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Sony Vaio K415B
by sn0zb0z
I needed a new laptop that was cheap and would be able to handle a number of tasks at once as I rarely just have one window open. When I saw this I figured it would suit what I needed as it has a good processor and it was a Sony laptop so I knew it would be well designed and built.
Specification:
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Processor: Intel Celeron D 345/3.06 GHz
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Screen: 15.4" TFT
Graphics: ATI Radeon IGP345M Shared Video Memory (UMA)
RAM: 512 MB (installed)/1 GB (maximum)
Hard drive: 40GB
Disk Drive: DVD±RW (+R double layer)
Wi-Fi: Yes
Card Reader: Yes
Battery: 1.8 hours
USB: 3
Weight: 3.7 KG
Design:
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The laptop is silver in colour and looks really good. The screen is 15.4" and at 35.7 cm x 27.8 cm x 5.5 cm it's about normal size for a laptop, although perhaps slightly deeper than most.
It has a small catch at the front to keep the lid and base together and this can easily be slid to the side to open the laptop up. The screen and area around it is black and the screen is reflective while the edge is dull. Even though it is reflective when off there is no reflection when the laptop is on. The base is silver with a black keyboard. The speaker and fan are at the back with a button to the far right to turn the laptop on. In front of that is the keyboard and then the mouse is in the centre in front of that.
The DVD drive is on right hand side. My first laptop had it at the front so you had to make sure it didn't hit you when you opened it, so having it at the side on this laptop was much better. At the front it has a memory card slot and a switch that says on/off for the Wi-Fi. The fan is on the left hand side so all the hot air goes out the side, which is the best place for the fan in my opinion. There are also other ports such as the USB slots, audio, Ethernet and card reader on the left hand side and back of the laptop.
The laptop is well designed and the only thing that really lets it down is the weight, which is 3.7KG.
Processor:
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I tend to run a number of programs at once and sometimes quite big programs too so I needed a laptop that could process everything. With a 3.06GHz processor I figured this should be able to handle a number of tasks at once and it does, although when used for a long time it does seem to get slower but that's the same with many computers/laptops.
RAM (memory):
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It comes with 512mb of RAM, but can be upgraded to 1GB, which mine has been. This is fine for running XP or below, but I wouldn't recommend trying to run Vista or Windows 7 on it. While 512mb is fine for running XP and programs on it well I'd suggest upgrading it to 1GB as it makes quite a bit of difference.
Hard drive:
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I have a habit of saving many files to my computer so I wanted a good sized hard drive, but with a 40GB hard drive it's not really enough for me. However, if you don't have many files or only really have Microsoft Office files like Word documents then a 40GB hard drive will last a while and you can buy external hard drives or memory cards really cheap now if you do need more.
Battery:
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The battery isn't very good, although it depends exactly what you are doing on the laptop. On average for just surfing the Internet or using Microsoft Office it lasts about 20 minutes. I've never know it last longer, but I didn't have the laptop from new. However, according to the specification it only lasts for 1.8 hours which isn't great. It gives a warning when it only has 10 minutes remaining which is helpful as it gives you chance to plug it into the mains before it turns off.
Keyboard:
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The keyboard is easy to use, but it felt like it was set a bit far back to start with and took some getting used to. Typing on the keyboard was fine, but when I first got it the keyboard had slipped slightly under the edge so when I pressed the F keys at the top they often got stuck. Pressing other F keys next to the stuck one sometimes pushed it back up, but once I did get the F5 key stuck so it kept refreshing the page over and over and it took a minute to get it back out. After moving the keyboard to where it should be I didn't have that problem, but the top buttons are still very close to the edge and I tend not to use them.
Mouse:
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The mouse is very responsive and the pad is a good size. The pad is silver like the rest of the base. The touchpad dips in slightly so you can clearly see where it is. It then has two buttons underneath like a normal mouse. These work well, although I have found that the left hand button doesn't press properly in the corner and you have to press it closer to the centre usually to get it to work, but I think that's just because I always used to just click it on the edge.
Price:
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You can buy this laptop from ebay from upwards of about £80, depending on condition and whether it's been upgraded.
Overall:
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I have since bought a new laptop as I needed a better specification and decided it would be easier to buy another rather than upgrade this, but I do spend a lot of time on the computer and use many media files so it would probably be better for someone who doesn't spend so much time on it. Overall this laptop looks great and it has a much faster processor than most laptops.
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Sony VAIO VPCEB2Z0E
by laurahartleyy
I am currently an unemployed student, so when I began my hunt for a laptop of my own, I wanted to be thorough to make sure that I was spending my life time (pocket money) savings on a suitable and reliable product. I was keen to buy an Apple Macbook, but I decided that for my first laptop it would be a lot simpler to have a PC with all ... the same functions that I would find at school/offices/home etc. I looked in my father's WHICH? magazine and it recommended the SONY VAIO series right under the Apple Macbook so I decided to do some reseach. I came to the conclusion that this particular model was the most suitable for me because of the size, portability and features. I went ahead and bought this laptop for around £800 from an official Sony store (All Microsoft Software and Anti-virus Software included).
Unfortunately, it seemed I had picked a faulty model, as the laptop kept crashing. As a result I had to swap it for a new laptop. This was just an unfortunate incident as I seemed to have picked the faulty one. I have had no problems since and everything has run smoothly as all the reviews told me it would.
I highly recommend this product as I believe it has just the right balance. It is light enough to be easily portable, it has a lot of features including a large storage capacity (mine is 500MB) as well as the intel core i3 processor. The screen is 15.5" on the diagonal which is a good size, it is neither too big nor too small. What I particularly looked for whilst searching for this product was the graphics card as I watch a lot of movies on my laptop. I found that this model had a premium graphics card that was better than the rest of the VAIO laptops.
I highly recommend this series. If this laptop isn't the one for you, well then there are many many others to choose from. For me, this is a good laptop for gaming and film watching due to the graphics card. It is also very good at all other functions and features that you would want from a laptop with a very large memory. If you are not so bothered about the graphics then perhaps you should choose another model.
This laptop is very fast. My favourite feature of them all is the 'Quick Web Access'. This allows you to access the internet in seconds. LITERALLY. At just the press of a button your laptop turns itself on to the VAIO browser. You cannot access the rest of your laptop in this mode, it is just a browser for when you need to access the internet fast.
I also really like the layout of the keys. As i mentioned earlier, I originally wanted an Apple Macbook, so when I saw that this laptop had the a very similar keyboard layout I was very drawn to this laptop. Each of the keys is separate with about a 2-3mm gap between them and I believe that this makes it a lot easier to type, and you make less spelling errors from slips of the finger.
This model, of course, comes with the latest software: Windows 7, which is also excellent and if you're not looking for a new laptop, I'd highly recommend you at least upgrade to Windows 7. It really is very good, MILES better than Vista, and I'd even say better than XP.
This laptop is very easy to set up. There is very little that you need to do yourself, you just need to follow the on step screens to set it up. Don't worry if you're not a tech wiz, you'll still be able to use this brilliant laptop. It takes a while to set up as you have to download some features, I believe I waited a couple of hours, just to make sure everything was completely set up and saved before I went ahead changing everything to fit my personal style.
Also, this laptop plays Blu-ray discs as well as DVDs! This is excellent as Blu-ray is sure to become more and more prominent in the future so it's good to get ahead now. There are 3 USB plug holes along the side which mean you can do many things at once and access lots of files. There is a special slot for SD Cards which is very useful, you don't need to fiddle around with adaptors anymore your camera memory card will fit right in!
I'd also have to recommend that if you were to buy this product you buy it from a SONY store and not from anywhere else. They offer the best guarantees and warantys for this product and it means that should anything go wrong you can take it straight back to the people who designed it to get the best help. The prices vary from store to store depending on what promotions are currently happening so I suggest once you have chosen your model you visit several different stores to see what they can offer you. I would say that the price will range from £650-£850, which I believe is a fair price for all that it offers you.
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Sony Vaio NR38M/S
by Graham1984
I brought a sony vaio and had it for a few years mine was a silver vgn-nr38m it had a 2gb of memory 250gb hard drive was a 15.4 inch screen and i used it so much i am amazed it never set on fire. Due to someone dropping a drink over it when they were using it before that moment it run like a dream which is exactly how you imagine a ... product like sony to opperate. The screen size is quite large for what the computer cost me £400 ish seamed fine as the computer i had before was a packard bell and that was like a cheaper starter computer for me as i was not majorly interested or had any need for one.
Over the years my interest and need for laptops has increased amazingly to the point where its an everyday part of my life so you could imagine how naffed off i was when my sony broke. It was everything you could think of and for the spec pretty fast and reliable and due to the screen size it made watching films and using youtube a dream as even film quaility didnt lose much if anything compared to using a dvd player and tv.
I would highly reccomend anyone to get one as they are simple to use and for what you would pay for this model now it would be a steal for how it performs. Gaming is one aspect it will not be so strong on but that would be down to needing an uprated graphics card for the mass of information if you were playing a game like command and conquer and had loads of troops and tanks charging around fighting on screen.
If you need a computer to surf the internet msg you friends and watch some youtube this is perfect for you whereas if you are taking on the gaming world online then its not for you but i am pretty sure that people like that normally know and understand the kind of spec you need from you computer to do that.
The only downside as with any computer is battery life can decrease rapidly if you forever have yours on charge and do not drain the battery much.
Thanks for reading this i will read your revies as soon as i can.
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