Sony Vaio Laptop:It's hot! Caliente! Literally!
Written: Feb 29 '00 (Updated Nov 14 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: High resolution, firewire, fast, VERY light
Cons: Bad sound, low battery life, wimp doggle
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| jennifernorth's Full Review: Sony VAIO Z505R PC Notebook |
I was issued this computer for work doing digital video editing and minor tech support for a large network for my school's dorms and for those who say there's no such thing as a 'free lunch' let me take YOU to school.
This baby comes loaded with a Pentium 3 processor, what does that mean? FAST. However, because it is "super slim" there is no cooling system so it does get VERY hot even when left in sleep mode. I wouldn't trust this machine left running while on a bed or other cloth surface. My heat didn't work for the entire month of December so I cuddled with my Vaio while checking my email. Delightful, but I digress.
I'm no scale but I'd venture to guess this puppy weighs less than 2 pounds, what does that mean? Not much memory. If you try to run more than one program at a time all those mhz aren't going to make a bit of difference.
There's only one slot expansion slot, most notebooks have come with 2 in the past one for modem one for "upgrade" (ie ethernettting). Mine is ethernetted and the card cost me about $125 (compared to the $50 for a desktop PC ethernet card).
There is no internal disk drive but there is a lot of hard drive space. The whole nature of external expansions in notebooks is really clunky though. The doggle is extremely unpopular, they break easily ($30 each replacement) and the card slides out at the slightest tug.
The firewire port makes the VAIO great for converting your digital camera and video works. Firewire is currently the fastest connection for such transfers. There's one USB port, one mic slot, and one headphones jack. Which brings me to my last point on the VAIO. The Sound. It's TERRIBLE. The only speakers are very small, not very powerful and are on the BOTTOM. Even when the sound is on full blast you can barely hear it if you have it on a desk and not at all if it's on a soft surface. I think this was a huge error in judgement on Sony's part. Why would someone want to edit their digital movies and not be able to HEAR their movies? I don't think they seriously meant for this to be a professional machine which makes it great for the average computer user or first time digital artist.
This computer is PERFECT for a college student, and I say that from a perspective of a tech support artist ;) I love working with my VAIO.
Recommended:
Yes
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jennifernorth
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