Sony VAIO Notebooks

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I run a Powerbook for daily use and my girlfriend has a Sony Vaio notebook. The Sony is probably one of the worst machines I have ever come across.

1) OS Support from Sony does not exist unless you run their heavily hacked version of MS Windows XP. Emails concerning Linux support never receive a reply and my email concerning MS Windows 2000 drivers met the same fate. This is not good if you like to tinker like me.

2) The screen looks wonderful but has a coating. The first time you try to clean the screen the coating comes off (all she used was a damp cloth).

3) The letters on the keycaps are wearing off after just over a years use.

4) With the CPU throttled down to minimum XP gets seventy minutes of battery life. Ubuntu reduces this to fifty minutes.

5) The machine runs VERY hot. In the Winter the CPU idles at 55C and on a hot Summer day it can hit 70C and is too hot to use on bare legs.

As AS suffererers we sometimes have difficulty in complaining and getting our point across, I therefore offer you all a few words of advice:

Friends don't let friends buy Sony.

Ed Almos

Of course, Apple has a tradition of making its PowerBooks very high end, and thus they are very good quality-wise. They have had their fair share of problems in the past, but Apple is good about replacing the parts or entire computer when they fail. I thought Sony used to make their laptops higher end too--perhaps not anymore. I used to have a Toshiba--runs very hot and is not compatible with alternative O/S's either; don't buy Toshiba unless it is some high-end, high-quality model that you know will run well. As for my current laptop, I have a new Compaq that I really like. Its specification is for just two hours of battery life; but I wasn't demanding much in terms of battery.

That "coating" may have been a plastic protective cover that is common for the displays that are on electronic devices. Once the device is ready to be used, you are supposed to remove it. Leaving it on there might result in it becoming stuck to the display, which I have seen before.

I've casually checked out Sony computers at electronics stores... I have never been impressed. Their biggest selling point appears to be how stylish they are. Usually are a big rip-off...

Sony makes some big innovations in electronics... but usually their stuff is high on flash and low on reliability...

I build my own computer... can't go wrong for the money I save.

I do own a MacBook, picked it up last spring. Great computer, no complaints. Macs are usually not cost-effective enough for me... but I weaseled out a deal that was decent. Plus it had the software I wanted to run, which I could get on the cheap...with academic discount.

I have a vaio. But only because I won it in a lottery type competition. It just plain sucks. I would love it's battery life to last 75 minutes. That would be awesome, and while i don't have any problems with the marking on the keyboard the bundled movie and sound editing software that was the models big selling points (because they were free and pre-packed) were feature locked time-limited demos!

I've had big problems with overheating too. I use it mainly as a portable dvd player, so after a movie has finished it tends to be able to melt titanium.

If I ever get a laptop, you can be sure I'm going alienware!

My Macbook Pro's core duo runs hotter than 55C. The G4 is an abnormally cool chip so it isn't a fair comparison. Intel's chips run hotter. Of course the G5 runs really hot too.

VAIOS are crap,they are unstable builds.
am have used a lot of laptops of all different ages and brands,and out of all of the ones am have used,am would say that acers have the best feel and build.
am fan of acers laptops so much am refused to buy anything but an acer-have an "acer travelmate 5520",not as good feeling as the aspire series [they feel nicer to the skin] but it's quality and build is great,even with having a gig of ram and vista premium installed-it's a fast laptop.

I tend to agree with the VAIOs are crap sentiment. Actually, I've been having trouble finding a laptop that wasn't really crap. I had a Thinkpad T40 for a while, and I was so happy with it, because of the decent Linux support and it was the fastest machine I owned...but then the onboard Radeon began flaking out on me...so much so, that I gradually was unable to boot the system at all. I had a friend with a T42, and he had the same thing happen...

Probably my favourite laptop to date has been my Armada M300. Old and slow, but tiny and sturdy! I've also really liked the Asus laptops that I've used.

Right now I'm using an Averatec 3200 and it's OK, but I was having much trouble getting S3 resume to work, and the wireless drivers were a little funny. Ah well...

Oh, well I suppose the G4 Powerbooks were nice...and the Pismos...not exactly new stuff though, especially the Pismo.

::grumble:: maybe I should just go back to my Osborne...it's laying around here somewhere...

When getting Laptop computers get them from vendors who have a history of making quality computers:

Dell
Toshiba (Came out with a Plasma screen notebook in late 1990)
HP/Compaq (though Compaq seems to be HP's low end these days)
Lenovo ( IBM R&D, don't know what Lenovo is like for tech support, I never had one)
Apple


Avoid wierd brands with lots of 'cool' features like built in webcams and the like, you'll most likely have nothing but aggrevation when it comes to tech support.

I got a top of the line Sony Vaio 2 years ago, and I completly agree - first, keys startded flaking off it and then power socket melted. I had it fixed under waranty and the two months later whole the motherboard went tits up from the ridiculous overheating. Sony has f****d me over for the last time.