Sony Vaio Laptops - Blu-ray Forum

BohemianGraham · 01-25-2012, 12:59 PM

Anyone have any opinions on them? In another few months, I'm going to buy a new laptop, as my Compaq is pushing 4 years old. The Vaio I'm looking at has me interested in it due to the BD drive, more than 4gb of RAM, a larger HD, dedicated AMD Radeon graphics, and the i5 processor. Future Shop has one for the same price I paid for the Compaq 4 years ago, about 850 (seems high, but I expect paying more for a laptop). I checked Newegg Canada for other brands, and for the same features the Vaio has, Newegg wants a much higher price. In another few months, the laptop will probably be much cheap and/or replaced with something else, but I'm interested in hearing feedback on how reliable Vaios are. I've been soured on HP/Compaq, and there's been no other brand that's really caught my eye with these features.

beechcroft · 01-25-2012, 04:27 PM

I have a Vaio with a BD drive and full HD display. It's been reliable with zero problems for almost 2 years now. Plastic, but sturdy. The display is ok but nothing to write home about (matte HP displays seem better). If you get one of these, you may want to get rid of the bloatware. Vaio's come with a lot of it. There was also the Corel blu-ray player included with mine.
I believe these blu-ray player software tests are done on a Vaio so this may give some insight on what to expect if you plan to use one for watching.

BohemianGraham · 01-25-2012, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beechcroft

I have a Vaio with a BD drive and full HD display. It's been reliable with zero problems for almost 2 years now. Plastic, but sturdy. The display is ok but nothing to write home about (matte HP displays seem better). If you get one of these, you may want to get rid of the bloatware. Vaio's come with a lot of it. There was also the Corel blu-ray player included with mine.
I believe these blu-ray player software tests are done on a Vaio so this may give some insight on what to expect if you plan to use one for watching.

Thanks for the reply.

I always gut any laptop I buy from a store. In some instances, I even replace the OS.

I'm really only looking at the BD drive for travel, and even then, it will probably be used in conjunction with someone else's TV via HDMI. I actually prefer the glossy screen to matte, but then I use a lot of stuff in the dark. I just want something that will last, and will be a huge step up from a 2008 Compaq.

Blodiak · 01-26-2012, 02:20 AM

I have a Sony Vaio right now from the recent F series... i7 with Blu-Ray drive , full HD display, 8 gig RAM, 1 gig video card, 500 gig 7200rpm hard drive.. I chose a custom VAIO on Sony website... it's pretty good so far but the FAN IS NOISY LIKE HELL !! I even returned my VAIO the first week to see if something was wrong and they returned it to me saying it was fine... I guess I'm used to the noise now but at first it drove me crazy! my friend owned a VAIO a couple of years ago and it was also very noisy...

BohemianGraham · 01-26-2012, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blodiak

I have a Sony Vaio right now from the recent F series... i7 with Blu-Ray drive , full HD display, 8 gig RAM, 1 gig video card, 500 gig 7200rpm hard drive.. I chose a custom VAIO on Sony website... it's pretty good so far but the FAN IS NOISY LIKE HELL !! I even returned my VAIO the first week to see if something was wrong and they returned it to me saying it was fine... I guess I'm used to the noise now but at first it drove me crazy! my friend owned a VAIO a couple of years ago and it was also very noisy...

Can't be as noisy as the Compaq. I ordered this one at lunch hour on an impulse, rather than waiting because the stock seems to be disappearing quickly:

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...ec26ac98e3en02

Sony's website claims a 750GB HDD though, and it's OOS on there. Oh well, It's more than enough space considering I have 2.5 TB of external storage anyways, plud my desktop.

All the heavy duty media consumption's going to be done via my desktop, so an i5, 6gb RAM (expandable to 8) and 512mb graphics card memory is more than enough, as I need something bigger than a 10" netbook for word processing larger documents.

BohemianGraham · 01-30-2012, 03:29 PM

It's heeeerrrrrreeeeee.....

Impulse was good, because FS is now apparently clearing them out (for a dollar less than what I paid for it, some final clearance there FS!) in favour a cheaper model with no BD or dedicated graphics. No "skittles orange" as my mom refers to it, either. Just black, white, and Barbie's dream computer.

TheTimeTraveler-808 · 01-31-2012, 08:55 AM

In 2007 I got a Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E. This model, i believe was the first laptop to come with blu-ray drive in the U.S. It Broke two times; first, the motherboard fried and the second time the graphics chip stopped working. oh, and the blu-ray drive couldn't read discs after a year. My sony broke in 2010 then I switched to HP.

That's my experience with Sony vaios, sadly is not great...

BohemianGraham · 01-31-2012, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheTimeTraveler-808

In 2007 I got a Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E. This model, i believe was the first laptop to come with blu-ray drive in the U.S. It Broke two times; first, the motherboard fried and the second time the graphics chip stopped working. oh, and the blu-ray drive couldn't read discs after a year. My sony broke in 2010 then I switched to HP.

That's my experience with Sony vaios, sadly is not great...

I had a friend during my MLIS that had a Vaio, which died within 2 years as well. However, every laptop she touched died within 2 years, and she herself said she was cursed when it came to laptops. She always managed to fry the MoBo somehow.

Funny you should say you switched to HP, because my mother is having the same problems with her HP (no BD drive, but her disc drive is deader than dead), and it constantly overheats and shuts off (started doing that within the first month). It can't handle a basic workload without fan kicking in and the CPU usage spiking, and has memory issues, despite the bloatware and being removed and nothing running. Her HP was bought in 2011. She's not very happy with it. I know HP/Compaq have some RAM issues (I think they tend to use the cheaper stuff), but the fact that her new mid-range laptop is acting in the same fashion as my old El Cheapo model bothers me. HP seems to have taken a dive in quality, as my mother's not the only one with issues.

I'm having no problems so far with the Vaio, with the exception of Firefox, because Firefox is now a buggy piece of crap since the last update. I'm thinking of ditching it. Mozilla has officially become the new Internet Explorer, which makes me sad. It's a bloaty, memory eating, hot mess. I tried playing Perseopolis on it, and CyberDVD 9 works fine. It seems to work better than when I did a test trial on my desktop.

Speaking of bloat, holy hell does the Vaio come with a lot! I still need to get rid of some glut, but I needed to get Office, iTunes (hate this so much, only have it because of my bloody phone), Avast, and CCleaner on there ASAP. At least the Norton virus is gone.

I have to install Adobe CS5, Nero, and a few other goodies tonight.

steve1971 · 02-13-2012, 12:16 PM

My fiance and I were going to go with the Sony Viao but we went with Acer and I am amazed just how fast this thing is loading pages and so fourth. So far we are pleased as hell with it. She told me and I quote "Hon not everything has to be Sony!" lol Cant argue with logic I guess.

maleaco · 02-20-2012, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

Anyone have any opinions on them? In another few months, I'm going to buy a new laptop, as my Compaq is pushing 4 years old. The Vaio I'm looking at has me interested in it due to the BD drive, more than 4gb of RAM, a larger HD, dedicated AMD Radeon graphics, and the i5 processor. Future Shop has one for the same price I paid for the Compaq 4 years ago, about 850 (seems high, but I expect paying more for a laptop). I checked Newegg Canada for other brands, and for the same features the Vaio has, Newegg wants a much higher price. In another few months, the laptop will probably be much cheap and/or replaced with something else, but I'm interested in hearing feedback on how reliable Vaios are. I've been soured on HP/Compaq, and there's been no other brand that's really caught my eye with these features.

Ive owned like 5 laptops, and ASUS was by far the best brand. Look into them.

BohemianGraham · 02-20-2012, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maleaco

Ive owned like 5 laptops, and ASUS was by far the best brand. Look into them.

Asus isn't as readily available here, and the ones that are, didn't have the features of the Sony. From the research I did, Sony is number 3 behind Asus and Toshiba. I've had the Sony for about a month now, with no issues with it thus far.

Edit:

Putting your foot in your mouth (accidentally saying something that causes embarrassment or harm)

There are quite a few Asus laptops floating around Future Shop and Best Buy at the moment. However, both Best Buy and Future Shop want 1100 bucks for slightly better specs (i7, a dedicated graphics card with 1GB instead of 512MB (but it's Nvidia, and I've never had much luck with them), 750 HDD, and a full 1080p screen (less RAM though, only 4GB vs the 6GB in the Sony)) to the Sony I bought for 850. That's a difference of about 250 prior to the environmental disposal fee and 15% sales tax. For me, the Sony was a better deal.

01-25-2012, 12:59 PM	#1
BohemianGraham Blu-ray Samurai Top contributor Member since:Mar 2011 Location:Nouvelle-Écosse, Canada Blu-ray collection:397 DVD collection:458 Blu-ray reviews: 9	Sony Vaio Laptops Anyone have any opinions on them? In another few months, I'm going to buy a new laptop, as my Compaq is pushing 4 years old. The Vaio I'm looking at has me interested in it due to the BD drive, more than 4gb of RAM, a larger HD, dedicated AMD Radeon graphics, and the i5 processor. Future Shop has one for the same price I paid for the Compaq 4 years ago, about 850 (seems high, but I expect paying more for a laptop). I checked Newegg Canada for other brands, and for the same features the Vaio has, Newegg wants a much higher price. In another few months, the laptop will probably be much cheap and/or replaced with something else, but I'm interested in hearing feedback on how reliable Vaios are. I've been soured on HP/Compaq, and there's been no other brand that's really caught my eye with these features.

01-26-2012, 02:20 AM	#4
Blodiak Special Member Top contributor Member since:Oct 2008 Location:Le Canada 4K collection:60 Blu-ray collection:457 DVD collection:71 Blu-ray reviews: 62 Trading Score:8	I have a Sony Vaio right now from the recent F series... i7 with Blu-Ray drive , full HD display, 8 gig RAM, 1 gig video card, 500 gig 7200rpm hard drive.. I chose a custom VAIO on Sony website... it's pretty good so far but the FAN IS NOISY LIKE HELL !! I even returned my VAIO the first week to see if something was wrong and they returned it to me saying it was fine... I guess I'm used to the noise now but at first it drove me crazy! my friend owned a VAIO a couple of years ago and it was also very noisy... Last edited by Blodiak; 01-26-2012 at 02:22 AM.

01-25-2012, 04:27 PM	#2
beechcroft Junior Member Member since:Jun 2010	I have a Vaio with a BD drive and full HD display. It's been reliable with zero problems for almost 2 years now. Plastic, but sturdy. The display is ok but nothing to write home about (matte HP displays seem better). If you get one of these, you may want to get rid of the bloatware. Vaio's come with a lot of it. There was also the Corel blu-ray player included with mine. I believe these blu-ray player software tests are done on a Vaio so this may give some insight on what to expect if you plan to use one for watching.

01-30-2012, 03:29 PM	#6
BohemianGraham Blu-ray Samurai Top contributor Member since:Mar 2011 Location:Nouvelle-Écosse, Canada Blu-ray collection:397 DVD collection:458 Blu-ray reviews: 9	It's heeeerrrrrreeeeee..... Impulse was good, because FS is now apparently clearing them out (for a dollar less than what I paid for it, some final clearance there FS!) in favour a cheaper model with no BD or dedicated graphics. No "skittles orange" as my mom refers to it, either. Just black, white, and Barbie's dream computer.

01-31-2012, 08:55 AM	#7
TheTimeTraveler-808 Member Member since:Jun 2011 Location:Kauai,Hawaii Blu-ray collection:263	In 2007 I got a Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E. This model, i believe was the first laptop to come with blu-ray drive in the U.S. It Broke two times; first, the motherboard fried and the second time the graphics chip stopped working. oh, and the blu-ray drive couldn't read discs after a year. My sony broke in 2010 then I switched to HP. That's my experience with Sony vaios, sadly is not great...

02-13-2012, 12:16 PM	#9
steve1971 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Feb 2008 Location:Saint Paul Minnesota. 4K collection:15 Blu-ray collection:352 Blu-ray reviews: 119 Trading Score:1	My fiance and I were going to go with the Sony Viao but we went with Acer and I am amazed just how fast this thing is loading pages and so fourth. So far we are pleased as hell with it. She told me and I quote "Hon not everything has to be Sony!" lol Cant argue with logic I guess.

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