The a77ii is a prosumer “sports” oriented APSC camera that was released in the waning lights of Sony a-mount cameras. It was meant to provide an action oriented body to track action. I hesitate to say sports because sports has traditionally been tied to the Canon 1DX and Nikon D series bodies; and now the…
Category: Reviews
IRL Sony RX10 Cybershot review
Mark 1 RX10; this camera is so old I doubt anyone cares about it; its so old that one inch sensors while a hit before, are now largely taken out by computational photography. It was a camera that really got me excited at its announcement; large sensor, magnesium body, constant f2.8 24-200mm Zeiss zoom; of…
IRL review DSC-F717 and DSC-F707
Annnnnd I’m back doing IRL reviews; its been a while. Life got busy and I focused on other things than writing, but reflecting on vintage electronics still very much is my jam. The DSC-F717 and DSC-F707 were sort of legendary items in my mind; I knew about them and saw them in marketing but never…
Sony XB80BS IRL review
Sony XB80BS wireless sport earphone IRL review; After my Sony AS700BT fizzled out, I was out of ideas of what to use for headphones for workouts. The AS700BT had big shoes to fill. It was reliable in connection, had great features like a stable connection vs. audiophile mode, great design, stable in the ears even in…
IRL Review: Sony MDR-SA5000 headphones
The Sony MDR-SA5000 headphone was their flagship headphone for a number of years, and fought for that title with several headphones that overlapped its release including the MDR-CD3000 (biocellulose diaphragms like the MDR-R10 legend), and the Qualia 010 (which honestly appears quite similar in design, but with some material changes, and tuning changes). It was…
IRL Review- Sony VAIO F1 Desktop Replacement Laptop
IRL Review- Sony VAIO F1 Desktop Replacement Laptop- The F1 is probably one of the most exciting laptops I have ever reviewed. Just kidding- its kind of forgettable. It falls along the long lineage of the F series, dating back to my early years in undergrad when the FS series came out and stole my…
IRL Review Bowers and Wilkins P5 Series 1 Premium Headphone Review
IRL Review Bowers and Wilkins P5 Series 1 Premium Headphone Review- the P5 series 1 was a headphone I wanted dreadfully for a really long time. When I started getting more serious into headphones, I was enamored by their build quality when I tried them out at the Apple store. They were instantly luxurious in…
IRL Review Sony VAIO AW Desktop Replacement Laptop
IRL Review Sony VAIO AW Desktop Replacement Laptop- The VAIO AW is a model I lusted after for some time- certainly I had always had a fascination for ultraportables far more than mainstream and desktop replacement laptops. This most likely stemmed from me absolutely hating heavy laptops – in undergrad, I spent many hours walking between…
IRL Review Sony VAIO X Ultraportable Laptop (ULTRAULTRAULTRAPORTABLE)
IRL Review VAIO X Ultraportable Laptop- Years ago while perusing Notebookreview.com and reading Laptop Mag’s advertisements from Sony, I ran across the VAIO X505. The X505 was an absolute mind blower of a machine- in a time when everything was Pentium 4 (with hyperthreading!) with HUGE heatsinks, and barely anything portable was with a dinky…
Throwback IRL Review Sony Cybershot DSC-R1 Digital Camera
IRL Review (in real life) Sony CYBERSHOT DSC-R1 camera- The R1 was released in 2005 when digital cameras were really starting to pick up speed. I was sitting in a classical Greek mythology/literature course wondering if I should drop the course/reading the syllabus that had absolutely nothing I was interested in, and perusing DPreview.com when the…
Sony SRS-X9 IRL Review
Disclaimer- my X9 is broken slightly so this review is not totally fair haha Sony SRS-X9 IRL Review (In Real Life)- Wow its been anothe long stretch since my last post….like back in 2016! So this X9 is a unit that’s been sitting on my shelf for some time. I was really into the thick of…
Sony VAIO Pro 13 IRL Review
Sony VAIO Pro 13 IRL Review- The Sony VAIO Pro 13 is Sony’s answer to the Macbook Air 13 (with a Pro 11 targeting the Pro 11). Weighing 2.3 lbs, its much smaller in weight compared to the 2.96 lb Macbook Air 13, and incredible in that 3 years later, it still holds its own against…
The Forever Student Blog 