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Rating: 
Summary: Great quality
Review: All I can say is that I have dropped mine twice from my wheelchair to the floor and banged it several times (I have ALS) and the only thing I broke was a add-on PC card that was sticking out. This thing is built solid.
Rating:
Summary: R505EL is all good
Review: I did my homework before I bought my first "lap top". I am very happy with the Sony R505EL. I bring and use it at the hospital everyday. Pros:
-inexpensive (comparing it to other companies with equal specs)
-highly portable (do not need the 3.5 or CD-ROM drive everyday)
-beautiful screen
-hasn't crashed in 3 months (I've pushed it pretty hard- huge multimedia powerpoint presentations)
-always get looks from people
-all the ports I need
-Jog Dail
-feels sturdy
-great multimedia software Cons:
-Only copies to CD-RW disks
-Battery life about 3 1/2 hours I always read negatives about the Sony Tech Support. So far, fingers crossed, I don't have to deal with them.
For now, worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: R505EL is all good
Review: I did my homework before I bought my first "lap top". I am very happy with the Sony R505EL. I bring and use it at the hospital everyday. Pros:
-inexpensive (comparing it to other companies with equal specs)
-highly portable (do not need the 3.5 or CD-ROM drive everyday)
-beautiful screen
-hasn't crashed in 3 months (I've pushed it pretty hard- huge multimedia powerpoint presentations)
-always get looks from people
-all the ports I need
-Jog Dail
-feels sturdy
-great multimedia software Cons:
-Only copies to CD-RW disks
-Battery life about 3 1/2 hours I always read negatives about the Sony Tech Support. So far, fingers crossed, I don't have to deal with them.
For now, worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: SONY is sooo bad, why is anyone buing them??
Review: I have a sony pcg-fx300p, I have had problems with this laptop since the first day I opened the box. You should also know that I have previously bought two (2) other computers from sony. Well my experience with Sony is that their products are only and nothing else but complete fluff. They brake, they malfunction, the support is terrible, yes they are nice on the telephone and will send you a box just like IBM, but their tech department will return the machine to you with no corrections but a mere reinstalation of the OS. Anyone reading this, don't buy sonY, it stucks. My laptop is under warantee, I have had the product repaired twice, of course I have't been able to obtain an exchange machine. Please don't buy Sony if you cherish your time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Sony Laptop
Review: I have been using laptops for the best part of the past 5 years or so. I have owned 1 Gericom - a high quality German brand - and 2 Compaqs which I wouldn't really recommend because my experience has indicated very low reliability. I have been using on and off several other brands especially Toshiba, HP and IBMs. Apart from IBMs which seem very high quality but way overpriced for what you are getting Sony is by far the best. Bear in mind that I owe the DL model which has a 1GHz processor instead of a 1.13GHz and a slower DVD/CDRW but everything else is the same with this one. Here is what I (you) don't like 1. Although I knew it so I can't blame the laptop for that, the laptop is not the fastest of the bunch. If you want to play Quake3 or the rest of the 3D effect focused latest games this laptop most probably won't do. But playing Warcraft 3, Baldur's Gate 2, Red Alert 2 doing work like listening to music using word excel powerpoint and watching dvds as well as doing some light graphics processing is more than fine. In these tasks the laptop was speedy enough not to get you annoyed or anything 2. The memory can be upgraded only 384 - from 256, bare in mind that the graphics card consumes 32MB of it, and in order to install an extra 256 - to get to 384 - you have to "throw away" the preinstalled 128MB one 3. The laptop is missing a tilt, especially with the docking station on it has no tild whatsoever which can make it uncomfortable to type. 4. Removing or attaching the laptop demands to disconnect virtually all connections although you don't have to shut it down. 5. An IrDA and an SVideo ports are not there for anyone of you that might need them. 6. I don't know if it is a technical characteristic or poor design but one of the two USBs on the laptop is being hidden when you attach the Docking station. 7. The speakers are not what you would call HiFi actually they are weak and without good quality but if you plug an external pair or a pair of nice earphones the sound is very good. 8. The shift key is small. Actually is as small as the rest of the buttons so it is easy to miss before you get used to it. 9. Although it has a CDRW it doesn't come with a dedicated cdrw program - you can use the WinXP copying engine but I find it very underpowered, the SonicStage player that comes with it has the ability to create music and MP3 cds. Anyway I got me Nero and it is working fine with it. 10. I found the power supply large compared to the size of the laptop itself. Now what I (you hopefully) love about it 1. It is very cool to look at especially without the docking station. Very slim and nice, you gonna get asked about it a lot. 2. It is light and again without the docking station VERY light. Therefore very portable. 3. The keyboard has a wonderful feel to it. Sturdy and deep. 4. It is VERY STABLE. In two months the laptop has never crashed. All my prevous laptops - even the latest compaq that was loaded with WinXP - was crashing constantly. This one can go days without restarting. Amazing for a windows machine. 5. The laptop has all essential ports: 2 USB, Firewire - iLink, VGA, line out and mic, 1 PCMCIA, Ethernet and modem... 6. With the docking you also get an extra 2 USB ( you lose one on the notebook thoug cause the docking station covers it) you also get one more iLink, a serial, a parallel and of course you get the CDRW and floppy. 7. It comes with magic gate which is really small and for me is the fine way to back up essential data. No need for special software or problems with limited floppy capacity you can get one of them wuth up to 128MB and the com sees it an extra drive that you can transfer data to with simple drags and drops. 8. The DVD/CDRW speed is really fast the EL model I bet will be even better. 9. If you have time to customise the Jog Dial can be a really handy tool. You can also use its alarm timer to bring the laptop automatically off stand by or hibernation and launch a program on the same time - it has been waking me up playing my favourite music ever since i got it. 10. The screen is perfect. No matter how much sunlight has where you are working it is perfectly visible 11. The battery life is long. With the brightness to the lowest it is around 4 - 4 1/2 hours in light work. With brightness at highest it can see you through a 2 - 2 1/2 hour dvd movie just fine or a bit more than 3 hours of light work 12. It comes with loads of programs. You may never use them but they are there if you need them. The best of them is the Photoshop Elements that is bundled and that is a cut down version of photoshop but for personal use is wonderful. 13. It is quiet - very quiet. If the little fan bothers you you can set it from the power panel to where the fan is off all the time - but bare in mind that if it gets hot then the processor speed drops automatically. 14. The 30GB although does not sound like very many given todays standards they are fine given that this is not a desktop replacement. All in all this is the best laptop i have seen or used. If you are after a laptop that combines high portability, great looks, it is full featured and very very reliable then this has to be on the top of your list. Unless you are planning to spend double the money for an IBM with the same features this is the perfect laptop and with a more than attractive price. Congratulations to Sony for another great product.
Rating:
Summary: This is an excellent laptop for frequent commuters!!
Review: I have owned this noteook for about 1 week...and I love it so much that I am starting to ditch my P2-400 desktop (with a 19" Trinitron Monitor, which is a lot bigger than this 12.1 TFT). This laptop is by no means a destop-replacement, because it is not overpowering like a P4-2GHz-mobile. However, this notebook gives user almost every device that a power-user needs. It has a DVD/Burner combo (16x/10x/24x/8xDVD), large HD (30gb, 4200RPM), floppy and a MEMORY Stick slot, which is perfect for those who owns a Sony digital camera/camcorder. The screen is excellent and it possibly has the best color saturation I have seen (its proven in one of the computer meagazine reviews). Also, the DVD videos play very well and no skip. And yes, the Jog Dial functions just like the scroll button on your mouse, except one can do so much more with it than the mouse scroll button. The detachability of the dock really helps skimming the weight of the notebook, which is an absolute plus (considering I am a communting university student, this is great as I have to carry a few books). **FYI, the optical drive is made by Matsushita, UJDA730, in Japan and has burn-proof technology!! According to Nero Info, this drive is capable of reading all CD formats, plus DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM!!!! Geez, I don't think I will have compatibility problem with this optical drive!! The entire notebook, i.e. including the dock, has 4 USBs, 2 i.Links, 2 VGA outs, 1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 2 RJ45s, 1 RJ11 and 1 PCMCIA. I thought this is helpful because most vendors are not very clear about those ports. There are only two draw backs about this notebook: 1. The speakers are lousy! But its really unimportant because most users will use the headphones anyway and the Line Out does provide quality sounds--that's something commuting users can't really complaint. 2. The HD runs a bit warm, which I believe is underneath the right wrist. This perhaps annoyed me for the first couple of days, but its really nothing now since one's wrist may get warm anyway after typing for a little while :). This is just another excellent product from Sony!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Long term experience of a Vaio
Review: I have two of the previous model of the Vaio. I really like the small form factor and the feel of it. I have the Z505 series which has an external DVD that plugs into the PCMCIA which is a real drag when you use 802.11b networking. After 2 years the machine has held up OK with a couple of major issues. First the power supply connector is highly proprietary and subject to the little plastic insert snapping. This would not be a problem if Sony would sell me a replacement connector, they want (money) for a repair person to fix it. The other problem is that the batteries do seem to go soft after a while. My extended life LiIon battery dropped to giving me muinites of battery time. All in all par for the course with Laptops I suppose. I have had no better experience reliability wise with any other brand. 2 years appears to be the limit.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Notebook & Features; Few Problems
Review: I recently purchased a Sony VAIO R505EL and I must say, I really enjoy it. Although it is my first notebook, I have used several other notebooks so I'm pretty familiar with what a notebook should and shouldn't have. When I first decided on purchasing the notebook, I was thinking it was going to be larger than what it is. In fact, the notebook is much smaller than you would imagine. While Sony claims that the notebook is 1" thin, it actually varies. The slight oval shape of the notebook makes it vary from 1-1.2" in thickness. Add the docking station and it's about 1.3-1.5". For the screen to be 12.1", it's actually not that bad. In fact, it's almost like looking into a 15" CRT monitor (slightly smaller). It's very comfortable and easy to read from. Sony incorporated their famous pixel-squeezing technology into this screen (similar to the Sony Clie PDAs) so the screen is crisp and sharp. Although not specified, I believe sony also included their WEGA style Anamorphic technology into the screen as well (about 2/3 of my wide-screen DVDs play full screen on the notebook). The keyboard layout is nice. It's just big enough to touch-type on without problems. Most of the keys are in their standard position so you won't have to get used to too many differences. On paper, the notebook is supposed to be 4.3lbs. If so, it sure doesn't seem like it. The notebook is very light and easy to cary. The docking station doesn't seem to add 2lbs either. On the notebook itself, there are a few ports. A USB port is on both sides of the notebook. There is a PCMCIA Type II slot on the left side and a Memory Stick slot right next to it. On the right side are the headphone and microphone jacks, an i.Link (IEEE 1394) port, and a DC-OUT port. A modem and Ethernet jack lie on the right side as well. The docking station features a DVD/CD-RW drive on the right and a 1.44MB floppy on the left. Legend ports are found on the back. Battery life on the notebook is pretty good. Sony advertises it at up to 4.5 hours of battery life. Here are my results (note I did modify the power profiles and brought the processor down a little more - and yes, this can be done because this is a feature of the Mobile processors): Without Docking Station: 3.5 - 4 Hours
With Docking Station: 3 - 3.5 Hours Watching DVD: 2.5 - 3 Hours (Level 9 LCD Setting)
Burning CDs: 2 - 2.5 Hours The graphics on the notebook are not bad. Their not great, but their not bad. I don't have any 3DMark scores yet, but I do know that it played my FS2002 at 60fps. There were a few problems I noted with the notebook. The first is that the HD comes partitioned (to some this isn't a problem... to me it is.). For those who don't like partitions will have to reformat the HD with your desired partition and reload the OS from the recovery CDs. Another problem I found is that the keyboard doesn't 100% respond to light key taps. For those who are use to the quiet soft-type keyboards, you will have to press a little harder sometimes. The sound quality on the notebook is OK (stretching that one a bit). However, the sound quality on through the headphone port is excellent (if using quality headphones). The volume is not that loud. For noisy situations, you might need some noise cancelling headphones. The notebook DOES NOT turn on when you open the lid. This feature (unless I've completely missed it somewhere) does not exist on the notebook. So for those who want the notebook to turn on when you lift the lid, it isn't going to happen. The preset power profiles WILL need adjusting. By default, disconnecting the AC adapter drops the notebook into max battery mode. The processor drops down to about 850MHz (this is a unique feature of Mobile processors) and the LCD drops down to level 1 (at this level, the LCD is very dark). On my system, I set the max battery profile to leave the LCD at Level 9, but drop the processor to 733MHz (Processor: More Battery Life). The modem on the notebook is 56K, however it seems to be software driven. Sound from the modem comes through the speakers and is very blocky (making a phone call from the notebook is very unclear). My fastest connection on the modem as been 33.6K (I get 56K connections from my PC on the same line). Although the screen is pretty readable, if you need to change the resolution... you are out of luck. The LCD is preset for 1024 x 768. No other resolutions are programmed into the LCD's flash so changing the resolution will NOT fill up the screen. The notebook DOES have a max resolution of 1400 x 1050 on the Intel Graphics card, but the larger resolutions will require a VGA monitor to use. All and all, for what the notebook is worth, it's not bad. I would recommend the notebook to anyone who is looking for a thin & light notebook with a lot of good features. ... Just another issue I ran into ... The docking station is i.Link driven. Because of this, most CD-Burning software WILL NOT work with this notebook. I guess that's why Sony didn't include any. Roxio Standard and Platinum will not work with this notebook due to the fact that it doesn't read i.Link based drives. The only software I got to work was Ahead Nero 5.5.9.0. Older versions didn't work. Reg
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