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Overall Rating

Sony Vaio replacement to an 8yr old Dell, Does the job and than some….
First off let me say I have had a inspiron 8600 Dell for at least 8yrs and its still alive and kicking and still has all my life’s files on it (pics, movies, word docs, music etc..) all within a 60gb harddrive. I did however run into a system problem with the cpu beeping and shutting down the computer a couple times which lead me to research into a new laptop.

Now the review. It came down to (after months of research on Core 2 Duo’s) the Sony Vaio (which the GF wanted for the fact that it came in white), and my pick again after research the Toshiba Satellite special edition which when compared to the Vaio only differs with the graphics card and bluetooth.

I opted for the Sony Vaio (which by the way is cheaper at your local…Fill in the blank major electronic store). I will say its partly due to the GF’s white preference, but don’t stop reading here and think its all due to that i did want good, no great specs and not want to buy another computer for at least another 5yrs.

I read many mixed reviews, and i personally got nervous. I wanted a great computer and always have been an XP person. So vista and only having a Dell made this a big purchase. Well i couldn’t be happier. The computer is fast as hell, especially through Ethernet (haven’t had the time yet to go get a N wireless router which i am excited about) and Vista is surprisingly fun to use. Searching for files etc. is really the only difference I have encountered. I love the 3D window scroll, and I love the new Windows Media experience with MSN live everything (TV, Music, Movies).

People have spoke about bloatware, I don’t think there was alot on here to be honest. I am currently using Vaio care, and windows live one (for virus protection). I am also using the preview version of office 2007. Other than that i don’t see much on here that’s a problem or runs the computer slower. I have disabled the updates after i did all of them so that helps too. The battery isn’t bad. On the Vaio power scheme i have it set to balanced and it lasts around 2hrs and 11mins. You can however set the power to max batter which helps it extend to 3hrs, or you can set it to max performance which speeds the computer itself up to max tasks, and windows being opened. I’ve had at least 10 windows up before and no lag what so ever using balanced power.

The webcam is really cool and makes me laugh at the Mac users who paid $12+ for basically the same computer. The software included can do all kinds of fun things with your image as well as let you record videos.
The keyboard is slick and very easy to type. Easier than my Dell which i find was alot more clacky than this. The touch pad is generic and the touch media controls well i haven’t had much use for them but as i have played around with them although cool and different can be sensitive especially the volume (i use the icon to change the volume). The speakers are good, sometimes programs made for dolby make them sound incredible while other at times sound low (it might have to do with the program and dolby compatibility.)

Overall I am very please, everything that i need to do (internet, work with office docs, and pics & music) it does very well. There are some features i have yet to explore but this is a very solid computer and worth the money. Don’t waste your time with those watered down netbooks or low priced asus computers with no specs to them. Get a laptop that has what you need in it and more, it will save you the trouble later on.

I gave this a 4 instead of a 5 because of the lower end graphics card (which hasn’t been a problem just wish for future things it had the better card) and lack of HDMI (has vga instead). Other than that its a solid notebook that makes a great replacement to my old Dell.