This is my third Vaio laptop, and while this brand is pricier than its competition, I’m very happy with this computer (and its older sibs, both of which still work).
Physically, this isn’t a tiny netbook. At 6 pounds, it’s not something I’m going to be schlepping on airplanes, but that isn’t what I bought it for. As always, the Vaio screen is lovely and bright, and widescreen. The ports seem to be well-placed. And the aesthetics are quite nice — it’s a brushed, fingerprint-resistant silver. It’s really quite fast (no choking or hard drive whirring while loading programs, etc.) and it’s extremely quiet. They keyboard took a little while to adapt to, but it’s nice and roomy, with space between the keys. The touchpad works well, and the DVD drive is also smooth and quiet. The HDMI port works as it should with my LCD tv.
I haven’t tested battery life as I don’t plan to use this as an on-the-go machine.
I didn’t know much of what to expect from Windows 7, and while this isn’t a Windows 7 review, it works smoothly on this machine. Most of my Windows XP software works, with a few exceptions.
As usual, Sony packs in way too much preinstalled crap on their laptops, and I really wish they wouldn’t, but I guess that’s the price of buying a machine like this. I do wish they’d include a disc to let you install this stuff, rather than requiring that you uninstall it. Surprisingly though, Google Chrome is one of the preinstalled programs, so it is good to have a decent browser right out of the box. One thing Sony doesn’t include much of at all is written documentation. Other than a tiny Getting Started booklet, all the documentation is on the machine itself.
Overall, I’m pleased with this computer so far. For the price, you are getting a near-desktop replacement that happens to be a laptop.
