Sony VAIO- whatcha think?

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CaptnMix76

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I am thinking about getting a Sony VAIO F740. I want to hear any and all reviews that you are willing to give me about that particular laptop or any other VAIOs. Good experiences, bad experiences, anything.

Thanks in advance for all of your assistance!

-The Captain
 
Sony notebooks usually are good machines. They can be on the pricy side sometimes but they are nice. One thing to note is that there ac adapters and batteries tend to be more expensive then other brands as well.
 
I just picked up a Vaio S460 I love it.. :D

upgraded the Ram to 2gigs
 
sony just sucks, they have horrible battery life even with a pentium M they somehow managed to only last 2hrs on battery life with some models, they are retarted enough to use a 533FSB CPU with PC2700 ram, how dumb is that? no sony laptop is a good value, the stuff they put in are usually low quality components EX: slow ass 4200rPM HDDs, ram is generic garbage, the DVDRW drives are usually low quality and can even rip a dvd at full speed, the wireless cards are all generic as well. they load their laptops with so much useless software most vaios have like 50 freaking process at startup when a laptop should usually have around 30-35.

you want a kick ass laptop go with the Asus z70va since you built and put in QUALITY components

15.4" WSXGA+ Screen (1650x1050) <-- what sony has a WSXGA+?
any Pentium M you want (for comparison i will use the 1.86GHz 533 PM)
any ram you want (1GB OCZ PC4200 Ram)
any HDD you want (Seagate 100GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache)
any WLAN Card you want (Intelpro 2915 ABG WLAN)
you can hot swap your Optical drive with a DVDRW, 2nd HDD, 2nd Battery (i doubt any sony laptop has this option)
weighs only 5.5lbs with battery and optical drive
lasts 4hours on battery (5 hours undervolted) and up to 8 hours with dual battery (10hrs undervolted)
the power brick is very small not like sony/dell/toshiba crap
built in bluetooth

assembly can be done in 20 mins, you can field strip this thing in like 10 mins

all this can be had for under $1750CANADIAN = less than $1500 USD
 
klowngoblin said:
sony just sucks, they have horrible battery life even with a pentium M they somehow managed to only last 2hrs on battery life with some models, they are retarted enough to use a 533FSB CPU with PC2700 ram, how dumb is that? no sony laptop is a good value, the stuff they put in are usually low quality components EX: slow ass 4200rPM HDDs, ram is generic garbage, the DVDRW drives are usually low quality and can even rip a dvd at full speed, the wireless cards are all generic as well. they load their laptops with so much useless software most vaios have like 50 freaking process at startup when a laptop should usually have around 30-35.

you want a kick ass laptop go with the Asus z70va since you built and put in QUALITY components

15.4" WSXGA+ Screen (1650x1050) <-- what sony has a WSXGA+?
any Pentium M you want (for comparison i will use the 1.86GHz 533 PM)
any ram you want (1GB OCZ PC4200 Ram)
any HDD you want (Seagate 100GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache)
any WLAN Card you want (Intelpro 2915 ABG WLAN)
you can hot swap your Optical drive with a DVDRW, 2nd HDD, 2nd Battery (i doubt any sony laptop has this option)
weighs only 5.5lbs with battery and optical drive
lasts 4hours on battery (5 hours undervolted) and up to 8 hours with dual battery (10hrs undervolted)
the power brick is very small not like sony/dell/toshiba crap
built in bluetooth

assembly can be done in 20 mins, you can field strip this thing in like 10 mins

all this can be had for under $1750CANADIAN = less than $1500 USD
Click to expand...

Thats strange my s2xp is a year old and it has a 5400rpm hard drive (Most of the sony laptops have 5400rpm hard drives now), the battery lasts well over 4 hours doing surfing/office work. Rips dvds at full speed, if you dont like th sony software at start up then dont use it!! (You Do Have A Choice you know!!!), Hmm my s2xp has 1 gig of ddr3200 not ddr2700 (also most of the newer sony laptops use pc2 4200 memory!, im sure some of the new sony laptops can do the same resolution its personal preference ie when im at home i have my s2xp connected to 2 sony xblack sh95ps for a monster desktop space! ( see pic below!). you can get an 8 hour battery pretty cheap now so you dont have to replace any drives!. The wifi has a better signal than my powerbook and my desktop belkin wifi card. you can pick up a good sony laptop here in the uk with the same spec if not better for around $400 more including an 8 hr battery Yer i agree you pay more but its personal preference. The power brick is about the size of 2 k750i phones which is not huge!! The machine you quoted is bloody good for the price and an excellent spec but there is no need to say anything else is complete shit! Your sounding like the dell fanatics in the lcd forum!

Rashrigsep05.jpg
 
I see someone loves his Vaios.

Thank you all for your opinions! I'll probably end up getting the F740. Battery life does not matter to me, I don't plan on using it outside of my home that much.

As for DVD ripping... I don't do tat yet so it doesn't really matter. By the time I do, I'll probably get a new lappy of a different brand. HP maybe. Eh, any opinions on those?
 
Vios are pretty, why are you going with sony if it seems like you are going to be using your laptop more as a desktop. Im sure there are cheeper alternatives for a less flashy looking machine, and still have it be an ultraportable. I like Vios becuase they are tiny and pretyt and still pack a nice punch, but being pretty is a big part of it. If you arnt going to leave the house with it then I recommend looking over your alternatives, to save some money. besides that, good choice :)
 
Sonys are crap.

Overpriced, underperforming, expensive, poor battery life, good technical support though. Technical support is important if you're thinking about a Sony... (Sorry, it's not that I don't like Sony, it's just that I have a problem with their power supplies catching on fire. Oh and those random crashes were alright, too. I needed a break to get up from my laptop. (To get the hammer.))
 
Josh_B said:
Sonys are crap.

Overpriced, underperforming, expensive, poor battery life, good technical support though. Technical support is important if you're thinking about a Sony... (Sorry, it's not that I don't like Sony, it's just that I have a problem with their power supplies catching on fire. Oh and those random crashes were alright, too. I needed a break to get up from my laptop. (To get the hammer.))
Click to expand...

If you dont mind me asking, did you ever find out why your sony crashed a lot? and bad luck with the power supply lol (hope it didnt cause major damage to anything else!!!)
Just like to say i have had a lot of laptops and the sony vaio has had the the best battery life out of them all, it might be because i bought the top of the range one though. I certainly have never had to ring tech support up and it has never crashed!! Maybe im just lucky! Yes i do buy a lot of sony, i find them very reliable, rock solid, long lasting, well made.
 
I will say you can always find someone who has had major troubles with any brand/company. I work as a laptop tech when I am not in class(they work around my class) and sony seems to hold up better then most brands I deal with. Mind you we don't sell as many sony notebooks as other units but on average I send off maybe 2 or 3 sony notebooks a month for warranty work(non-warranty we do in shop). Give you an idea I send off 10 to 15 toshiba notebooks a week, prob 4 or 5 hp/compaq, 3 apple(most people take them to the apple store), etc. One thing I don't like is that sony has an issue with letting a 3rd party open there notebooks under warranty and want them back for warranty work. Even sony notebooks that are a few years old most I see are basic stuff like bad hard drives or abuse. There were a few models that sucked(I can't think of them off the top of my head) but most seem to hold up well. One thing to note is to make a recovery set and copy those disks as I have seen issues with sony desktops that are a few years old and sony not having the restore cds for them anymore.
 
swatbat said:
I will say you can always find someone who has had major troubles with any brand/company.
Click to expand...

QFT.

Despite my one bad experience, I can't possibly hold it against Sony forever. Likewise, I shouldn't suggest to the poster that one bad laptop is an indicator that all Sony models are defective. (My bad!)

...Sorry this whole post just reminded me how much I hated that laptop.

Enjoy your new machine.
 
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