Sony Vaio SA personal review

Hi everyone, this is my first review so I hope its ok (i'm also not a technical wiz either)

I recieved my SA on Friday and I have to say that i'm over the moon with it. I basically had no upgrades, just the base but I got the extra long life battery pack, engraving and the silver colour for the laptop.

Looks
The actually look of the laptop is very nice and it looks like what you paid for - expensive. I love the metal, chrome finish to it which is nice, makes it stand out from the SB although the metal mouse buttons will be a bit of a fingerprint magnet I can see. The laptop isn't overloaded with stickers/advertisment also which I really like and the keyboard and trackpad/mouse is nicely spaced out too. The laptop itself is very square and pointy like, no curves on it which at first I didn't like but now i'm warming to it. It looks smart and business like, but maybe too much, there's not much 'fun' to it. The engraving which was free was a lovely surprise, so I jumped at it. Now that I see it, I am very pleased with it although do wish it was a little bit bigger and bolder but hey, you get what you pay for.

Keyboard
The keyboard is lovely to type on, its chicklet/island style which I personally have never had but I much prefer it, it just takes some getting used to but the when you type, the keys feel soft but definitely register and bounce back fine. The keys keep much cleaner and less dusty. Also, the keyboard area is also silver so blends in with the rest of the laptop (which I also much prefer too). Finally, the backlit keyboard is a massive plus, especially as it comes on automatically when there is dim lighting. It is not too bright either.

Mouse and fingerprint sensor
The mouse is wonderful to use also, the buttons do make some noise when clicking whereas my old laptop one's were silent but I do like the fact that they are shiny metal. The trackpad is smooth, although looks grooved (whereas my old laptop one was actually grooved) I like both the same to be honest. I also think the size of the trackpad is fine, maybe it could be a little bit taller. The fingerprint reader is a good add on and unlike many complaints of the SB version, it is perfectly straight. However, I don't know whether its just me as I've never used one but I am having great difficulty with it as in it doesn't register my fingerprint, no matter how many times I do it, it either says usually use a longer stroke or im too fast or it can't match it! I'm starting to get annoyed with it.

Speakers
This really lets the laptop down as the speakers are quite frankly, bad. There is no bass at all (to be expected though) and it doesn't go very loud. Once you go to a certain loudness, its like the sounds thin out and become tinny. My 3 year old laptop speakers of which the laptop was a quater of the price are much better. However, with the headphones on the sound is much better and is on par with my old laptop.

Battery life
The battery life on this is superb for the power it holds. I used the laptop yesterday (after charging it fully) for roughly 4 or 5 hours with bluetooth, wireless WAN and LAN on and surfing most of the time on it. I have yet to really test it out and I have not tested the extra battery pack out yet either as I have just been charging it. Also, this slightly annoys me even though no one will see it is that the extra battery pack is black in colour, not silver.

Screen
So this was what I was nervous about the most as I had read alot of posts on here as well as other sites saying this was a bad screen (some people even returning the laptop just because of the screen). Well, I have absolutly no problem with it. The colours are fine, not amazing but not bad either in my opinion (ok, so its no Z screen, but for about half the price, im fine with that!) I have not calibrated it and probably won't as I think its fine. Its no improvement on my previous glossy screen laptop, just on par with it, so for this being a matt screen, I think that's pretty good (or just that my old laptop screen was bad ahaha, but I don't think so). The higher resolution of this laptop (which along with the better graphics was the reaason I chose the SA over the SB) is lovely, everythings so small! On my old laptop which was 15.6" it was the standard 1366 x 768 so to have this options is amazing. I can finally compare stuff by putting it side by side, I think its worth the money because if you think its too small, you can always enlarge it but you cannot do the oposite.

Fan
So, I haven't tested out the fan yet really (only had the laptop on stamina) but while i've been surfing the web, etc, I can hear the fan right now. Its very quiet and doesn't annoy me but my old laptop was silent (although all I did on it was surf and use Word, I literly only heard the fan once or twice in its 2/3 years) Whether it be on a hard surface like the table or on the sofa/my lap, the fan's there, but on a small laptop like itself, on Intel Core i7, i'd say the fan noise is good/quiet. However, when I really test it on speed mode on a game, i'll see if its like a 'jet engine'.

Webcam
Oh, this webcam is so bad! Its actually terrible. This is by far the worst thing on the laptop. 1.3mp - no way! I don't have a good thing to say about this. I mean, you might as well not have one its that bad. The lighting on it is terrible (even though I have the main light on) and its so grainy and washed out and even a bit slow... I have an external webcam so I can use that, but that just makes this one redundent.




Sorry to end on such a negative point but that's all I have tested out so far. I will edit/update when I have used this laptop more and have used/tested out all the features like the graphics, etc. But so far I would definitely recomend this to someone.


P.S. I know there are some spelling mistakes, etc and I will correct them soon. Thankyou






EDIT:
Will expand but for now the Windows Experience Index (WEI) is 4.7 on stamina mode and 5.1 on speed mode.

 

heh.

Can you use it on your lap during websurfing, etc?

Does it get too hot? I'm wondering if it's just my lil SC at fault

 

mine (SA) does that too. i haven't been able to register my fingerprint with it yet, and i actually gave up doing that. it's useless.

 

the fingerprint scanner takes a bit of getting used to. i remember it constantly say the same thing when i first got my SA, but i find it a lot helpful to scan from the most bottom of ur fingertip all the way to where your fingernail would begin

 

Yeah, I can use it on my lap while surfing, the left side keeps very cool but the right side is a little warm but I can definitely use it on my lap for hours while surfing. It might be your SC because I have no problem...

 

kk, that settles it, I'm getting a SA now.

 

Woo!

Can I ask, has my review helped you at all in buying the SA? I just felt like there was no real user review of the SA so I thought I would do one to help people

EDIT: Especially as there is a discount on the SA now and they have the newer Sandy Bridge CPU in them now.

 

Yeah. There are a few reviews in the owner's lounge, but you have to look for them.

Your SA review was probably the last straw, I've been eyeing the SA with some want for a while now

 

If you have a Microsoft store nearby, get it from them. They have it on sale for $999 with a free slice battery and free xbox 360 if you are a student. Thats an awesome deal.

 

is it possible to get this deal online too or was it instore only?

 

I *think* that deal expired on the 24th?

Though I used to fix xboxs to eat my way through High School, so I'm swimming in those suckers, their parts, their HSFs, and one remaining Slim waterblock from XSPC.

 

I'm curious as to how the engraving looks on an SA. Care to take a pic?