Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
72 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bang on the money, 16 Dec 2007
Bought this from a supermarket for just under £500 and I'm impressed with everything I have yet used on it. It's my first one after an unfortunate HP Pavilion N5461 debacle in 2001 which still works (just, with an inordinate amount of heat leading to random shutoffs). My point is the heating up of the unit is a big priority for me and after a week of use I'm happy with the removal of heat the unit manages, only after a good few hours directly onto jeans did the heat become noticeable but the fan itself was not noticeable.
I bought it for casual, living room use - web browsing, music playing (space not a real issue on this) and some oldish gaming (openarena). This is how the laptop is marketed - an entry level Vista family laptop. Well, I don't want Vista, but I'm giving it a go despite having pclinuxos on one system and goodish ole XP on another. There is a distinct lack of setup discs for the preinstalled programs (including Norton 360 and Office 2007 as trial offers), but after some research on Sony's sites there are updates available to download for the company's pre-installed components if the worst happens. The lack isn't a problem for me as I have lovely legitimately-bought versions of everything I want :). But the point is it's a little thin on the ground for a virgin user. The setup procedure was straightforward and, providing a wireless connection is already present in the home, no problems ensued either when beginning Vista or preforming Sony and Windows updates.
The laptop may not come with bells and whistles in the box (no peripherals other than the power supply and some instructions about making two dvd's as a recovery option alongside a recovery partition), but the point of my purchase was that magic sub £500 tag for a VAIO, which doesn't (does it?) happen too often in the lower price bracket. Most importantly for casual users, it has what you'd want - memory and harddisk size to accomodate Vista, even if the processor could be faster for the money. Some highlights for me:
* Surprisingly big touchpad; so big a finger can stray onto it at first. However, the "unique dimpled surface" of the keyboard surround allows a real tactile difference. There is also an in-frame scrolling function when dragging your fingertip down the right hand side of the touchpad (a nice touch for web browsing as even dialog boxes like this review can be scrolled with some accuracy).
*AV mode button gives you a hotkey for media centre which is included in the Vista Premium. My plan is to buy a USB DVB-t adaptor which should allow this laptop to take over from our puny 80gb DVD HDD recorder and churn out divx re-encoded tv shows - the feature would only sweeten the deal for such a cheap high-end looking device but you could justifiably say where's the built in webcam, etc.
* Pretty and slim: the touchpad and the front of the system is thinner than the rear, which gives it a good position for actual lap top use. The unit has four front-side mounted USB ports and a Firewire port, indeed only the power socket exists around the back of the spine which means it feels much nicer to carry even with USB sticks and suchlike protruding out. The VGA out ensures there's an option for HD televisions with the right port and this could be a nice afterlife use for the system when it succumbs to the inevitable tide of obselescence (though few laptops I've bought will age as well.)
The processor is not a core 2 duo which is probably the only downer for me: everything else a newcomer (or an experienced user after a cheap, beautiful all rounder as a second... or eighth pc) is here. 2 gigs of ram, 160gb drive, lovely well spaced keyboard (with a delete key at the top right for ease of use), and clocking down facilities for battery-only use (I have managed four hours for web browsing and streaming video/audio, with a one-down-from-maximum brightness screen).
|
|
|
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
vaio review, 8 Jan 2008
Ok where to start, the price seems a good a place as any!! For the price I was staggered to find a vaio with the specs especially the ram and hard disk and I suppose dual core processor as high for the sub £500 now of course you could get a advent or the like same spec and price but lets be honest I think every one would prefer the name of Sony and superior build quality that goes with it!!! Now I have to agree the lack of disks for software etc is not the best but I suppose that's why its cheaper and to be fair I would rather more hardware than software, Now on to the laptop its self it gets (for people familiar with vista system rating out of 5) 3.1 rating and this is due to its graphic capabilities most scores for the processor ram hard disk are in the region of 4+!!!! It runs vista aero fine and there are no issues once you stop the Sony bloat ware from loading up using the msconifg tool. To sum up this laptop it is an ideal bit of kit at a good price it is not for gamers but for people who use there laptop for internet, music, office and general multimedia it is deal due to the future proof size of hard disk and ram the processor could be better but it is not too bad and handles vista with ease. So if you're not looking to play crisis on your laptop and you want to stand out in a crowd this bit of kit s for you!!!!! enjoy
|
|
|
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Laptop, Amazon Delivery Not Too Hot Though, 2 Jan 2008
I'm surprised that this laptop has sold out so quickly. Still, I guess a sub-£500 Vaio isn't something you see everyday.
I was one of the saddos who went bargain hunting on Christmas Day and I ordered this laptop from Amazon with "guaranteed" delivery by 1pm on Friday 28th December. More about that later...
Anyway, onto the laptop itself. Firstly, it's a handsome little thing and feels much more expensive that it actually is. The keys feel nice and sturdy and have a nice "bounce" action. The mouse pad is a little sensitive however and I find myself struggling to control the pointer. Still, my last laptop was an Advent, so maybe I'm just used to cheap laptops!
The unit itself is nice and slim and sits on the lap nicely. It's also nice to be able to use a laptop for some considerable time before the fan comes on. In fact, I've used the Vaio for several hours and didn't notice the fan once. My old Advent used to drown out the tele if it had been on the lap for more than two or three minutes.
The screen is sharp and bright and the colours are lovely. Windows Vista is also better than I thought it would be as I'd heard many horror stories from family and friends. Vista does seem to want to hold your hand a little too much sometimes, but once you find your way around then it becomes fairly intuitive. Saying that, it did take me around an hour to find out where the Add/Remove programs utility was in Control Panel. I don't know how, but I got there in the end.
As you're getting a Sony for such a competitive price then obviously something's gotta give and that seems to be the software that's supplied with the machine. All you get is Vista Premium pre-installed Microsoft Works, A Norton trial and a Microsoft 2007 Office trial. I uninstalled Norton and Office as I already have the a copy of Office Professional 2007 HUP. However, I won't be using Office 2007 as Microsoft messed about with it so much that familiar things such as Word are almost unrecognisable. I've just installed Open Office, which is more than satisfactory.
The meat on the bones: 160GB hard disk which is more than large enough for a laptop, a very generous 2GB memory and a fast(ish) processor. All in all, a great buy for the money. A laptop I would certainly recommend without hesitation.
Disappointingly, the laptop didn't arrive in time despite paying for the Express option with its delivery "guarantee". To be fair, Amazon did refund my Express postage charge, but that's not really the point, is it? I really don't think Amazon should promise to provide a service they cannot always provide.
As for the Sony, it was worth the wait.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Find more great Sony products in our
Sony shop.
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home