opinions on the sonly viao laptops pls?

rotters · 28 Mar 2008 at 17:11

looking at getting the VGNAR61ZU laptop just wondered if anyone had any thoughts?? can i gett better for the money?

Intel® Centrino® processor technology with Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T8300 (2.40 GHz and 800 MHz FSB) and Intel® PRO/Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate (English version)
500 GB Serial ATA 5400rpm hard disk drive (2 x 250 GB, RAID 0 and 1 supported)
4 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM (2 x 2048 MB), maximum 4 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM - In the case of 4GB, a portion of the system memory over 3GB might not be available to the operating system
17" WUXGA (1920 x 1200) widescreen X-black LCD with double lamp technology
NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT graphics processing unit with Total Available Graphics Memory of 1791 MB and dedicated Video Memory of 512 MB
Blu-ray Disc™ drive: plays and records Blu-ray Disc™ (BD-R/-RE/-ROM/ DVD±RW/±R DL/RAM)
Hybrid TV Tuner & remote control
Built-in 'Motion Eye' Digital Camera (max. 30 frames per second, 1.3 Mega Pixels) with Motion Picture Function (max. resolution (pixels) SXGA/1280*1024/raw data) and built-in microphone
Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n; Bluetooth® technology
3 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 ports
Hi-gloss black finish; UK QWERTY keyboard
Intel, the Intel logo, Centrino, Centrino Inside, Intel Core and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Windows and Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

seen them for £1699.

Rotters

Bengaboy · 28 Mar 2008 at 18:42

Good laptop, but way too high price for the spec.

KWJay · 28 Mar 2008 at 23:07

I must say mate, i've been fairly impressed with my new Vaio. I bought the AR51M recently as, for the spec, it's a bargain as far as i'm concerned. It did retail for about £1250 but i picked one up for £780. The screen is only 1440x900 but it's sharp and clear with good viewing angles and has been pretty easy to setup.

The question is what do you want the laptop for? If you want it for mobile gaming you can def get better for the money. I think the Vaio's are generally overpriced but at the price i paid for my one i felt it was a good deal. If you just want one for entertainment/mobile bluray/light gaming then i'd recommend going for a prev line at a knock down price as for serious gaming and effective desktop replacement then shop around.

One thing i will say is that Sony ship them with a lot unneeded/unneccesary software and i spent a good few days removing it all and gettin it setup the way i want it. But overall, pretty happy.

Dano · 29 Mar 2008 at 15:09

I've had two Vaio's now and I'd certainly buy another, build quality on the most recent is not as good as the old one, but is still better than a lot of laptops I see and the design is far and away better then most I've seen.

badbob · 29 Mar 2008 at 15:13

You're paying for the Sony brand, so of course you can buy better for the money ie from no name brands. If you're not gaming you don't need to spend £1700 on a laptop, a £500/£600 model is fine.

rotters · 30 Mar 2008 at 22:48

ok this is for heavy gaming via a hdmi cable to a 40inch screen and obviously for blueray and internet usage. really confused by what is out on the market.

rotters

edgedemon · 30 Mar 2008 at 22:54

You can definately get a higher spec for the same price, but you are paying extra because it is Sony, and they just look so damn good

For Gaming, go for the highest CPU/RAM/GPU combo you can afford especially on a screen that size as you cant upgrade or overclock later

devilkazuya · 31 Mar 2008 at 00:56

I have the AR51SU , so it has all the good stuff including the full 1080p display which is simply excellent for a laptop. The viewing angles are very good for what it is. The AR series laptops are pretty immense, perhaps bigger than what you even think when you actually have it in front of you. Heavy too. Therefore it is not even remotely portable in my opinion. The price is definitely sky rocketed by the branding, and you can only justify this on any level with the styling. It definitely looks like a beauty and it looks expensive too. The keyboard is slightly unusual in its key design, but I find it nice to type on and responsive.

So in essence, it does a lot of things well, but in terms of performance for the price it is overpriced. The display is TOP notch and the overall machine looks great.

colinuk · 31 Mar 2008 at 07:09

Used sony Viao at work a few years a go and unless the build has got a lot better id wouldnt touch them with the 10ft barge pole. Always breaking, not powerful enough, too high priced.

Still, if they have improved, maybe, but for me, they go into the same slot as Mac's, rubsih and expensive.

Colin