Give up my Versatile Vaio? No Vay!!
Written: Feb 08 '01
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Pros: Great display, track pad, keyboard, all-in-one-ness.
Cons: No reset switch. Cannot upgrade the hard drive. Not a featherweight.
The Bottom Line: Strong, versatile all-in-one. Every feature you could ever need in a single case. Fast enough and with enough capacity to give years of service.
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| cdwilli1's Full Review: Sony VAIO PCG-360 |
This machine has travelled all over the world with me for the last 18 months and is still flawless in every respect. This is probably my 10th laptop in as many years - I have had ones from Gateway, Apple, IBM, Dell... you name a brand & I have probably had one. The Vaio is the best all round machine of them all - not as powerful as many machines now available, but it will take a lot for me to change from this machine.
Features
14.1" display. Crisp and clear - run it in 1024x768 and it performs perfectly.
DVD player. Use it on the plane to ward off boredom; looks excellent in full screen. Controls simple and intuitive. Good for CDROM or CD audio, too.
56K modem. No issues in dialing in to work from anywhere in the world. Line quality tolerant.
Sound. The sound quality from the speakers is OK - just what one expects from tiny speakers - but using a good quality pair of headphones it sounds superb. Good bass & treble response.
Hard drive. This machines hard drive cannot be upgraded which is very disappointing. The drive is, however, adequate.
Track pad. LOVE IT! Best mouse on a portable, period.
Integrated floppy. Adds weight, but worth it for the versatility.
Firewire (iLink). Attach camcorder and control with supplied software. GREAT!
USB. Single port use it for an external mouse.
IR. Never used it but could be handy one day?
Dock. Drop machine into desktop dock and get Ethernet, external video, external keyboard and external mouse instantly.
PC card sockets. Not as useful as might be expected since pretty much everything you need is in the machine or the dock.
Full size keyboard. Works great, after 18 months of use shows minimal wear.
RAM. Looked hard to add more, but was surprisingly easy and the machine went together perfectly after it was added.
Batteries. One comes with the machine I purchased two additional which allows me to use the machine for 6-7 hours almost lasts all the way to the UK from the West Coast, which is plenty especially if you stop to eat and sleep. Another nice aspect of the machine is that by removing the floppy drive the machine can charge two batteries at once which is great when you need to charge them while you sleep.
Software Bundle
Extensive although the only packages I actually use are the OS itself and the video capture/editing (which is pretty good); the rest is less useful for business purposes, but would be great for home use.
Flaw
No reset switch!! If you know Windows you also know it hangs and/or crashes whenever possible; without a reset switch you have to do the following things to recover from such an event:
1)Disconnect the power.
2)Open the battery door.
3)Remove the battery.
4)Put back the battery.
5)Attach power.
6)Turn the machine back on.
Now WHO thought that was acceptable!
Recommendations
Keep the track pad clean it works perfectly if you do. Get an additional power supply for travel very useful indeed. Now American Airlines offers the Power Port on some planes it is useful to have the Power Port power supply to travel with as it spares the batteries.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium II
Processor speed: 401-500
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
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Epinions.com ID:
cdwilli1
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Location: San Diego, California
Reviews written: 55
Trusted by: 26 members
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