Vaio Laptops any good ?

[StanBush]

Has anyone owned or own a Sony vaio laptop ?
Gonna be getting my first laptop soon and one of the ones on my shortlist is the new core duo vaio ,
http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...=5&rstrat=3180
Are Sonys laptops any good ? build quality , reliability etc
Cheers for any advice.

[gizmo1990]

I've had my Vaio SR series for count em, 6 years(!) and it's still going strong.

I've found the build quality to be very good, especially on their high spec stuff and of course you pay a premium for their design too, which on some of their newer stuff is outstanding.

So a thumbs up from me.

[HaHaUK]

Vaio PCG-TR1MP gets a top recommendation from me. Tiny laptop, with builtin camera, and a superb X-Black screen. Love it to bits.

[Zanza]

I too have experience with the TR series, you can't buy them new anymore but they are amazing little portables, and at a decent cost.

[StanBush]

Cheers for the feedback lads gonna nip over PC world to have a goosies at it in the flesh have heard that vaios come with alot of crap installed on them ?

[Eps]

Then just do a clean sweep yourself: format and reinstall your OS of choice

[Zanza]

Out of interest, while there is a vaio thread going, anyone use the Vaio Media software?

I havn't attempted to set it up, but it appears to be some kind of media center software, is it any good?

[Gareth C]

Probably a bit late in the day but I have had lots of problems with Vaios. In fact i have been told by a very reputable repair company that they have a very high percentage of faults..

[Balou]

Well, I did some research on laptops lately as I intend to get a new one myself.
I focused on laptops available in Germany, so I don?t know if there is a difference to the UK.

Anyway, the result is that the Sony Vaio FE (consumer) laptops seem to have better-than-average (Glare) displays, good build-quality and good reliability.
However, at least in Germany, you are screwed if you have to make use of the customer support, which is said to be very poor. This could be totally different in the UK, though.

Also, it seems that you are stuck with the OS that comes with the laptop. According to many users it is very problematic to install WinXP Professional on a Vaio VGN FE 11 laptop. I don?t know if there are similar problems with linux.

And yes, from what I have read, the laptop you buy is full of useless, resource-consuming tools, but this seems to be common practise nowadays, not just Sony.

Edit:
Oh, what I forgot to mention:
While doing my research I got the impression that getting a business notebook is always the better choice. They generally seem to have better realiability and long-life cycle, plus you may also get better customer support in the end.
The downside are higher costs and probably less power for 3D applications, such as PC games.

[StanBush]

Didnt go Sony in the end , once i saw the new Samsung X60 just had to have one similar spec but looks much better and nothing but good things about it.
Cheers for all the advice though .