Sony VAIO VGN-FZ485U/B 15.4" Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 300 GB Hard Drive, Vista Ultimate) | List Price: $2,199.99
Discount Price: $2,399.84
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Brand: Sony
Binding: Electronics
Release Date: 2008-02-12
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2.10GHz) with 3MB L2 cache
- Genuine Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate OS
- 15.4" widescreen display with XBRITE-ECO LCD
- Play back Hi-Def media with Blu-ray Disc-ROM drive
Great Laptop, Decent Software [Posted on 2008-08-14]
To be clear, I bought the VGN-FZ460E from Amazon.com, which comes with a Blu-Ray drive and 2GB RAM.
First of all, this laptop is great. It's the second one I have ever purchased, and a much needed upgrade from my 6 year old HP. The wireless is fantastic, being built-in to the laptop, and nearly everything else was more or less plug-and-play. 3 SIDE USB ports make plugging in a drive or a peripheral utterly painless. Performance is excellent - I can run a disk defragger without noticing while I watch a movie, or surf the web (or write a review on Amazon.com). The appearance is exactly what I wanted - a laptop that I could take into a classroom or the office, yet could run games, movies, etc if it needed to (yet to test out the NVIDIA graphics card). What really surprised me was how quiet it runs...if not for the power light, I wouldn't even know it was running. It makes absolutely no noise...!
Things to keep in mind: it's rather large...not quite the 17" size, but certainly a worthly desktop replacement. It's not very light, and does not seem to take battery life into much consideration, although if you put it on low power and turn off the wireless, you can get up to 3 hours of battery life writing a paper, or something else that doesn't require a lot of juice.
My main issues with it, and why it doesn't earn 5 stars, are not at all hardware-related -- rather, it's the software that has been quite an annoyance. Before I rant about it, I must say that Vista looks incredible - the fading in and out of the windows, and the overall "soft" feel of it reminds me of my last swedish massage...very nice. However, comma, two things really irked me while doing the initial set up: 1) Vista's compatibility problems, and 2) Bloatware.
1) Vista - I ordered AT&T DSL concurrently (new place) and apparently they haven't gotten around to making their installation software Vista-compatible...this was 6 hours on the phone over three days, five hours of which were on hold with customer service reps...not sure if this was Microsoft or AT&T's fault, but it was certainly not at all what I expected of an OS that had been out for over a year. I have never needed to deride a company's level of service until that(those) day(s). Next, Vista is not yet compatible with Flash player - the one that plays all those video-like commercials without Media player running. IE crashed every other day until I turned it off. Reinstalling did not help.
2) Sony has installed about two screenlengths worth of (almost all useless) software that I have yet to use after two weeks. Much of it is free trial software along with the Vaio suite of software, which I have yet to use. I deleted most of the trial ware, until I hit upon Network Magic. I'm sure this program works wonders for some people out there, but after uninstalling it, it refuses to disappear, re-uninstall, or reinstall - it continues to haunt my computer. On one occasion, it even prevented installation of another program I downloaded off the web (can't remember the program). None of this would have been an issue had the software not pre-existed on my otherwise-great-to-use-Vaio to begin with.
One more point - no OS disks, and this is almost inexplicable - I had to call Sony customer service in order for them to email me instructions on how to make a set of recovery disks. Without looking on the weblogs, I wouldn't have even known that this computer had a backup partition on it. Sony's website was no help.
So, bottom line, this is an exceptional piece of equipment, with some not-so-exceptional software built into it. I was able to get quite a deal on Amazon, where I was only paying $100 extra for the Blu-Ray drive compared to other brands and models out there (the price has since changed). This, coupled with Sony's reputation for excellence, drove me to buy a Vaio, even though I tend to be a more value-oriented customer.
Horrendous LCD ruins this laptop [Posted on 2008-08-21]
I knew I had made a mistake when I got this laptop and saw the glossy screen. The screen is so glossy it acts as a mirror where you often find yourself staring at yourself. The viewing angle is also the poorest I have seen on any LCD on any computer ever. When I attempt to watch a movie in bed with my girlfriend, only one of us can see the movie without the colors being inverted. We constantly fight over the placement of the screen and eventually both end up being un-happy. The viewing angle is so bad that by shifting your head, I am not exaggerating, one or two inches in any direction you can significantly change the contrast of the colors on the screen.
If it were not for the horrendous screen this laptop would have been a pretty good purchase. My next complaint would have been placing the USB plugs at the lower right hand side of the keyboard...the area you place your mouse (the USB cables end up clashing with your mouse and your hand).
Sony VAIO - highly recommended! [Posted on 2008-08-30]
If you want a high quality product... look no more! This is the laptop that eveyone must have. Blazing-fast performance, excellent color definition and incredible technology.
Good quality construction [Posted on 2008-09-19]
The laptop looks great and the construction material is solid with good quality. Standard USB ports but with nice SD slot handy. Camera quality is sufficient for my use and keyboard is quiet with low stroke. The whole computer looks neat and clean. With upgraded router, we are able to use the maximum speed for wireless connection (N), which is great! However, it came with a lot of commercial software that we have to uninstall them one by one... but i guess that is a common frustration when buying consumer laptop. The audio quality is average... I only wish it would come with non-glossy LCD screen.
A lemon computer [Posted on 2008-10-05]
Spent my savings on this computer for college. Computer locked up after attempting to install a purchased version of Microsoft Office Student to replace the trial version. After over an hour with Sony Vaio tech support, could not remove the trial version. As per their instructions I had to run a systme recovery and reformat the hard drive and then reload microsoft vista updates - took over 2 hours. Then tried to uninstall the trial version of Microsoft Office Student - again unsuccessfull. Sony Vaio tech support recommended that I repeat the system recovery and reformat the hard drive a second time. I refused,googled the problem and found the solution - go to the Microsoft Office site, download a trial version of Office and once downloaded select the uninstall option. This worked, installed the purchased version of Office Student, all worked well till my DVD drive 3 weeks later could not be recognized. After about 2 hours with Sony Vaio tech support they could not get it to work and now will send a technician to my home to attempt to fix the problem. Dell would replace the unit! Do not buy this computer!!!
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