Sony VAIO PCG-K13 Laptop (2.8GHz Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW/DVD combo) | List Price: $1,399.99
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Platform: Windows XP Home Edition
Brand: Sony
Binding: Personal Computers
Release Date: 2004-03-02
Warranty: 1 year warranty
I love this laptop! [Posted on 2004-11-03]
I've had this laptop for about 6 months now and absolutely love it! I lug it with me to school and any wi fi spot in town and this computer has never given me any problems. The clarity of the screen has to be seen to be appreciated and the size is just right...not too small..not too thin..just right! The AC adapter is a little bulky but I use a Targa Lap Top backpack to lug it around and everything fits perfectly! I've always had success with the Sony brand and when I spotted this laptop..I loved the appearance and the features..you have plenty of processing speed and a DVD and CD burner combo to boot! DVDs play flawlessly and CDs burn with no problem..2 2.0 USB ports on the side provide a lot of convenience and any peripherals you need to attach is as easy as pie! I'm very happy with it!!
Not a bad laptop, only if you like sony and don't care much about performance. [Posted on 2005-12-22]
Simply put:
Have used this thing for now two years, not as great as I thought it would be when I purchased it. The review would have been more favorable earlier, but you got to consider in terms of today's technology, would people want to get this laptop, so that is what I based my review on.
Pros:
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-decent speakers for notebook speakers
-decent sound quality on headphones
-fast enough processor
-great feel on keyboard & touchpad
-external monitor support
-PC card expansion slot
-screen is bright and sharp
-decent budget laptop I guess...
-fairly rugged and durable, reliable
Cons:
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-glossy screen glare annoying in bright places
-uneven backlighting becomes annoyingly obvious when watching DVD movies in a dark place
-wireless card in the laptop is intermittent, not much of a problem when just surfing the web, but a major issue when using streaming video/audio content, or playing online games, which both require a constant connection
-short battery life even on minimal use
-slow & limited RAM really drasticaly affects performance, lots of page file usage (over 500MB at times!!!) makes things slow when loading or switching applications. So this laptop sucks for multitasking.
-P4 processor does not support hyperthreading
-40gb on the hard drive is a limiting factor nowadays
-would like to see more usb ports, and a stereo line-in port
-slow and featureless video card, so fairly useless for gaming
-included software is almost worthless in my opinion as there is a lot of way better software out there that can even be free, and the recovery thing is frustrating too
and last but not least:
-SONY'S CUSTOMER SUPPORT ABSOLUTELY SUCKS!!! I will not explain the issues I had with their support, since it would take forever, it's a very long and frustrating story.
Conclusion:
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Would not buy a sony laptop again. I'm into custom-building now, and trust me, custom-building ain't that hard to do, and you end up with a way better laptop for your money's worth. Give custom-building (barebones) a try!
Sony sucksssssssssss... [Posted on 2006-01-27]
I own this laptop for around 2 years. Though I was happy during first few months, this laptop started giving me lot of problems...Here are the pros and cons of it:
Pros:
1) Awesome screen clarity (Xbrite technology)
2) Keyboard and Touchpad are really nice.
3) Good Performance...no need to wonder as it's pentium 4 2.8 ghz, 512 MB RAM.
4) It has memorystick slot, nice to have if you have a sony digital camera.
Cons:
1) It's heavy, heavy, too heavy for a laptop.
2) It comes with a large size brick i.e) the power adaptor...aweful even a B grade brands are giving very small adaptors...
3) The sound quality is terrible.
4) No external control of volume/brightness etc. You need to have the Sony special software to enable the special keys to do that. Once you format and reinstall your windows, you are lost. You need to purchase those software/windows xp home CD seperately. Sony doesn't give them for you along with the laptop.
5) Known Problem with the Wireless connection. It goes disconnected every 5 or 10 minutes.
6) A very known problem with this model. There are several forums yelling at Sony for this issue. There are websites trying to form a group to legally fight with Sony on this. It's a manufacturing defect. The Ram Slot is poorly manufactured so the Ram easily breaks out of the slot over the time. It freezes the system completely. Only if you have some idea of hardware or if you have gone through all crying forums, you are safe. Otherwise see the next Con.
7) It will cost around half of the laptop price to do a service on the laptop. You need to send it to some place via post (all postal cost will be yours)
8) After my warrenty period, I was asked to pay 19.99 $ to talk to a Custumer Support Rep to discuss about the same RAM issue I got with my laptop (See previous Con). Luckily, I saw those forums and fixed it by myself.
9) Aweful battery life. Initially it gave me around 1.5 hr and now it's giving around 35 minutes...
10) It's too costly...You may save around 500 $ if you buy a better laptop (like Dell).
I bought this only for the brand name Sony. But I am sure I won't buy a sony laptop again. I would recommend Dell or HP.
Fast, but sucks the battery [Posted on 2007-02-28]
This machine has been stable and durable. The screen is bright and crisp. Not a single pixel has died. A 2.8 ghz Pentium IV processor and 333 mhz system bus (approximately) is pretty darned fast for a laptop, if what you need is pure, raw speed. Slower dual-core processors probably won't keep up with this machine. (And remember that few applications are written to take advantage of dual core CPUs.)
That's what I needed. I got it for use with Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is about the most CPU-hogging application in widespread use. The machine is fast enough for Dragon. The sound chip is adequate for Dragon, though possibly not ideal. I can run Dragon and MS Word simultaneously, without any serious problems, though the CPU strains a little to keep up at times.
This machine is heavy and somewhat bulky. The fat Pentium processor drains the battery fast. You might get 90 minutes out of it, or a bit more, if you set the power management savings to their most conservative, don't use the DVD, and turn off the wireless. Use the battery less conservatively and you'll get more like an hour.
If you don't need this kind of CPU horsepower, you'll probably prefer a lighter machine with longer battery life. If you need to crunch some heavy numbers in real time, this might be the machine for you.
Will never buy Sony products again (besides video game systems) [Posted on 2008-01-21]
I've had this laptop for almost four years so I know it's fairly outdated now, however, I just wanted to lay out what I've experienced from Sony in general. Since there are so many cons, I'll go with the pros first.
Pros
- The laptop has actually maintained functionality the past four years and hasn't had a major problem I haven't been able to fix. This is the reason I gave it two stars instead of just one, just because the thing still works.
- Glossy screen, which was somewhat uncommon back in 2004.
- Good picture on screen.
- Three (3) USB ports.
- One of the nicest and attractive keyboards to date, in my opinion.
Cons
- Massive. I know back then I wanted a large screen on a laptop for watching movies (which I never even really started doing), but still, the mammoth beast is huge and puts a lot of stress on my back carrying it around, especially with my school books as well.
- Wireless absolutely sucks. From day 1 it has always cut out every 5-10 minutes, especially when I'm trying to watch and load a streaming movie at the same time. I can't download any huge files without dragging it to my router and hooking it up through ethernet.
- Just found out only a few months ago that RAM is shared and I actually have LESS than 512MB.
- Slooooooow at many, many times. Most likely due to the fact that it has less than 512MB of RAM.
- Battery has always been horrible, getting me only about two hours or less, but now I get about 35 minutes before automatic shutdown without warning.
- AC adapter is huge and just adds even more weight to what you are lugging around (since the battery is so bad, you'll definately be carrying that AC power wherever you go).
- Speakers aren't that great and can't overpower and surrounding noise.
- Memory stick drive just stopped working a couple years back.
- I don't know if it's the CD burner or CDs themselves, but half the time they come out unable to work.
- Screen started to flicker whenever being opened over the past year.
- Drive is partitioned (this is not a con itself). I barely have any of my own files on the C drive (most are on D which was made for extra storage), and yet, there is so much crap on it that I can't get rid of and I don't even have the minimum amount of space to do a drive defrag.
- No Windows XP CD incase you need to reinstall.
- Microsoft Office was only a trial (although this may be common on many laptops, I'm not really sure since this is the only one I've ever owned so far).
After taking the size, battery life, and faulty Wi-Fi into consideration, I pretty much consider myself to own a desktop, since it has far less mobility than other laptops. I was stupid and 17 years old four years ago. I was obsessed with Sony and felt the need to have every electronic product I own made by them. However, I have had problems with most everything I own (camera, Playstation 2, etc.) with the exception of a pair of headphones (best I've ever had). Take my advice: Do not buy Sony laptops! I highly doubt they have strived to improve the quality of these things over four years, although there is a very small chance I could be wrong.
On a side note, I think I'm going to get an Asus Eee PC for mild surfing and note-taking at school when they come out with the new models with slightly larger screens and also build my own desktop, since I no longer want to be bothered with company-manufactured junk anymore.
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