Accessories

UPS lost item
UPS lost the package,however Vann's was great and got me a very quick refund.I would buy from Vann's and Amazon again.

Good laptop with a bit of false advertising...
So I read the reviews on here before buying this laptop 3 months ago (thanks!). I bought it for a long backpacking trip - so I wanted something smaller, with long battery life. The reviews here said the battery life was not what it advertised, and the screen can be pretty dim - impossible to see outdoors when you're on low power consumption mode. They were right on both counts. I would not count on more than 2.5 or 3 hours of battery, even just to type or surf the web, and if you're outdoors, maybe less since you'll have to boost the brightness of the screen.

Other than that, after it's gone through all the start up - and all the preloaded programs, it's reasonably fast and a good size for travel, though I think I'd go even smaller for a trip like this - it's a good balance overall. The keyboard is very nice, but the keys click when you type, I'm not too crazy about that, and there is no "end", "page up", etc... which I quite miss.

Rating Likely To Improve
I purchased this lap-top as a birthday present for my wife, having had experienced excellent performance with a VAIO that I purchased for myself in back in 2004. I was a bit leary about making an on line purchase of such a potentially fragile item. Those worries were put to rest upon delivery, as it was apparent that extra care had been taken to ensure that delivery was prompt, and the product arrived in good condition.

My only regret in making this purchase, is that I didn't pay more heed to the concensus on reviews of the VISTA operating system (which came pre-installed on the unit). In the past, I had always heard of, (but pretty well dismissed) all of the negative publicity surrounding the release of a new O.S., because I had never experienced any insurmountable problems with O.S. up-grades over the years, some just took some getting used to. With VISTA however, you can add me to the list of "whiners". So many things are incompatible, and there are so many "unexplainable" malfunctions, that after 3 weeks of unsuccessful back-and-forth communications with Microsoft Vista Support (via another PC I might add, as we were unable to even perform e-mail & on-line functions with VISTA), I finally gave up & "up-graded" to XP. Things have been fine since then.

Love it!!
After a few weeks of contemplation I settled on this as my first laptop for use when I start grad school in the fall. However, I've gotten much more than I expected. The graphics are AWESOME!! It's light and quiet, the keys aren't as hard to use as I'd expected after years of desktop use...I could go on and on : )

There are a few cons- there's a few more programs loaded on it than I think I really need and like most VAIOs it gets a bit hot but generally I have no complaints!!

I would advise that if you want something like this to get the newer model which is only $100 more- the CR420...it's processor is 2.1 GHz and it comes with 3GB of RAM....commit to Sony and enjoy : )

This computer has a "shocking" malfunction that Sony refuses to fix
I was given this Vaio as a gift and within a few weeks of normal use, the unit began shocking me through the chrome strip on the front and sides of the casing. I tested it with a multimeter and the unit is releasing up to 12 volts of electricity when its plugged in through this strip. It is a painful and annoying problem. I sent the unit in to Sony for repairs as it was still well within warranty, having only been purchased about a month previously then, and Sony refused to fix it, stating that there was nothing wrong and that even if it was shocking me, it would be well within UL limits. Sony also has a besmirched history across their brand for lack luster repair service, often telling customers with perfectly good warranties that their issue is not covered by Sony's all too vague warranty. Better hope your unit doesn't shock you or break, because Sony's already got your money and doesn't care.