Thinking about a Sony Vaio PC

[chriswt]

I've seen this type of PC in Sony Centres and online and quite like the idea of having on rather than a conventional desktop. I've got a decent laptop for a bit of wireless surfing in front of the TV but would also like a more powerful desktop for my home office.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-VAIO-W1-...goryZ179QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm not a computer nerd so all I care about is owning a quick and reliable machine for internet use, running basic Microsoft applications (word, Excel etc) and may be a bit of basic editing from camcorder to DVD.

The appeal of the Sony is its style, but are these all show and no go?

 

[Alfie]

I've seen this type of PC in Sony Centres and online and quite like the idea of having on rather than a conventional desktop. I've got a decent laptop for a bit of wireless surfing in front of the TV but would also like a more powerful desktop for my home office.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-VAIO-W1-...goryZ179QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm not a computer nerd so all I care about is owning a quick and reliable machine for internet use, running basic Microsoft applications (word, Excel etc) and may be a bit of basic editing from camcorder to DVD.

The appeal of the Sony is its style, but are these all show and no go?

I have bought a number of sony VAIO laptops in the past but wont do it again. They look good but are hopelessly unreliable. We had no end of problems with the keyboards and touch pads.

 

[mark.t]

on another note best laptop i've ever had before that i had, 3 HP and 5 fujitsu siemans .....ours is now 4 years old and had some hammer from the kids as well ...new keyboard but only because 2 year old pulled the (i) button off ..... daughter has a compaq vista thingy i don't think it's as good ...would i buy another , yes

 

[Ade B]

I have a dinky Vaio TN something or other, I use it mainly for presentations at meetings.. looks lovely, people always comment when I produce it from the bag.. takes forever to start up vista and seems to be unstable though..

I wouldn't buy another.

Ade

 

[kjay]

I've had my Vaio PCG for over 12 months now.

If I'm at home - it's on. God knows how many hours its done.
No problems whatsoever.

 

[andy_k]

my "old" Vaio laptop was a great machine, it ran virtually 24 hours a day for three years, twin batteries meant it could work for seven hours without recharging. we never had a single problem with it. We then sold it to a friend who's still using it for mail and surfing.

5 years old, 100% reliable and totally recommended

Andy

 

[eurico]

I use a 17" Vaio laptop and it's been bulletproof since new. It looks old and tatty now after I spilled thinner over it and the keys are worn but starts every morning with a touch of the button and stays whole day running without any hassles.

 

[gl boy]

i use a vaio 17" too great machine also got pc but use this while watching telly and talking on here would deffo recommend a vaio regards jon

 

[big x]

I've got an older 15 inch Vaio. It was one of the first with the bright X-black screens which at the time was miles ahead of anything else at the cheaper end of the market.I've had 100% reliability.

adam

 

[Dryce]

I've got an older 15 inch Vaio. It was one of the first with the bright X-black screens which at the time was miles ahead of anything else at the cheaper end of the market.I've had 100% reliability.

Hmmmmmm.

The Sony stuff is generally expensive. Has some nice features. But is generally caveated in some way - eg. expandability.

My experience is that it is very bad news when things go wrong. I had a Vaio laptop die under warranty. First problem was they screwed up the collection which took two weeks instaed of next day and took a week to turnaround the repair. Second problem was they didn't fix it properly and introduced a new fault. Third problem was when they picked it up a second time they didn't fix the introduced fault. Three months of hassle. Call centres were utterly useless.

I would go suggest going down the Mac route.

Apple are like Sony in many ways - bit of brand arrogance, bit overpriced, bit nicer than the mainstream. But they're a good bit cleverer at anything that includes software IMHO.

 

[noonespecial]

have to suggest you look at a nice Macbook or Macbook Pro or even a Macbook Air.. runs all ya PC stuff and Mac OSX, not going to get into details, but def worth a look if you are looking at the upper range of laptops. If you want more nerd info, pm me and I'll explain.. this isn't the place for the Mac / PC debate.

 

[big x]

Hmmmmmm.

The Sony stuff is generally expensive. Has some nice features. But is generally caveated in some way - eg. expandability.

My experience is that it is very bad news when things go wrong. I had a Vaio laptop die under warranty. First problem was they screwed up the collection which took two weeks instaed of next day and took a week to turnaround the repair. Second problem was they didn't fix it properly and introduced a new fault. Third problem was when they picked it up a second time they didn't fix the introduced fault. Three months of hassle. Call centres were utterly useless.

I would go suggest going down the Mac route.

Apple are like Sony in many ways - bit of brand arrogance, bit overpriced, bit nicer than the mainstream. But they're a good bit cleverer at anything that includes software IMHO.

I've also got an 8 year old imac.The hardware has been 100% reliable too.It's only recently mac LCD screens have been up to Sony standards.The current imacs are excellent in this respect.

adam

 

[noonespecial]

I've got G3 iMacs.. work 100% fine.. can't GIVE 'em away... eMacs that don't sell I've got a G4 tower in perfect condition and with some apple displays I need to sell (don't think I've reached my 30 posts yet to advertise here.. ahem!) but they just don't die.. any of them! AND 2-3 even 5 year old Apple kit still gets the £££ on resale.. which is nice..



sorry, hi-jacking the thread .. DAMN!

 

[Sp!ke]

Watch out, another born again mac preacher this way comes !!!

how the hell are you supposed to right click on them things anyway?

 

[Spinal]

Did I hear macin-tosh? Ugh...

Older macs were made to high standards. Apple then decided to try to be more competitive and started using poundland components.... Just a quick run through of the faults I can remember off the top of my head failure/return rate I've had over the last 18 months:

eMac 1.25GHz : 100% return rate, "capacitor bulging" issue, fixed under warranty after a long (almost 2 year) battle

MacBook Intel: 20% battery failure within 6 months, ??% Hard Drive failure within 6 months (didn't keep track of these as they're covered by Applecare - I can get more accurate figures if you want...)

Mac Pro G5: Leaking cooling system, at first this seemed quite isolated, but I just found 5 more machines in a lab of 20 that are scrap metal; and the other 15 are behaving odly

MacBook Pro Intel (2008 model): Overheating (temperature reaching 98C under load); battery failure in 3/5 machines and HD failure in 1/5

MacBook Pro Intel (2007 model): Overheating, battery "bulging" in 4/5 machines

MagSafe adapter: frayed connections, melting cable all within the 3 year lease - about 20% sent back/replaced each year (had them only 2 years now)

Don't even get me started on the software... Anything up to Os 8 was great; Os9 attempted multitasking and failed majestically. OsX initally was great, but now too many people are starting to use it - and to do more than just photoshop, quoting the T&C on an Apple update "installing third party software may have undesired consequences". As such, the bugs are starting to surface. 10.4 had 11 different "service packs" (or as close to a service pack as you can get). Over the course of 2007, Apple released on average 10times as many patches than Windows. (I can get you exact numbers if you want)

The first (and second and third) official trojans have been found for OsX. One believed to be in the wild. More are coming.

10.5 is still a beta product. 10.5 server doesn't even consider a minute to be 60 seconds, so unless you restart/reset/resync it almost daily, it will throw kerberos WAY out of whack. and that's leaving out all the other problems we need to deal with (needless to say, all 700 of our macs still run 10.4.11 and we're looking for ways to install that on the newer machines too, which come with 10.5 by default).

Rant over, let the Macolytes flame me...

That isn't to say Windows is perfect. I'm just saying, compare an Apple laptop with any other mid-range, 3-year lifespan machine out there. You will find cheaper, you will find more expensive. Don't expect the best just because it has a half-eaten apple stamped on the cover. (Personally, as I dual-boot on the MacBook Pro, I can't live without the right click in windows... its a pain to have to use a third-party tool to hold some random key and click, and its even more a pain to carry a mouse around). I'm trying to get my toshiba satellite working again, (don't even get me started on Toshiba - I was one of their loyal fans until I bought a M45... the quality was/is WORTHLESS!)

IMO, your best bet would be a cheap and cheerful Sony/Dell - buy it expecting it to live 2/3 years; then change it!

Michele

 

[moakesr]

I have a VGX-XL100 as my home cinema pc, it's been running 24x7 for over a year now, no reliability issues at all.

Sony is like every manufacturer, sometimes you get a bad one, but thankfully not too often, and they always look good, better than Mac in my opinion, but then I am a self confessed Sony addict

 

[noonespecial]

how the hell are you supposed to right click on them things anyway?

Err i use the right mouse button..?

 

[noonespecial]

RANT
Michele

Leaving most of the rant aside.. ( products fail! OH MY GOD!) I use both and know both, pretty darn well and I know which I choose to use on a daily basis.

I like unix, I like the Apple GUI, and if I need to I can run Windows stuff if required.. Every contractor who has had exposure to our well setup and managed Mac environment has within a week or so gone and bought a Mac and never looked back.

If I wanted just to go from A to B I could have bought a Ford?

 

[big x]

Did I hear macin-tosh? Ugh...

Older macs were made to high standards. Apple then decided to try to be more competitive and started using poundland components.... Just a quick run through of the faults I can remember off the top of my head failure/return rate I've had over the last 18 months:

eMac 1.25GHz : 100% return rate, "capacitor bulging" issue, fixed under warranty after a long (almost 2 year) battle

MacBook Intel: 20% battery failure within 6 months, ??% Hard Drive failure within 6 months (didn't keep track of these as they're covered by Applecare - I can get more accurate figures if you want...)

Mac Pro G5: Leaking cooling system, at first this seemed quite isolated, but I just found 5 more machines in a lab of 20 that are scrap metal; and the other 15 are behaving odly

MacBook Pro Intel (2008 model): Overheating (temperature reaching 98C under load); battery failure in 3/5 machines and HD failure in 1/5

MacBook Pro Intel (2007 model): Overheating, battery "bulging" in 4/5 machines

MagSafe adapter: frayed connections, melting cable all within the 3 year lease - about 20% sent back/replaced each year (had them only 2 years now)

Don't even get me started on the software... Anything up to Os 8 was great; Os9 attempted multitasking and failed majestically. OsX initally was great, but now too many people are starting to use it - and to do more than just photoshop, quoting the T&C on an Apple update "installing third party software may have undesired consequences". As such, the bugs are starting to surface. 10.4 had 11 different "service packs" (or as close to a service pack as you can get). Over the course of 2007, Apple released on average 10times as many patches than Windows. (I can get you exact numbers if you want)

The first (and second and third) official trojans have been found for OsX. One believed to be in the wild. More are coming.

10.5 is still a beta product. 10.5 server doesn't even consider a minute to be 60 seconds, so unless you restart/reset/resync it almost daily, it will throw kerberos WAY out of whack. and that's leaving out all the other problems we need to deal with (needless to say, all 700 of our macs still run 10.4.11 and we're looking for ways to install that on the newer machines too, which come with 10.5 by default).

Rant over, let the Macolytes flame me...

That isn't to say Windows is perfect. I'm just saying, compare an Apple laptop with any other mid-range, 3-year lifespan machine out there. You will find cheaper, you will find more expensive. Don't expect the best just because it has a half-eaten apple stamped on the cover. (Personally, as I dual-boot on the MacBook Pro, I can't live without the right click in windows... its a pain to have to use a third-party tool to hold some random key and click, and its even more a pain to carry a mouse around). I'm trying to get my toshiba satellite working again, (don't even get me started on Toshiba - I was one of their loyal fans until I bought a M45... the quality was/is WORTHLESS!)

IMO, your best bet would be a cheap and cheerful Sony/Dell - buy it expecting it to live 2/3 years; then change it!

Michele

So...what might be the reason my year 2000 imac, now running OS x 10.4, never goes wrong?
Several people use it and it hasn't been switched off in the last 3 years.
Surprisingly it was made in Wales.

adam

 

[big x]

how the hell are you supposed to right click on them things anyway?

Well, I just connect a PC mouse.

adam