Customer Ratings & Reviews

Bought this pc today after looking over the store display several times. I've gotten rid of some bloatware and tweaked the settings to my taste and so far so good. Great machine. I'm usually an avid Toshiba supporter and was a little nervous about this machine since this is the first non-toshiba I've owned, however, I'm pretty satisfied so far. Pros: Big Keys ( for people with big hands like mine) Nice textured design Great Hard-drive space and excellent display screen 2nd Gen I3 HDMI port Mic and Headphone jacks are located on the left side and not the front (Something I wished my previous Toshiba Satellites had done) Cons: Keys make a clicky noise just by touching them, don't have to press. Lack of a USB 3.0 (could have replaced one of the 4 USB 2.0 ports) Sound quality is truly lacking. The speakers cannot hold a candle to my previous Toshiba laptops. To much treble and are hard to hear, even on maximum volume.

I owned several VAIO desktops in the late 1990's and liked them. But Sony is not traditionally known for great laptops b/c I normally thinks of the old IBM Thinkpad. But this Core i3 machine is a pleasant to have thus far. I just got it two weeks ago b/c I had to get something and the featured discounted laptops were all sold out. I picked it initially b/c of the keyboard and screen. When I got home, I wiped out the existing Win 7 Home Premium and installed 7 Professional. Not only the latter version is better, but it took care of the pre-bundled Norton antivirus and any other processes running at startup. It also took me a full day to download and re-install most of the necessary drivers from Sony's site. I just installed Avast, which is lighter and it's faster now. I haven't had a crash thus far in two weeks, which is a first ever for a new laptop. I did a "stress test" by opening a bunch of web browser and apps. I tried to max out the number of processes to see what the limit is. It did slow down but surprised me a bit in handling them. So adding another 4 GB of RAM would help. I watched a few movies on it and so far I like it. The sound is not loud (which is surprising for Sony) but I use a Sennheiser headphone and it sounds a lot better. Battery time is not that great but it's a 6-cell one so it's normal. The touch pad is really nice and perfect thus far. The overall look is neat. It does look high end for a middle-tier laptop. Eventually, I'll do a lot of programming on this laptop and will see how it handles all the run time. Gaming, not sure if I want to do that yet b/c everyone gets older and the feeling is waning away a bit. But doesn't look like it will be an issue. But for an average user, I think this is a good laptop.

I needed a computer for school and also for personal use as well. I've had this for about a month now and it has exceeded all of my expectations. It runs pretty fast for a laptop, and can run computer games fairly well, even on high quality. The only thing that i dislike about this laptop is that fingers can easily smear on the cover, but its easy to clean up, so I can't complain. If you want a laptop for everyday use, this is the one to get. I cannot be more happier with my purchase.

Ive had this computer for a little over a month and its GREAT! i love it. The one bad part is that the speakers aren't to loud, and there's no bass system pretty much, so not to good for music, but i love it. Its fast, even with multiple tabs and windows loading at once. Downloads quickly. Large screen, and good quality. Easy to use. Full keyboard with seperate number pad on the rite side. But i also dont really like how the mouse pad sensor is shifted over to the left a few inches to line up with the keyboard with the letters. but great computer. Good for school work, and probably work purposes too.

I just purchased mine in store yesterday, and set it up last night. I'm not a "techy" person. The set up was easy, and I was so thrilled how easily it picked up on my in home wireless router without my needing to enter codes and so on. The HD screen is fabulous, and for the size it feels extremely lightweight, even lighter than the stated 6 lb weight on the specification section. It's sleek...so sleek...one of the most attractive "computers" I've seen! I have to set up email in it today, so I'm praying that goes as smooth as the rest. I purchased the 3 machine Microsoft Home Office, and that was a breeze and so nice to have the updated version now. So far, I have no complaints....and love it! I'm looking forward to getting to know its other features. I agree with the other reviews in that it appears to be a great laptop for the price....don't hesitate....I think you'll be happy!

I solely purchased Toshiba's up until now. I have no complaints about the Vaio laptop itself, as I have been a proud owner for two weeks. The computer boots up fast, programs load fast and I like the wide, clear display. In comparison to my 5 year old Toshiba Satellite, the speakers are very quiet, but it's not a deal-breaker by any means. I picked up a pair of Sennheiser headphones as well, and the sound is pretty awesome. My purchase of this Sony was a last minute decision before I left the U.S. to go back to China. One aspect of Best Buy that I don't appreciate is how you are charging an extra $99 to remove "bloatware" and create restore DVD's forcing consumers to shell out extra money. There are consumers who aren't tech savvy, but for those of us that are, and trust the Best Buy brand, remember not everybody wants you to do this extra step. This should be an optional, add-on service for the Geek Squad, not a pre-requisite for purchase. However, there was a very nice sales lady that "went in the back" and managed to have ONE last Sony that hadn't been de-bloated. The top of the box was shredded open, but she did save me the $99 that I didn't want to spend and jokingly offered to duct tape the top, I considered the gesture and kindly declined.

This is a great laptop, I use it primary for school and work and it works perfectly. I got an amazing deal as this was mistakingly priced at $479. Super easy setup and fast speeds, the screen resolution is great as well.

I just bought this Laptop today from Best Buy ($549.99 with free choice of 1 year antivirus software), for my Sons 20th Birthday. It was not my choice, as he did all the searching for the perfect Laptop that fit his and the criteria that I gave my Daughter when she found the Laptop she wanted. - Pros; Mostly about the features because this Laptop came with so much for a low price. - Intel i3 Processor (AMD sucks, that's why they are always cheaper & check them out on YouTube to see what happens if your fan happens to go bad). My daughter & Son now both have an intel i3 processor & I have a dual core for work, and the i3 blows mine away by leaps and bounds. - Huge 640 GB Hard Drive Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm) - 4 GB Ram, expandable to 8 GB Ram - 15.5” High Def LCD back-lite screen - Intel HD Graphics 3000, High Definition 1080p. - Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive Create custom DVDs and CDs. - 3MB cache (huge) - 2.2GHz processor speed (Fast) - Number pad which is uncommon on Laptops but makes Math Students calculations much faster on their Laptop. Excellent Feature! - SD & Sony Mini Card reader. Love this, so we can easily upload Pics & Vids for editing. - Built-in webcam with microphone for Skype - Built-in Intel Centrino Wireless-N LAN, w/ B & G as well. - 1 Year of my choice of Anti-Virus, + Malware + Web surfing Software (Best Buy Deal, choices are, Norton, Kaspersky, Webroot, Trend Micro Titanium) Norton or Webroot after their update severely slowed my Dell Laptop & my Daughters HP Intel i3 Laptop. I picked Trend Micro Titanium because of great reviews & it wont slow the Laptop down. I have always used Free AVG, until the last Version slowed my Daughters HP Intel i3 processor, so all my Laptops have Free Avast on them from CNet.com, even works 2 laptops. - **Has a Wireless way to connect to TV to view Movies (extra cost for Wireless NETGEAR Push2TV adapter), but comes with an HDMI port, so all you really need is a long enough HDMI cable and it will connect to your High Def TV. Awesome idea! Great to Watch Home made Video's on our TV - Super Low Price here at Best Buy! I have rarely seen Sony VAIO laptops selling for under $1,000.00 & know we find a huge bargain for $549.99. They are running out fast too, because the store I was to get it from ran out yesterday, so I found 1 near where I work. Another option is the free store to store shipping. - DVD Read & Writer - Windows 7 Home Premium w/ the much more secure 64 bit functionality vs the 32 bit that most everything else has at this price. Cons; I really only have 2, so I added a little Story about all the Quality Sony Products that I have owned. - If you look for or perform a search for this Model # at the Sony Website, it comes up with 0 results. I really do not like when companies do this so that 1 store can offer a low price guarantee, because no one else has this special Model #. I did go to Sony’s site to prove the case and anything even close is much more expensive. So maybe I do not like Sony’s business practices, but by my next story, I certainly LOVE their products and have been using them for over 20 years. - Cannot use my 2005 Ghost disk Software to create a backup image of the hard drive, due to Windows 7 & maybe more specifically to the 64 bit side of things. Just a Wish I wish they had more, so I could buy one for my wife & 1 for myself, but unfortunately they are selling out fast at Best Buy. One reviewer on the Best buy site said he got his for less then $500.00 because it was tagged wrong. I do not know how Best Buy does it, because the same thing happened when I bought my 40" Sony Bravia LCD 720p for $650, when it was selling everywhere else for $1200 several years ago. After shopping around, we found that Circuit City had the very same Model# on their shelf, turned on & priced at $1200.00 & I checked the web for pricing 3 months later and they still sold for $1200. I should have bought all they had and resold them with a Turk High Def Antenna and Cable installed for 40 or more Channels of Free over the Air broadcast in High Def. My Neighbor, who installs Fios for Verizon came in to see the Picture and he told me that he had seen several of types of the Sony Bravia LED TV's and they by far had the Best over the Air High Def Pictures. Summary; I guess you know by now that I am a Sony guy and they have never done me wrong. I owned Sony VCR's because they were the best with a decent price. I have a Sony Walkman CD Player, Sony Camera (2), Sony TV, Sony 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System, now a Sony VAIO Laptop (my Son does), & to top it off, I bought my 1st Sony PS3 60GB at Walmart 5 years ago for $400.00 w/ free remote and choice of game, & 3 months ago it finally died, so I sent it to a Fix it center with Free shipping on the internet and they Quoted me $99.00 to fix it and then charged $22.99 to ship it back. They also warranted their work for 90 days & my youngest has not killed it yet again. I say that to let you know that Sony makes the Best products, but whatever you do, do not waste your time dealing with Sony after the warranty runs out, because they make a killing repairing their own products and have notoriously bad customer service. So, about 4 years ago I won a bid on a 40Gb PS3 on Ebay for $300 and it came with Guitar Hero ($100) and 3 other games that I sold. That PS3 is on its last leg but there are video's on YouTube that show you step by step on how to repair them yourself with a Heat gun. My youngest & I have done that about 10 times for each PS3 because it is not a permanent fix, but it will get you thru 6 months while you save for another. I'm a Sony FanBoy & Loving it!

Hard drive crashed and through 90 minutes of wasted calls and being told I had no choice but to either return the computer to them through the mail (and not get it back for at least 7 to 10 business days), I finally was able to convince them to send a service technician (the first 2 reps told me i did not qualify!!). However they warned me he would take my hard drive and give me a new one. So I had to figure it out myself how to get the data retrieved because they would only help if I paid for their premium service!!! I finally got the data removed and restored the computer back to factory settings. And the Sony technician never called or showed up.. Today I get a warning about a hard drive failure again. Blue Screen. This is now only the 4th week I have had it..

The Sony Vaio is a great computer for the price. It is everything I was looking for in terms of memory, screen size, and weight. The set up was easy. I have zero complaints.

This laptop is excellent. I got it home hooked it in and this laptop took no more than five minutes to set up. The core i3 processer is perfect for this computer. The computer is lightening fast and installed my software in under five minutes. The case on this computer is one of sturdiest I've seen and has a very nice design. I wasn't very impressed with the webcam resolution you could see a lot of pixels in it. I tend to do a lot of powerpoints so the hdmi and vga port work nicely. The minute this computer came on it connected to my network. This computer is AMAZING!!!

I was not planning on buying a new laptop until I found out my old one had basically died. I looked all around and came upon this Sony. You cant beat the price! I love this laptop. Its easy to use, keyboard is very easy to get use to, its fast, webcam feature is nice, and it was very easy to set up. I did not pay the 80.00 dollars to have them make my back up disk. I bought the disk at Best Buy for 10.00 dollars and did it myself. Once I read the directions it was very easy to do and only took an hr. Great Computer! Great Price! Very Happy!

This is a great laptop for the price ! The led screen is crystal clear ! The only bad part is the sound, The speakers are not that loud .. But I guess if you use headphones it's ok!

This is my first laptop and when I purchased it was on sale. I must say some the issues I have run into with other computers are not issue with this one. I do a lot of work related stuff on here including music and web design and the speed, functionality, the picture and so much more are simply amazing. To say I happy that I didn't take a hand me down laptop from a family member would be an understatement. My wife can't wait to get hers.

I don't normally write these kinds of reviews but after reading another review about Sony I decided to also follow suit. This is my second Sony laptop and I am quite familiar with their computers. A bit overpriced but you pay for the "Sony name". I purchased this notebook and from day one I had a problem with the fan making awful noises. I called Sony and played them the noise and they said it was OK however annoying. It was within 30 days and the seller offered to exchange it. Soon after the dvd drive stopped working and In the end I had to sent it back to Sony which took over three weeks before they looked at it and they billed me over $300 to fix it, as it was not covered under the "limited warranty" for reasons that make no sense. In the end I asked for my new computer back (w/o the repair) and had to buy a new dvd drive (with my money) and install it myself for a laptop that is less than one year old. The next thing to go was the track pad which for some reason was behaving erratically. Once again Sony claims that this is not covered and luckily. I found a forum online that suggested a procedure of using electrical tape to stop shorting out some inner circuit. This is a great machine provided it is working. That is, its fast and a good workhorse for my engineering software. However, I had three major problems with it . The fan was fixed however the expensive dvd drive was my burden to fix on my own and I was lucky enough to find other users with the same track pad issue. After repeated calls to Sony tech support I would say that its like buying a computer with no support or people willing to fix it. I guess if you are tech savvy then this is not a problem (unless you have to replace expensive components). For me I will not buy this laptop or another Sony just because the service center is designed to come up with reasons why your repair should cost money. Sony is aware of these problems and just ignores them. Understandably this model is at a good price and therefore it is worth your consideration to take into account the possibility of shelling out money for repairs.

I would absolutely recommend this laptop to anyone. I bought it for Christmas, and it has been more than great! It runs super fast, the picture is amazing, the speakers are great, and the raised buttons are a plus. I didn't think I would like the raised buttons at first, but they are alot easier to use. I would say my only objection is the webcam. The picture isn't all that great, but it is reasonable. Other then that, I think this is an amazing laptop and I am so glad I bought it. :)

I hate this laptop!'i know it looks nice and all bit the speakers suck and the laptop it's self feels cheap! I payed 700 dollars for this and its terrible. I don't not reccomend it and If I had to say 1good thing about It Probley would be I like its mouse and the trexture(:!yah I don't reccomend it at all! It's the worst laptop we have had yet!

I originally had a Dell before this laptop, but unfortunately that got water damaged and Dell refused to replace it. So I took the opportunity to find a better laptop. When I came across this one I saw that it was an amazing price for the size and all the performance it had. So I purchased it seeing that it was the best in the price range I was shopping in. Once I picked it up and brought it home, I instantly fell in love. The start up was extremely fast, and the programs all ran fast also. The space is also amazing, I already have a lot of things I have put on my laptop, and it still runs just as it did when I had nothing on it. I would recommend this to anybody who wanted a great laptop for an excellent price! You can never go wrong with Sony

I run a business from this laptop and it performs beyond my expectations at every turn. From running power software like Adobe CS to Office and multi-tasking all of them...this machine handles it all. Sony VAIO rocks for business use!

I've owned this for about a month now and I really like it! It has a lot more room for my files and it has a nice big screen, which I like since I watch movies and tv shows on it. No problems with it yet and Im very happy with it!