Sony Vaio any good?

SUPERJULES

I am looking to buy a good laptop, just really for surfing and the odd word document.

I want something decent that will last and after reading previous threads not one from Tesco.

Is this one any good?

SONY FS515E Laptops 508540

£633 in currys/pcworld online £699 in store

I have found an online voucher for £40 off and quidco do 2% as well bringing it down to £588 ish

Your comments appreciated.:beer:

Little_John

Its a reasonable spec and do what you want, the big problem is that sony laptops are always over priced and for the same spec you would pay less if you bought from any other manufacturer. Sony sell as people belive that sony are a good make after having a Sony TV for 10 years which are very good unfortunatly thier laptops dont last as long I have seen soo many dead vaio's I now try to stop people buying them. They look stunning but the cases are poor and the hinges fail and you need to treat them with kid gloves.

alanrowell

It's old technology (ie over a year old) especially the processor but it'll cope with MS Office & surfing with no problems but will be a tadge slow if you want to do anything with photos.

I'd be tempted to go up to the 515H which has a better processor and costs £699 from John Lewis but gives you a 2 year guarantee.

BTW GF has had a Vaio since Win98 came out, had no problems with it in several years except for a dead battery

MarkyMark_2

They can be overpriced (bulk orders help to keep price down ) but you cant go wrong with sony laptops, we used loads here at work and all have been very reliable over the last 2 years and a bit.

reehsetin

i love mine!! only once i had a prob when i dropped it still they came and picked it up repaired it and dropped it back to me all for free!! - LOVE IT!

Lord_Chris

alanrowell wrote:

It's old technology (ie over a year old) especially the processor but it'll cope with MS Office & surfing with no problems but will be a tadge slow if you want to do anything with photos.

lol what crap, i have one of the even older 315 series, and i run Photoshop CS2 with no problems... only thing that can be a little slow is running Maya 7 (3d design software) but my desktop with a p4 3.2 ghz can struggle with Maya sometimes too.

You will not have any problems with a Vaio in terms of running programs, unless your running really high end stuff, in which case you wouldnt be asking about laptops on here

Vaio do excellent warranty service, my dvd writer broke december 23rd last year, it was collected christmas eve, and i got it back december 27th.. i was expecting to lose my laptop for at least 2 weeks being christmas, but nope now thats good service.

HTH

btw, littlejohn, you say that about Vaios, and i'd agree about a lot of the 1st generation laptops sony did, but not anymore. what would you suggest instead? HP? Advent? Compaq? (shuddering thinking about it) i mean come on... even Dell dont offer any real competition anymore..

phatty_2

ThinkPad's are by far the best laptop you can buy, they are worth the extra few pounds over the Acer or Dell, etc.

Little_John

Lord_Chris wrote:

btw, littlejohn, you say that about Vaios, and i'd agree about a lot of the 1st generation laptops sony did, but not anymore. what would you suggest instead? HP? Advent? Compaq? (shuddering thinking about it) i mean come on... even Dell dont offer any real competition anymore..

Toshiba all the way, I do have an old thinkpad (Pentium 233MMX old) that until last week worked the !!!!!! powers up but wont boot anymore Im not bothered I was only going to make it wireless to sit outside in the sun and surf the net.

star1_2

In my various roles my employers have provided laptops over the past 12 years (so I've had the pleasure of using a wide variety of sizes, weights and brands! over the years) .... as well as now recommending them for clients ....

I now own a Sony (which I purchased myself), it's £1200 of hi-spec machine, which I've reasonable content with.... The only issue was a power supply that failed after 3 months - but Sony came and replaced that under Warantee.

As for other brands, I've used .... The IBM range are good and fairly durable, the HP's good but after about 18 months of daily use (screens, keyboards etc failed on 2 units). Compaq (when they were a seperate company from HP), and Toshiba 7-10, were also good. Acer & Dell are similar build quality and offer good spec. at a good price - although are not as durable as an IBM/Sony or Toshiba. The most disapointing to me were the HP's and still are, they just can't cope with the "knocks" of laptop-life !

If it were my money .... for best all round value Acer .... if you can spend a little more go for a Toshiba, and if you want a slightly slicker looking unit go for a Sony, althugh as others have said the Sony's are not fantastic value for money compared with other brands.

Just my humble opinions ....

gamston

i got a sony vaio many years ago, its still going, screen still looks better than most others i see,
it was dear when i got it around £1700 but boy it was worth it

pigeonpie

would you guys say the Sony is worth the extra money over the Lenovo as the main home-home/wk PC?
What's the after sales like on those and do either have a full NBD or C&R fast EU warranty? They are so vague when you ask them. Wondered if anyone had had to have a Sony or Lenovo fixed in eg France.
Ditto Toshiba although their keyboard feels v spongy - Star 1, which one is best for typing on?
I can't go topwhack on price but no false economies, like SuperJules, I want it to last.