Sony Vaio N438E/S Review (June 2009) (Sony Vaio NR38E/S)

Member Name: Geraint90

Product:	Sony Vaio NR38E/S
Date:	25/06/09 (280 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very quick, very useful, large memory.

Disadvantages: The battery life tends to decrease relatively quick when being used.

I purchased this laptop in the Argos clearance sale in the last week of December, 2008, as my previous laptop would not power up any longer, after around 2 years use. I've always wanted a Sony Vaio laptop, as they look sophisticated and rather fashionable. They look smart and slick, but do the job they were intended to do. It's not just another poor laptop with fancy casing to make it look like something extraordinary. With Windows Vista Home Premium, it's easier than ever to find everything and anything. It has increased security, performance and productivity, but yet still allows easy use of a complicated piece of electronics. The powerful Pentium Dual Core processor and 2GB of RAM enables faster performance, more responsive multi-tasking, and yet still allows the laptop to be energy efficient. A large 160GB hard drive allows lots and lots of music, videos and pictures to be stored securely, with no worries about memory storage, however, I recently purchased a Buffalo external hard drive to save everything on, to allow my Vaio to achieve it's full potential. It boasts a large 15.4" screen with "wide X-black LCD display" which apparently allows more natural looking pictures, and to be honest, images really do look remarkable on this screen. The keys are larger than most laptops, and it's very rare that you touch another key by accident due to them being too small. "SanDisk memory card" and "Sony MemoryStick Pro" ports are built in to the front of the laptop, and also 4 USB sockets, so there is a lot of potential memory storage, and also other hardware could be connected easily. When fully charged, it gives around 2 hours of power, but you can change the settings to allow more battery life, but decreased performance, or lower batter life, with an increased performance. Sony have also combined some of their products, with Vista, to allow "exclusive VAIO software for enhanced and easy multimedia files management". Below is a VERY long list of all the pre-loaded software, just to give you an idea about what you get for your money, not just a basic laptop where you have to download everything before you use it.

Acrobat.com
Adobe AIR
Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX
Adobe Flash Player 10 Plugin
Adobe Reader 9
Alps StickPointer for Vaio
ArcSoft Magic-i Visual Effects 2
ArcSoft WebCam Companion 2
Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system
Instant Mode
Instant Mode Support Utility
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500
Intel Media Codecs for Intel System Controller Hub
Java SE Runtime Environment 6
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007 (English)
Microsoft Office Suite Activation Assistant
Microsoft Street & Trips 2009
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (two instances of this)
Microsoft Works
OpenMG Secure Module 5.1.00
Qualcomm Gobi Driver Package for Sony
Qualcomm Gobi Images for Sony
Realtek High Definition Audio Driver
Setting Utility Series
SmartWi Connection Utility
Sony Video Shared Library
Vaio Care
Vaio Content Folder Setting
Vaio Content Folder Watcher
Vaio Content Metadata Intelligent Analyzing Manager
Vaio Content Metadata Manager Setting
Vaio Content Metadata XML Interface Library
Vaio Control Center
Vaio Data Restore Tool
Vaio Entertainment Platform
Vaio Event Service
Vaio Help and Support
Vaio Media plus
Vaio Media plus Opening Movie
Vaio My Memory Center
Vaio OOBE and Welcome Center
Vaio Original Function Setting
Vaio Power Management
Vaio Presentation Support
Vaio Survey
Vaio Update 4
Vaio Wallpaper Contents
Vaio Window Organizer
Vaio Wireless Wizard
VZAccess Manager for Sony
WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software 6.2.0.5800
Windows Live OneCare
WinDVD for Vaio

Overall, I was very pleased with my purchase, because getting all this for £350 was a steal. After owning 2 desktop computers, 2 other laptops, and having use and experiences with laptops and computers of friends, I can say that it is extremely good value for money, and also a must have.

Summary: An all round good laptop for family, personal or business use.

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