typical sony...
Written: Oct 29 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: lightweight, good display, nice features, size, metal case on screen
Cons: not mechanically solid, keyboard blows monkey chow, short warranty with no real out-of-warranty support
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| xlugxmiop's Full Review: Sony VAIO Z505R PC Notebook |
I've had my Z505S for a little over a year now. It's my second Sony laptop; the first was the ill-fated PCG-707, which I believe was their first VAIO notebook (and a serious lemon to boot). Most of the Z505 series are very similar, so my comments will be applicable to most any of the Sony slim notebooks.
It's certainly lightweight, which is a huge advantage to me--I ride a bike instead of driving a car, and the thought of hauling around a 6-8 pound notebook is a real drag. At 3lbs I can easily carry it back-n-forth to work or anywhere else I want to take it, and that's the whole point of having a laptop in the first place--portability.
I use my laptop almost exclusively, certainly more than I do any of my desktop systems. I'm also a very fast typist (and a computer programmer) so the laptop ends up taking a lot of abuse.
It's not the most mechanically solid laptop in the world. For example, I've lost most of the screws (twice!) that hold the keyboard in, and these days the screen feels very loose as well. On the other hand I love the metal case on the top.
The display is quite good, and I have no complaints about it--it's sharp, clear, and quite responsive. I've had no stuck pixels or other problems.
It runs hot. Then again, most of the Pentium-based laptops run hot.
The ethernet dongle connector was a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. Just put an RJ-45 jack in the laptop and be done with it, Sony--these doofy connectors tend to break off, as anyone that uses a PCMCIA ethernet card can attest. Admittedly the connector *has* held up, although I did have to replace one of my cables (I bought two spares anticipating this would happen, and I was right...and lucky, as replacement cables are on perpetual backorder it seems).
The keyboard sucks. It feels sorta OK, but as I mentioned the screws holding the keyboard in fell out of the back of the laptop, and that doesn't help. The worst problem is that it's very sensitive to dirt--hair or anything else that gets into the keyboard can make keys stop working. The key mechanisms are very fragile, and I've broken 3-4 keys (I had the keyboard replaced once and I broke a key about a week after I got it back).
The harddrive is not very reliable. I had to have mine replaced after about a year (and it was defective from the get-go it seems, as it was far too noisy). I had it replaced in August 2000, and 3 months later the new drive is starting to sound like it's going bad as well (with occasional bearing noise). Nope, it's not the fan.
I usually run Linux on it, and it's been very solid--no inexplicable crashes or other problems.
The onboard speakers suck, but what do you expect? They're far too small.
I really like the touchpad, but it took some getting used to. I now use a touchpad instead of a trackball or mouse on my desktop machines.
The battery lifetime is poor at best--I've never gotten anywhere close to three hours on the standard battery (more like one hour), and the extended battery is good for maybe 2 hours.
One PCMCIA slot isn't really enough, especially a half-height slot. I'd rather have a full-height slot and skip the memorystick slot (who uses memorysticks?)
There's no PS/2 connectors available at all if you want to use an external keyboard, tho fortunately a PS/2 to USB adapter is fairly cheap.
Ah yes, hardware support. Ha ha ha. If you want to use a laptop for more than a year Sony is the wrong choice, as Sony seems to come out with new models (and drops old ones) on a monthly basis. Once the warranty expires they really don't want to hear about you or your broken notebook, and it's almost impossible to get extended warranties. And even if you have an extended warranty you may be out of luck anyway--I have horror stories to tell about my poor 707.
I haven't used their "technical support", as I have no use for it.
Their repair service is of variable quality if/when you can get it, and out-of-warranty support is far too expensive. (Hopefully you need the repair service after a year and not before.) Unfortunately after I had my laptop repaired the microphone stopped working; I haven't been willing to part with my laptop long enough to have it fixed, as I don't use the mike that often anyway. (I had to send my old 707 back several times to get it repaired, each time it came back it had some new set of problems...I finally got smart and just left it broken.)
My next laptop will be another Sony Z505 series, but I'm hoping I can get another year out of this one. (I've actually had it for about 14 months, so maybe this isn't unrealistic.)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
xlugxmiop
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Member: Xlug Xmiop
Location: Berkeley, CA
Reviews written: 50
Trusted by: 6 members
About Me:
Eep, opp, oop, ah-ah!
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