Sony Satisfaction Poll

Are you happy with your Sony laptop?

 

"Yes, completely" with one string attached - I'm afraid to upgrade to Vista with all the driver issues

 

I voted "Yes w/ regrets"

Always loved VAIOs. Have been using older s-series and fj-series at work for awhile. Had the chance to purchase a C-series recently. Looks nice and is the right size for me.

I am disappointed by the noise/buzzing/piezo-electric capacitor hum, the computer makes when I scroll and move windows around on the screen. Also, the hard drive clicks frequently; the cause is not due to a bad harddrive... i guess it is a "feature."

I don't really care because I only paid $800 for it brand new. I'll send it in for repairs when I have time.

 

yes with regrets.

i love mine as far as a laptop. sony and the drivers and support on the other hand, make me want to bash my head into my keyboard.

 

Perfect, beautyfull, stylish notebook, terrible support

 

So far yes but support is kinda weird when you call in...

 

YES! Completely! I love my TX850. *Perfect* little notebook for me.

 

Same here. My wife loves her new C series and the F390 P3 500 I bought over seven years ago is still bullet proof.

 

Yes. w/ regret.

DVD drive wasn't working after 2 month
Request Sony to send box for repair.
Box sent after third request (2 weeks)
Sent to Sony repair (Jan 20)
Sony replace DVD problem
Got my SZ back today. (Feb 2, took 2 weeks to repair, bit slow)

But I am still very happy because It's a Sony. "sigh i'm poison"

 

"Yes... but I have regrets (explain)"...

We have a great time togather but sometimes she won't let me have sex with her (>_<)

 

Yes, with regrets.

Sony support rather poor where I live.

 

yes - with regrets

as mentioned in my post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=102105

i sometimes couldn't get it to restart after choosing restart.

now i sometimes can't get it to shut down.

to turn it off i had to pull out the plug. if someone knows another way to restart the computer please tell me.

it's probably a microsoft issue since doing a search shows nobody having complaints. i'm currently trying my best to figure out what's wrong. however i just can't help listening to the small voice that said "you could've bought 2 toshibas...."

 

The support offered by Sony has been truely aweful, after less than a year my screen has developed a stress mark (Like when you press on the screen with your finger... except nothings touching it) My CD drive no longer works and my touchpad has worn through... and random screws keep falling out and becoming loose.

 

I've had the same problem before, but I did a spyware scan with Spybot and downloaded this program called Startup Inspector and removed all startup progams which weren't needed (including ones that are apparently viruses, this program wil give an explanation of what each startup app does) and no longer have that problem. hope this helps.

 

My SZ build quality is just OK, but my brother's T60 is VERY VERY much better.

 

I am not 100% satisfied but I won't say I regret it. I own 2 Sony notebooks. One is 6 year old and the other is brand new Sony SZ. I am quite happy with the old one. It is a 10" notebook, very thin and light weight (less than 3 pounds) but very though. It has withstanded several abuses for 6 year daily use at work, school and my backpack.

The Sony SZ is not quite as well built. It seems to be more fragile. But I don't complain because I don't see any other notebook this thin and this light weight without sacrificing too much performance. Where else can you get a 13.3" notebook, C2D 2.16 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia Video Card, and built in DL DVD burner at 3.7 pound and 1.3" thick?

The closest contender would be Panasonic Y5. The screen is larger but notebook is thicker, CPU and video card are slower, HD max capacity is smaller.

 

thanks for the suggestions. however, this "no off" glitch hasn't occured for a couple of days now... although everytime i turn the sz off i get anxiety. i removed some files i thought was conflicting with one another - that being one of the 2 uninstallers i used to get rid of the junk, one of the defrag programs that wasn't compatible with duo core, and some other registry cleaning tools.

as for adware/spyware/viruses i'm 100% sure i don't have any. currently using nod32, adaware (getting rid of this soon), and spywaredoctor, and a good firewall... not to mention i monitor any odd startup and registry programs.

if the problem doesn't occur within 2 months i'll have to change my vote to "yes completely."

 

I didn't know that you can change your vote once it has been made.

 

I want to change my vote to No

Really hate Sony Customer Service because they are so slow.

Took 14 days to replace a DVD Drive, come on.

The built in wireless is kinda weak compare to my ORiNOCO WiFi card.

BlueTooth software sucks like crap. Doesn't eve feel like I have BlueTooth.

Then again, SZ does look really nice and Core2Duo is really fast CPU and the LCD display. Sony LCD can display colours very accurately compare with other LCD display in the market. Its nice and light which makes it very easy to carry around especially with all the huge text books.

 

I am very satisfied with my FE590P10. I am also a very lucky with Sony Support. Everything is excellent when I need a service from them.

 

Owner of a C140G. Vote: yes with regrets.
I just called the support service for persistent electronic noise when scrolling windows or moving windows around, and for click noises from the hard drive (don't know if this is normal, but most of the time when I hear this noise, the hard drive light doesn't light up, so I think that the noise is not produced by a normal read/write access).
The support service told me I have to send the computer back for maintenance. They were not able to tell me how long it will take to have it back, so for me it will be a test of the support service. And I hope they will send me back a laptop with the problems solved (I am perhaps too optimistic
Nevertheless I love this small laptop. I would be disappointed if the problems still persist.

 

I love my Sony so much that I'm looking into buying either an AR or TX -- quite different laptops BUT I can't decide which: Awesome coolness on huge screen or awesome coolness on little screen...

=D

 

Since u already got a 15'4, try the TX(11.1) or G1(12'1)
But wait for the Santa Rose.

 

Loved my SZ390 until stolen from me. S460 was good, but got too hot at times and fan was too noisy. Called sony to have repaired under warranty, but because I couldn't find/provide copy of sales receipt (credit card statement not good enough), no warranty service. Fan still noisy! S170p was good machine.

 

"Yes... but I have regrets (explain)" I like my Fe790 but I hate the scrolling noise that occurs and the ridiculous amount of sony bloatware that came with the laptop.. The built in wireless is great though and the overall look of the laptop is very appealing.

 

Yes, completely.

Some in my situation might not be as satisfied, but hear me out. I've had my NV170 (anybody remember this sucker? think subwoofer media bay) for going on 5 years now. It's taken more than a couple beatings, was stolen, recovered, has traveled with me to Japan twice, surviving in what must have been sub 50 degree temps sometimes. Anywho, at about the 1.75 year mark, it died. Just plain and simple, crashed one day. Called up Sony support multiple times to see if it could be fixed using the recovery CDs, just to start a fresh (my files were backed up, so all it meant was reinstalling my programs). No such luck, this guy was a goner. Or was it? Under extended warranty (grabbed an extra year after the first) I sent it in to Sony using the nifty UPS box. Something like 2 weeks later, it was back, and like BRAND NEW. I'm not talking about just a new hard drive, new L2 cache, and internals, but hell there wasn't a scratch on it. Included in the listing was every single part they had replaced, totaling around $900, all of which was covered under warranty. Not a single question was asked about "Why is the case scratched? Why is your hard drive toast?" It just got fixed, plain and simple.

I'm still using the comp to this day, and will keep it long into the future even though I'm now considering an SZ-series as a more portable/higher performance solution.

All I can say is, get it under warranty, enforce the warranty on the phone, and Sony service is something I will trust again.

 

It's great to hear that your classic Vaio is still going strong.

 

Yeah, I'll say. I treat it like a desktop replacement, and the power cord is always in, so naturally the once 2 hour+ battery is down to less than 1 hour if I actually try to move around the house (using wireless+full brightness).

It's probably the last computer out of my friends/extended family that still has a floppy drive! Hahaha. I rock avast! anti-virus and run spybot weekly and it hasn't crashed in probably a year (read: crash being the need to hold the power button till it unfreezes and reboots). Very reliable, but just not enough performance at 1.7 P4m for the Photoshop work I do on it.

 

I love my Sony.

I'll end up buying another Sony within a year. Looking for something beautiful.

 

I'm satisfied with my VAIO SZ1M/B but i'm also unhappy with the Sony driver support. Good that there are Vista drivers, but will they be updated in future? I think not, expecially the Nvidia driver...

 

unfortunately little to do with sony and mostly with nvidia. Certain companies shouldnt be slow with Vista support, Nvidia especially.

 

Totally satisfied, but have not yet had to deal with Sony tech support. If my experience is like others on this board, then I will go back to Dell on my next notebook. I used to always buy in the Latitude line, and received good tech support from their Alabama facility.

 

ive had 2 older Sonys and opted not to go with them again this time round. Yet i love their notebook designs and think their fit and finish is the best on the market as well as their XBrite screen the lack of dedicated vid cards made me have look elsewhere.

 

Lousy customer/technical support.

 

Utterly displeased. I had a great experience with a Sony Laptop from 2000, it ran very well until February of this year, when I dropped it and broke it.

On the other hand, my new VAIO FJ (purchased July 8th 2006) is just horrible in reliability (about 70% of the parts are not working; the only ones that have been completely fine are the CPU, Hard drive, memory, card reader, keyboard, 1and touchpad...), and the repair center is quite incompetent. They replaced the motherboard and screwed up about 50% of the other components in the laptop....check this post on my issues, and look at the rest of the thread for the whole story starting at the beginning.

 

I just got my SZ470N/C

My only complain is the keyboard and the bloatwares that came with it.
Yeah, and one minor thing, I got a dead pixel right in the middle of the screen...

 

Got rid of mine SZ. Poor keyboard. After 10 minutes of typing i feel my hands cramped. Freezes very often and battery is very very poor.
Got myself a Thinkpad x60s and guess what !! ... live is good again = )

 

I am totally satisfied with mine. My old Sony Vaio lasted 7 years. It's an excellent build/quality, and lasts for a long time.

Now I have the newest sony AR series with a 17" with the 8600m GT 527mb. and 4 gigs of ram with a T7500 processor (santa rosa). ^_^

 

My old vaio was gave to me about 6-7 years ago as a gift from my brother and work fine until recently when I got the FZ160. My old machine was good I guess, only problem I encountered was when XP crashed on me and drived me nuts from time to time, but the many times it crashed they were all minor ones, I just restarted the computer by pulled the AC and battery off and things went back to normal the next time. So other than that no hardware issues or problems at all.

This FZ160 is decent except it's in Vista and you guys know when you tried to turn on the computer or shut down, both procedures in Vista will take few more seconds than XP. Other than that, I guess that high pitch noise can be heard from time to time but it's not that loud, it blended in quickly.

Before I bought the FZ160, I first went for the MBP but on the 12th day I noticed that the screen got many bad pixels, tried to bring it back to Apple hope they can do something about it but I ended up being treated like crap, my local store refused to recognize my problem so I was pissed and returned it even though they hit me with a restocking fees.

 

Very unhappy...
Thankfully I managed to sell off this POS at 15% depreciated value to someone for whom the silly Vaio tag was far more important than anything else

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=111827

Also, when i posted the thread above, at least I was happy with the screen...within a month or so though, the backlight had got all non-uniform with dark patches on the sides

Bought a LG C1 now and couldn't be happier!

 

No - because of the Vista-only policy.

I got a TX3XP the 4200 rpm HD is dog slow, but I do have the benefit of having an onboard optical drive - which I never use, and Sony's Vista-only (some of my professional software has issues with Vista) policy means I won't be getting a TZ, even though I would really like to get a ULV Core 2 Duo ultralight.

Consequently, I'm seriously looking into getting a Dell D430 late Q4 – since Dell still actively supports WinXP, even though its battery life and screen aren't near as good as the TZ.

The TX3 is fine, but I purchased it less than a month ago even though I knew the TZ was soon to be available, as I can't use Vista.

 

xp will be phased out sooner or later and you will eventually have to go with Vista. So what's the big fuss all about?

 

I LOVE my sony laptop, but a few things.... screen developed pixel problems after about 6 months of ownership. Power brick died 8 months into the ownership. Keyboard's space bar did not respond properly after about 8.5 months of use. Charging circuit failed after 14 months.

I brought this laptop down to its knees though! It helped me make alot of money and I will forever love it even though my thinkpad will probably take a bullet and keep ticking, you can never forget your first love lol

 

Haven’t you noticed by any chance that low-key players like Toshiba, IBM/Lenovo, HP and Dell for one, are still providing active support for WinXP on their spanking new ultralights shipping with Vista.

Hmmm…why is that?

Obviously these guys are insane – and especially Dell with its public backpedaling on its Vista-only policy after a public outcry from its customers. Damn you Dell for listening to your customers, haven’t you heard that Vista is the greatest and latest?

Considering the characteristics of a machine like a TZ and its price point, it’s obviously something that Joe Sixpack - which can be happy with the latest and greatest pre-SP1 Microsoft OS and its issues - will pickup at Kmart, not in any way a system that a professional with a portfolio of already owned pro apps and willing to pay a premium for stability and maturity would get.

As SP3 for WinXP is set to be release in Q1 2008 and support will be available at least for a year or two after, then we can assume that the 10s (if not 100s) of millions of WinXP Pro computers in corporate-land, are to become useless anvils and freeze or perpetually reboot somewhere around 2010/2011.

Thankfully Sony as the #1 PC vendor is on top of all that and leading the way.

This is probably my next system from Sony, it comes with full support for WinXP too.

 

Sony is still selling Win XP machines -- looking at their site right now, they offer three different models of SZ3 machines with win xp built in (US site)

but they don't offer it in CTO options nor on any other model