Do You Guys Recommend the Sony Vaio Flip?

I'm thinking of buying the Sony Vaio Flip 15. I posted the link below for its specs. I read that Sony will discontinue it and sell its PC business. Will this be a problem if I need a part to repair in the future?

I'm a casual gamer, not a die-hard, but read the laptop is good for games. I love the design and how it converts to tablet. But do you guys recommend I get it?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KHUUPJ4/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/182-9080948-7987066

 

Sony already has abandoned (=sold) the Vaio brand. Sony will honor warranties and anything they are legally obliged to but they won't produce any more laptops or other computers. It's possible that some Sony store in a forgotten part of the world still has some stock but new Flips are already very hard to get - expecially selected high-end models.

The Vaio brand is now owned by a Japanese company that plans to produce new models and start selling them in Japan. AFAIK there is no official announcement that they will provide other markets (US, Europe etc.), yet. Only time will tell if they come to other markets and if they will offer a 15" hybrid in the future.

As for the 15" Flip in general:
- I also have a Flip 15 and I love it. Even though it's a hybrid laptop it's in my opinion not a perfect "jack-of-all-trades" machine but it is one of the few 15" tablets out there that has a pen digitizer that works well enough. Artists often claim that Wacom pens work better for them and there are enough products out there for them (but still no 15" tablets ;-)) but for my humble needs the Ntrig pen digitizer of the Flips is good enough and every Flip has one built in (you only need a compatible pen - not necessarily the Sony one).
- The LCD of all Flips are great - great colors and good contrast. It also uses IPS tech with good but not outstanding viewing angles. Videos look natural with realistic reds, for example. I have seen a video on Youtube of a fellow with full HD screen exhibiting a weird backlight phenomenon so you may want to examine the screen closely before you can't return the machine.
- The stereo sound is good - surprisingly good - and certainly good enough for movie watching, even though not very loud.
- The keyboard is backlit which is very nice, especially if you get a black Flip. The silver Flips don't have as much as an advantage as the contrast of the backlit keys in daylight is worse. One the other hand the silver Flips aren't as susceptible to fingerprints as the black ones. I clean my black Flip regularly...
- The 15" Flips feature three (quick) USB3 jacks and a classic gigabit LAN connector which works very well (I get transfer speeds of around 110 MB/sec. which is near the theoretic maximum).
- One of the most criticized aspects of all Flip models (especially the 13" and 14" models) is that they have an inefficient (thanks to the thin case) fan that spins too early, too often and too fast. In other words: The Flips can be quite noisy when running with maximum performance.
Even though the 15" model is a bit better many users aren't really satisfied with that aspect of the machine. Personally, I use the "balanced" power profile almost exclusively which means that the fan spins up only occasionally.
- If you demand utmost performance (if you are a gamer, for example) you'll notice that the machine will throttle down the CPU and - if installed - the Nvidia graphics chip. This is still an annoying thing as we still haven't found a universal solution to this problem (you can read more about this in the thread specific to the Flip models here). In any case: Get a different machine if you want a quiet *and* very powerful machine!
- Oh, and yes: The 15" Flips are quite heavy: 2,3 Kgs! Don't consider holding them like a regular tablet! Support them on your legs or on a table!

As for the specific model you linked to:
- There are (were) countless variants of the Flips available and this is a model that has the best CPU and half of the maximum RAM installed. This is good, even though this i7 CPU won't break PC speed records. It's a low-power Haswell i7 (TDP: 15 watts) and only a dual core CPU. The i7 in the Powerbooks for example is significantly more powerful. But the cooling system of the Flips already has problems with this slow i7 so a faster CPU was unthinkable anyway...
- The harddrive is - like almost all notebook harddrives - pretty slow and even though it has a built-in 16GB SSD it is only used as cache memory and in no way comparable to a real SSD. The first thing I did was replace this drive with a 1TB SSD! Yes, the harddrive can indeed be replaced by the end user (SATA-3, max. height = 9 mm) but this requires opening the case which is slightly tricky. On the other hand one can not only replace the harddrive but also the battery, the RAM and/or the WLAN card. Not many ultrabooks/tablets allow for that! There is also help available for this in this forum and Youtube videos exist.
- The screen is the basic full HD variant but there also exists a hi-dpi variant with twice as many pixels (2,880 x 1,620 pixels) which results in a much sharper display if compatible programs are being used (then it is definitely great!). Get the standard full HD variant if you don't bother and save a buck!
- I assume that this model doesn't come with the pen so you may want to get a compatible one. One variant that works well is the Microsoft Surface 3 pen (*not* the one from the Surface 1 or 2!) and there are also cheaper alternatives for example from Acer.
- This model has the Nvidia GPU, though, which is nice as it is about twice as fast as the Intel graphics unit built into the CPU. The driver is also better but it is integrated weirdly: The display output of the Nvidia GPU is always routed through the Intel unit so that 4K resolution with 60 Hz is not available! The Flip also only has a standard HDMI output and no display port - so if you are after 4K get a different machine.

Competitors:
Yes, there are some - and of course it depends on what you compare. If you want/need a 15" hybrid with a pen good digitizer the selection is slim, though.
- There is the equally old Acer R7 but I don't like the design with the toughpad behind the keyboard and I like the twisting display of the Flips better. The newer Acers aren't available with 15" displays, AFAIK.
- The new HP Envy x2 is available in a 15" variant and it's quite a slick tablet with a dockable keyboard but the pen digitizer is not very good. A disappointment, really, as its completely fanless. I don't know if there are variants with SSDs, though, which I personally consider a must in a tablet/hybrid.

Recommendations:
If you want a 15" hybrid machine with a pen digitizer the Flip can be a very good option, especially if you can live with a compromise or two.
If you don't need the pen but want the twisting display then it's still a good option.
All other people should ask themselves if they aren't better off with a different machine, perhaps a regular notebook.

Link to the "official" owner's thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-sony-vaio-fit-multi-flip-pc-owners-thread.734539/