Think Twice.... (or more)
Written: May 29 '01 (Updated May 29 '01)
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Pros: Small and Light weight
Cons: So many
The Bottom Line: I will not recommend this laptop for non-technical person but if you have extra $300 in addition to paying $1899 for the laptop. I wish I can return mine.
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| doraeja's Full Review: Sony VAIO C1VN PC Notebook |
Sony C1VN is probably the smallest ‘real computer in small size” out there. The C1VN is in Sony signature purple housing with all of the ports on board except serial, parallel, NIC, and IRDA.
The over all built is a solid piece of machinery which I am sure you all know about it’s feature as anyone would be able to go to Sony’s website and read about it and I am not going to repeat what Sony website already said.
These are “the bad” about C1VN:
1. Do not come with floppy disk (another $70+)
2. Memory expansion is expensive ($130+) because
C1VN do not use generic RAM
3. Sony will not support anything that do not come
with computer (not even try to)
4. Do not have all the drivers and software posted on
the web site (in case you lost your CDROM but they
will sell you replacement CD for $20+
5. Unlike IBM and others, Sony do not have any
extensive system documents, drivers, faq, forum
6. Sony do not like to update their drivers or BIOS
for its machines
7. There are no aftermarket parts (not many) for Sony
Vaio
8. When system crash you must have Sony CDROM/CDRW/DVD
(cost $2xx+) in order to recover your system (if
you are not computer-tech savvy)
9. AC adapter port (the part that you stick it in the
right side of the computer) is very thin and made
from plastic material whereas you can simply break
them if you push your adapter upward.
10. There is no parallel port which mean that if you
have older printer then another $1x-$2x for the USB
to printer cable.
11. There is no serial port which mean that if you
already have PDA then you have to buy either new
cable ($20+) for your PDA or USB to serial adapter
($30+)
12. Most of the hardware on this machine MUST have Sony
drivers/software installed in order for them to
work properly.
13. Camera do not work under Windows 2000 (as of 5,
2001)
14. Only 90 days warranty for the battery but 1 year on
the system
15. Tech support do not know what they are talking
about sometime
16. Hard disk drive is not upgradeable (if you do that
will voided Sony warranty and require you to take
your machine apart)
17. Fan is always on all the time with two options
performance (loud), quite (quite)
18. Battery will last as advertised provided that your
turn on your machine and let it sit there and do
nothing.
19. The display hook is a bit week-material and wrong
pull or twist could case the breakage it
These are “the good” about C1VN:
1. Machine is very small and powerful (similar unit
Toshiba libretto but using regular dinosaur Pentium
chips)
2. Very bright screen
3. Option for different capacity battery but co$tly
4. The AC adapter is small
5. Other cool stuffs about C1VN that you can read from
the Sony website
Overall I feel that most reviews for the C1VN on the web is a bit mislead that is because of the features that C1VN have and other laptop do not have so most reviews tend to be on the good side (by comparing C1VN against other laptop that they use) or the bad side would be ‘hard drive to slow’, ‘battery don’t last long’, ‘machine too hot’, ‘C1VN comes with Win ME’. Those are the common bad side that EVERY LAPTOP has.
For those of you who seriously consider buying the C1VN and are just end users (do not know a lot about computer), I would suggest you to buy Sony CDROM/DVD/CDRW which will run you about $2xx-$4xx (Sony drive is use for system recovery as we all know the unit shipped with Win ME therefore so much for stability!). You will need one of those drives when you try to do system recovery and Sony tech support do not support/help you if you don’t have Sony drive (there are other methods to reinstall but will take times and technical knowledge).
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1899
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: 501-600
RAM: 128
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Epinions.com ID:
doraeja
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Just a normal guy who love anything electronics.
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