Both Sony Vaio VGN-AR230G and Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z had Core 2 Duo T5600 1.83GHz cpu inside.
Chipset used in Sony Vaio VGN-AR230G is Intel 945PM and Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z uses Intel 945PM Express.
Monitor in Sony Vaio VGN-AR230G is 17" size, better than 15.4" screen in Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z.
Maximum declared screen resolution on Vaio VGN-AR230G (1440x900) beats Vaio VGN-FE31Z (1280x800).
Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z model we've tested had more RAM (2GB) than Sony Vaio VGN-AR230G (1GB).
On both laptops in use is DDR2 memory.
Travellers might find Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z more suitable with its weight of 2.82kg comparing to Sony Vaio VGN-AR230G with its 3.81kg.
Graphic is built around Nvidia Go 7400 on Vaio VGN-AR230G, but graphic on other is built using Nvidia Go 7600.
Gamers might prefer Sony Vaio VGN-AR230G since it seems it has better graphic card with 64MB of its memory.
Each laptop contained 200GB of storage on its hard drives.
Fast hard disk (5400 rpm) on Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z beats another model.
Bluetooth dongle available only at Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z is usefull if one have other bluetooth devices like cameras, phones, etc.
Infrared, which isn't available on both of these models, unable these laptops to communicate with some devices .
Both models have firewire built-in needed by some video devices.
PCMCIA useful for some TV card for laptops is built in both laptops.
Note that no one is able to take advantage of fast internet connections (1Gbit/s).
Cardreader in both notebooks can read 1 different card types.
They don't have DVI for new TFT monitors.
Advantage of Sony Vaio VGN-AR230G is existance of TV output.
The number of USB ports is 3 on both.
Only Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z has web camera useful for video conferencing.
Both of these came with XP Media Center operating system.
Additional software is Adobe Acrobat Elements 7.0, Works, Photshop Elements, DV Gate Plus, WinDVD, Roxio Digital Media SE7, Norton Internet Security 2006, Skype 2,0 on Sony Vaio VGN-FE31Z and Works 8.3, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0, Premiere Elements 2.0 on Sony Vaio VGN-AR230G.
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