Potential Sony owner: how do you find Sony as a laptop manufacterer?

Hi All,

I'm going to be heading to law school this fall and I'm looking for a small and light laptop that can do some easy gaming. The Vaio s13 caught my eye. I hear a lot of gripes about sony, but I really can't find another small and light laptop with the same power as the Vaio. All in all, how do you like it? Do you customer service to be helpful? Would you ever buy a sony product again? Etc.

 

Don't worry, Sony's construction has vastly improved over the years, in fact it is one of the manufactures that don't use annoying piano black glossy plastics or copies Apple.

The s13 should serve you well it is constructed out of a magnesium alloy which is stronger than aluminium.

My friend who has a Sony vaio E Series from 2010 and well it is still performing strong and has not fallen apart in anyway, in fact it still looks fairly mint. He commutes with it every day too.

 

I can vouch for the durability of the s13. It was the...3rd month I think...I managed to toss it onto the metro car floor. While a small corner section chipped, the alloy really does stand up for itself.

 

I think they're "ok". Their latest VAIO products since last year are not bad. Many of them have great features, which you wont find anywhere else. But they don't pay as much attention to detail as apple. (but then, no 'PC' manufacturer has ever really paid attention to small things which would improve build quality, etc.)

regarding customer service - no idea since i've never needed it. I generally find the solution to any concern i have online on the various forums.

btw, off topic - but I feel anyone who says 'i'll never buy XYZ product again ' - is just stupid.

 

You're kidding right, Ill give you some Apple (heavily) inspired/influenced designs & construction. Asus Zenbook Prime, Dell XPS 13 ( Dell book air), Dell XPS 14 ultrabook (Dellbook Pro), .etc

At least sony, lenovo, toshiba aren't iSheep, they can at least come up with their own design language.

IBM/Lenovo thinkpads are great, they are built like tanks and are very reliable, hey I dropped a few and well they were fine. (Lets ignore the t40 series fiasco). Thinkpads also have good feature sets, in fact I prefer them to Apple.
Apples pricing now is extortionate, you pay for a fruit logo.

 

I can say that Sony customer service has been pretty good. I had to replace my first S15 and they were really helpful. While some people think Sony is the used car dealer of the computer world I would have to disagree. The new vaio line up is very impressive. I’ve even got some complements for mac users. I would say try it if you do not like it there is a 30 day return period.

 

I've had great experiences with Sony (US customer service). My laptops have been very solid and have been fixed quickly when needed. Not sure why they have gotten such a bad rep.

 

No I am not kidding. When and why do you think those designs came up - because macbook pro and macbook air started kicking the PC manufacturers esp. in markets like young students, young professionals. They never came up with real innovation on their own.

i am not an isheep. i find apple's environment restrictive and i love windows. I just hate PC hardware.

simple things like inbuilt webcam, backlit keyboards, magsafe connector (still no pc has this), unibody aluminium - all were concepts imported from apple once they became successful. Thats all I am saying.

 

PHP:

Thing with Apple is that they are great when it comes to the design part, but there are too many problems when it comes to utilizing the hardware. I been using Macbooks for years, last it was the 13" MBA and although the build is one of the most solid I ever owned, the hardware part was lacking. The fan was crazy loud and because of that Apple had set the fan-curve way too low, so the computer got REALLY toasty before the fan started spinning up.

I do think that more design wise with backlit keyboards, magsafe connectors, unibody metal designs and such they are top tier. I wish my S13P was as rigid as my old MBA (S13P keyboard has a slight rattle and the toucpad is not as solid).

 

PC still cannot touch Apple's trackpad though, but having said that the keyboard flex can be improved by putting a HDD in the ODD bay since the DVD drive doesn't really provide support.

No Lenovo, Toshiba, Sony have been innovating for years but they all fell down on the marketing bit. Apple are geniuses when it comes to marketing. Although Google too does a good job. And that's what really differentiates apple from the rest.
No as a student Apple is too expensive, considered it last year - but specs didn't improve this year, so Im contemplating to get a Sony Vaio S13p or Lenovo thinkpad T430 (atm it's more expensive than sony)

 

I would say the Sony one is close to Apples when it comes down to accuracy and such though. I only notice a slight difference using my Vaio one even though I almost exclusivly been using a Apple one for years.

I don't notice any keyboard flex really, just that the keys can rattle if you shake it a bit.

 

Yes I agree the Sony track pad is good only because it has good drivers. I think all the laptops I've owned had key rattle in that case.

Keboard flex would only be a problem for me if it was overly flexible as reported on the Gigabyte U2442N. Sony's keyboard has some flex.

I don't really like the Macbook Air keyboard - there's not enough key travel for my liking. The best keyboard I've used on a laptop so far is the IBM thinkpad T60.

 

Yeah, but that is basically the case with Apples. Good drivers and then add the solid glass panel instead of plastic and such.

 

I think Sony uses plastic albiet nicely textured but I fear that it will wear down over years of use - like my shiny keyboard keys, I've only really seen one PC manufacture use glass and that's Asus.

 

Yeah, I was talking about Apple. They too have great drivers but pair it up with some nice hardware additions too like the glass. Asus trackpads although better than before are not close to Apple or Sonys atm. Most likely that is down to the drivers though.