Official Canadian vaio user thread

Sony's Additional 2 year warranty for $329 does not cover accidental damage. I remember reviewing the extended warranties they offered, and the accidental damage warranty is offered, but at an additional and substantial cost. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you are a road warrior type who is constantly on the move with your laptop, as the pricing becomes astronomical for the average person.

In my opinion, the extended 2 year warranty is worth it, for peace of mind alone. It is an investment to consider, especially if you plan to keep your machine for several years, and even if you decide to sell it, I'm sure it would dramatically increase your resale value. I would never purchase a used laptop, from anyone, outside of a warranty.

 

Originally, I bought just the additional one year warranty for $199, as I remember thinking that $329 seemed like too much money at the time.

However, after I got home I had second thoughts. Mostly, I rationalized that an additional $130 for an entire years peace of mind was worth the cost. So, I ended up going back to the store to have it changed.


For anyone curious on how the costs of the warranty break down:

Year 1: Free (covered under manufacture's warranty)
Year 2: $199
Year 3: $129

Total: $329 for an extension of two years on top of your one year warranty.

 

Personally I'm a big fan of extended warranties- I have a 5-yr. old IBM Thinkpad that had 4 yrs. of warranty, and in those last 2 years it had 2 motherboard replacements, a new video card and a new HD. The computer would have died years ago it wasn't for the extended warranty.

 

Can anyone else confirm if you order a Canadian CTO, if you get a bilingual or the US english keyboard?

 

ToshibaDude, just ordered my Z as CTO, I'll update you when I get it in a week's time or so.

 

I mentioned it in a few threads, the keyboard is english, not bilingual.

 

Brain Boy & Forest Boy: thanks for your reply. The sales guy offered $199 for 2 years extended, but not sure if it is in addition to the 1 yr manufacturer's warranty. I'll have to clarify it with him. I have 60 days to buy it. On the other hand, my daughter has a vaio (since 2003), and a vaio TX for about 2 years. She did not have any trouble with it at all. That is why I am kind of thinking that I do not really need it. I did have a dell laptop which I had 3 years warranty, but dell's equipment is not as good as sony's.

Any one can chime in with their experience? Did you ever use the warranty with a sony vaio?

 

A clerk at SonyStyle in Montreal offered a free 1 yr. upgrade (worth 200$), which would be on top of the original 1 yr. warranty for a total of 2 yrs. If your clerk is offering 1 yr. for 200$, that is the standard price and is no bargain. I'd try to talk him into giving you a free 1 yr. warranty ("hey, in Montreal they offered.."). I'll probably take up my clerk on the warranty offer- he was also willing to offer the 2 yr. extra warranty for 130$ (the price diff between 1 & 2 yr. warranties), which would be very cheap for 3 years of security/guaranteed life for a fairly expensive computer. Can't answer your 2nd question..

 

T_T

My sonystyle retail wouldn't even price match sonystyle.ca's price for the Z555... There's no way they'd even consider giving me a rebate on the warranty... T_T I wish we had nicer sales staff here in Edmonton. T_T

 

Are there no other sonysyle stores in edmonton?

 

There are... they're just really far from where I live.

I just happen to live a few blocks from one of Edmonton's main malls, Southgate, which has a SonyStyle store. Every other store is pretty much on the other edges of the city... lol (West Edmonton Mall, and another somewhere far north... T_T).

Our city does not have the greatest infrastructure for travelling within it. T_T

 

In a weeks time I'll have my new SR as well...we'll see what happens. One person got a US english, so I'm hoping I get one as well, but its not a deal breaker (well I've already ordered it).

Are the CTO's made in China or made in California?

 

Anyone know how long it takes sonystyle.ca (canada) to get CTO's back in stock after they run out?

 

estimate dec 11 =]

 

Most the parts are probably made in china, but the assembly process happens in san diego for all north american laptop ctos.

 

?

Which CTOs are out of stock?

The prebuilt Z555 is out of stock... but everything else seems to be there.

 

The FWCTO's is what i was refering to. They're Back and I Bought!
P8600
4GB
ATI 3650 512
BluRay
Full HD

with 3 free BluRay Movies
$1600 with expediated shipping

Ships DEC 1

 

:O CALGARIAN! MY RIVAL!

I want my Z soon...

I also noticed there's not a single NBR user review on the Z up... ...

 

does anyone know if the Canadian z590's are wired for evdo wwan (for example in mean has the wwan pci-e slot available, and the antenna wires for the card.

my plan is to just install my own pci-e (a dell 5720 evdo card.. the drivers should work in any notebook) .. i know the us z590 can be bought with a sprint card, i'm just hoping the Canadian ones are wired for it even though they dont sell it with an evdo option.

thanks

 

I don't see any WWAN option for Canada.

Anyways! YAAAAY, I'M A CANADIAN VAIO OWNER!!!

No horror stories here... only EXCEPTIONAL DELIVERY STORY from me.

Placed an order for my Z590 CTO Nov 19 evening (Wednesday), order confirmed and build start Nov 21st evening (Friday), Order shipped Nov 25 (Tuesday), order received Nov 26th before lunch (Wednesday).

The expected ship date was the 27, and I'd opted for the free ground shipping.

I think Sony Canada deserves some praise here... I don't think anything ships from Ontario to Edmonton, AB in about half a day's time, especially by ground.

The express shipping takes 4-6 business days, but my placed order to receive time was 4 business days/6 total days. Epic win Sony. Epic.

 

TemjinZero, congrats on your purchase. Can you confirm that the keyboard is unilingual english (I know that everyone's said that Z CTO comes with the U.S. keyboard, just wanted to make sure that's still the case)?

 

Oh right, forgot about that.

Yea, my CTO's got a US Keyboard.

Unfortunately, no internet I can connect to so I can upload pics at work, but when I get home today I will be doing that... along with a more comprehensive review of my Z590.

POST Clean Install Results:
79 procs down to 63, boot up time is still pretty poor, but I attribute that to my crappy HDD.
RAM usage at idle is a mere 38% of my 2 gigs, so, looking good so far.

Stamina mode, 60-70% brightness, wireless and DVD drive off, I net 5+ hrs off the standard 6-Cell.

 

All canadian CTOs come with an english keyboard.

the express shipping was worth it for me, it only took 3 days, wed, thurs fri, to get to my house on fri afternoon, all the way from san diego

but it was not a direct route, it went SD --> memphis --> winnipeg --> vancouver in 3 days. so I say that is pretty quick.

Are you going to add more ram?

 

Unlikely. The only thing I'd want to do is increase the speed of the RAM probably since even on my desktop, I never use more than 80% of 2GB of RAM. Anyone know what the timings are on the RAM that Sony uses?

If there's any upgrade I'd want to do in the near future, it'd be switching out the HDD to a high capacity/faster load speed. This 160GB drive is horrendous!

 

I'm glad to hear that you got the English keyboard. But I have yet to see one Canadian SR CTO that comes with the English keyboard and NOT the bilingual garbage. I'll find out once I get mine...and I'll let everyone know.

Unfortunetely, I still have not received my SR! I ordered on the 17th and still no shipping.

 

Wow, just got an email that my SR has shipped! Will be delivered on Dec 2. I'm surprised, because I thought because of the American Thanksgiving and all, they wouldn't ship until next week.

I'm impressed.

 

friday is not a holiday, so fedex and sony are working.

expect to get it sooner, if you used the express shipping, it will get to your house sooner, I'd say wed, or perhaps thursday, but wed is my guess.

 

.....Dec 2 is a Tuesday, this following Tuesdday.

 

Oh wait are you getting this off the fedex tracking site? if so then ya thats the date you should get it. thought sony sent you a shipping date.

 

I am typing this on my new fw290cto! Wasn't suppose to ship 'til today but i already have it! It's frickin' sweet!

Any ideas on what programs i should uninstall?

 

I removed the antivirus, napster, microsoft works and a few others.

 

What is the reason for the Z being available in store only?

I browsed the sonystyle website and all I found is this link:

xxx.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDetailDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=1005577

Sorry, replace the x with w. I am new so I can't post a link.

Scott

 

Where did you get the fw290cto ? It is not on the sonystyle site.

 

It is but unfortunately it is sold out

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...=10001&categoryId=100393&navigationPath=32009

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...productId=1005871&navigationPath=32009n100393

It should be in stock soon, best bet is too call sony and ask when it is expected to be back in stock.

 

Don't worry... I just found the link

 

I find that on the website the CTOs go out of stock quite frequently, and they come back in stock in a day or two. Maybe they are too popular.

My SR should be delivered tomorrow...and just for kicks I went into the sonystyle store today to look at the SR and everytime I look at it I like it more. I can't justify the extra money for the T. Sure, it's pretty, but the SR is pretty too!

I had a look at a black FW as well...pretty slick. But then again, any vaio in black looks pretty good.

 

Anyone know how I can get a Z on a financing payment option? I've tried a couple of times however the only option i find during is to pay with credit card.

 

OK, I got my SR this morning and everything is working fine. As for the keyboard, I got the US english keyboard. So it's true, if you order a Canadian CTO, you will get the US english keyboard, and not the bilingual!!

 

Grats!

Pics! Review! Naoooooo!!!

 

Stopped by my local Sony store today and was told the Z555 has been discontinued. Any reason or news of a new model? I pretty much have my sight set on the Z555 but now they've discontinued it.

 

I just bought mine at best buy and they have financing.

 

Thanks. I did check it out at Best Buy as well. Although now I am wondering what Sony will replace the Z555 with? I also checked out the new TT model at the Sony store but it's just too small for my needs.

 

I also went to a Sony Style store yesterday in a big mall in Montreal, which was also out of Z's and I was told the same thing. The clerk said that the computer will be getting updated (mentioned that the high-end model may get a blue-ray burner), and that I should check again in mid-January for the new Z releases. They'll probably update bluetooth to 2.2 (I think that's the next one), hopefully get newer productions Nvidia GPUs without rumored thermal problems (see latest mac discussions) & maybe step up the processors. I was also going to get the Z555, but am happy to get an improved model in ~6 weeks for hopefully the same price.

 

It's no doubt the higher specs will be with lower price for the updated Z, they've already discontinued Z555 but the update is in mid-January? Shame on Sony Canada! They dont care about Chrismas sales at all, or they just wanna sell out all the left-over old models that treat us as idiots!
PS: the high-end CTO Z always has a blu-ray burner option, there's no high-end pre-config in Canada, in Canada the only pre-config Z is Z555 with a bilingual keyboard.

 

Do you know when the SR and FW 290 series will be available? The Canadian Sony Style website lists both as 'out of stock.' It's listed as 'NEW' but out of stock already. Yeah, right...sure... do you think it's intentional? Duh... :-/

 

I notice this as well. It changes pretty much everyday. Earlier today I was able to customize a FW, but 20 minutes later it said it was out of stock. I suggest checking back regularly and once it is in stock, put in an order right away.

 

Also, I am extremely happy with my new SR and also happy with Sony overall.

As a matter of fact, I am contemplating getting rid of my aging MBP and desktop computer to get a fully loaded FW in black...to match my black SR.

There is a $150 off coupon, and I have a $250 gift certificate from my SR purchase, so I'll probably go ahead with it.

 

:O

How'd you get a $250 off coupon?

 

It's a Christmas promotion thing where you buy a laptop and they give you a coupon code for $250 off your next purchase of $750 or more.

 

...What.

I'm assuming since you got an SR290... you CTO'ed that order... which means you don't get said coupon, because despite what the ad says, if you read the fine print:

*Order placed for custom VAIO computers are not eligible for Sony Style HolidayRewards Coupons.
Offers only valid online @ sonystyle.ca

I bought a Z590 (which is a CTO, within the promotion's time period) and I didn't get a $250 off coupon. :|

Did you actually receive an e-mail from sonystyle.ca with said coupon code?