ft of an access point and there's not too many obstructions in the way then you'll connect just fine. The 2200BG card is used in many a laptop and has proven a trusty component. ASUS X44 Battery

Software

The VAIO FJ170 comes with Windows XP Home, if you'd prefer Windows XP Pro then you'll need to get the VAIO FJ180. Here's a list of all the software you get included with the FJ:

The Click to DVD is a decent application for recording to DVD. The rest of the stuff is hit or miss and we could sure do without the ubiquitous AOL software, just another thing you'll have to remove. ASUS X44C Battery

Heat and Noise

I didn't experience any problems with fan noise on the FJ170. It was very quiet and does a good job of staying cool. The optical drive is a bit loud though, when the DVD or CD is spinning up you'll notice the noise.

The heat didn't get excessive on any area in my usage. The palm rest areas got a little warm during a benchmark application being run, but nothing terrible. The bottom stayed relatively cool too. The popular VAIO S series (13.3" screen laptop) has a bit of a reputation for getting warm, but the FJ suffers no such problems. ASUS X44H Battery

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