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.