Considering a Sony VAIO CW1S1E

Hey guys,

It's been ages since I've been into laptops so your advise would be great. I've speced the following laptop and just need your feedback on the spec and price.

I'm coming from a Acer Aspire 5720 so this will be a "massive" jump I expect. The laptop will be used for media, studies, web design and generally needs to last 2 yearsish. Gaming may come into the equation at some point.

Spec:

* Pink
* Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo 2.20 Ghz
* 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
* 4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
* Blu-ray Disc(TM) drive
* Windows® 7 Home Premium
* NVIDIA® GeForce® GT230M 512MB
* 14" LCD, 1366 x 768 + webcam

Priced at £770

I can downgrade some of the parts like the CPU to 2.1 but I don't know how much that will set me back in performance.

 

If you feel you'd like to downgrade then I'd say go for a P-version processor. Not a T-version.

The P-versions are made to diffuse heating much better than the T-versions.

I've got the P7450 Core 2 Duo, 320 GB HDD, 4GB Ram, Nvidia 230M GT and without Bluray.

 

Thanks for that, I plan to reformat it any advise on what to keep? And is it worth getting the blu-ray write?

 

My main concerns with the laptop are:

- Price
- Speaker quality (I heard it isn't too great)
- Webcam quality (current Acer has 1.3 MP)
- keyboard quality and lack of 9 pad (the latter is of interest to me)

 

Any ideas on what to keep? Hum... That question would require a pretty subtle answer and I'm pretty sure I lack that.

It depends what YOU think is important. Any laptop differs in applications and whatnot, but as a standard its always good to keep your old drivers somewhere (although they are all available on the Sony support site - well, on the European site at least).

Regarding the bluray - well, it depends. If you want a future proof storage device/multimedia device, I'd say go for it. Bluray is the best upcoming standard for movies, games etc.

I didn't get it for my CW, as I already have a PS3 with Bluray. As far as I know, all Playstation3 consoles are shipped with Bluray, so if you've got one, you wouldn't really need it at your notebook.

What's the concern in price? In my opinion, the laptop is very affordable considering the high-end graphics cards that Sony included (Nvidia GT 230M) and the Bluray device.

It's very anemic, yes. It clearly lacks bass and isn't very impressive in volume. But for day-to-day tasks and movies/videos including speech, it'll do the job. Plenty of treble which is good for voices

However, a USB-speaker can always be connected and they are pretty cheap these days. A headphone shouldn't be a big budget-killer either.

It allows me to record in 1.3 Megapixels... Apparently! It says: "(*) 1280×1024 (1.3MPs)"

What the wildcard means, I'm not sure. It's not written anywhere. Although I don't see any noticable change when swapping between 0.3 megapixels and 1.3. The 0.3 does not show any wildcard (*) nor do any of the other (smaller) resolutions.

The webcam lacks quality either way. Very laggy and does not shoot in many framerates.

The keyboard quality is brilliant to me. The lack of 9 pad, well... I don't think any 14 inch laptop has one.

You'd be better off looking for a Samsung laptop, in the 15 inch series. Some of them may have a 9 pad on it. However, you'll get a worse graphics card, no bluray (afaik) and worse cooling. The Vaio cools off very nicely which is a major plus in my books.

Another concern you might have with the Vaio CW is the screen angles. In my opinion, they are decent, as everything can be seen from left to right. Although if you watch the laptop from above, the screen angle is very poor.