The Sony Vaio FW480J/T from Best Buy

What do you all think of this Sony from Best Buy. I mainly want to know if the screen is bright and good. Here is the link:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9366688&type=product&id=1218092151066

Thanks

 

The exact same specs can be configured at SonyStyle for the FW490CTO (not EPEAT, but Energy Star anyway) for $1249 instead of Best Buy's $1199. Of course, you could tinker with the specs if you wanted to, as well. And you'd get 100 free music downloads.

But the main thing is that you would qualify for the Campus Bundle reduction (off 2 accessories plus extended service plan: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...&categoryId=8198552921644616399&N=4294959143). Some forum members have been taking that option and saving more money by selling one of the accessories!

As for the screen, I went to see this model last week at Best Buy and it was positioned right under a huge fluorescent lamp -- it was impossible to judge the screen under those conditions. But the black interior and keyboard and the chocolatey bronze lid are quite attractive, in my opinion. I wasn't sure I'd like the black on black interior, but it's almost elegant....

Let us know what you do and how you like it.

 

I just went to my local Best Buy to check out the FW480 model, the actual laptop looks so much better than in several sites' pics. The brownish color looks great. But the Best Buy model is only 1600x9000 res.

The same configuration at sonystyle.com costs you $1092.49 (with student discount.)

@ Derrida, what's the difference between the FW480 and FW490? Are you saying that the best buy model is EPEAT?

 

Ok, what is EPEAT and I have enough money on a gift card from Best Buy to buy the FW480 since this weekend it tax free.

 

where do you live? Best Buy not charging sales tax?

 

Honestly i'd just order the 490CTO from sony style. I paid about eighty dollars less for a 7200rpm hdd, FullHD, 1gig vRam, 2.53Ghz. I had 2gigs less ram and 80gigs less space but with what you're looking at, you don't really need that much ram anyway. Space is debatable, but you'd still end up with a cheaper price either way.

 

Many states have a tax free weekend just before school starts. In GA computers were limited to $1500 to qualify.

School starts the first or second week of August in most of the state.

Cheers,

 

For a crash course on the EPEAT issue, see the FW thread, postings 33 and following: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=397678&page=4

And I agree with chiggerfruit: There's a lot to be said for ordering from Sony Style. For one thing, you only get 14-days to return something at Best Buy ( http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...=cat10004&contentId=1043363607042&id=cat12098) but you get 30 days from purchase with Sony. Yeah, it has to be shipped to you, but new computers are packed appropriately in double boxes, etc. by Sony.

Whatever is wrong with the 490 that keeps it from EPEAT is probably not an active danger to you. But, it's true -- it's a bummer. And truly inexplicable. You can go to http://www.epeat.net/PublicSearch.aspx yourself and see all the Sony models that qualify but even Sony on its own site ( http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...0151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644540854) admits that only SOME of the FW models even meet Energy Star 4.0 (we're now at 5.0, BTW), which is only one component of EPEAT.

Very weird. We can't even figure it out from the place of assembly because it could be one damning imported part....

However, at this site
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...0151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644540854 Sony declares that all of its computers are RoHS compliant which should mean that lead and mercury are not the problem. Why the FW490s and all of the FW3s and FW2s are failing EPEAT remains a mystery.

Good luck!

 

Georgia had their sales tax holiday last weekend and this weekend it is Tennessee's sale tax holiday. I only live about 2 miles from the TN line, near Chattanooga. I would love to have a FW490 with the Full HD screeen, but the gift cards that I have accumulated total up to the price of the FW480 minus the tax.

 

I live in NYC and I'm not hearing any no sales tax weekends here yet. As a matter of fact, New York State just raised the sales tax on August 1st from 8.375% to 8.875%, so I doubt there will be any "no sales tax weekend" here in NYC
Schools here normally start at the end of August or beginners of September...

 

Ah, I see.... So it's basically a gift to yourself!

Well, then, enjoy your EPEAT computer! I'm sure you'll like the FW line. And you'll have it right away and can tell us things like what monitor hardware ID is in the device manager, etc., right? ;-)

 

I went today to compare the Sony with a Toshiba A505-S6965 at Best Buy. These are the two computers I'm deciding between. The Toshiba has a LED screen, but the Sony screen looks brighter to me. The Apple man at Best Buy said that Toshiba computers are put together better than a Sony. Is this so? The Sony is $400 more than the Toshiba, but the Sony has Blu-Ray, 6GB RAM, higher resolution screen, and slightly better video card. Is this worth the extra $400? Thanks and if I end up with the Sony, I'll give all the information people request.

 

I bought the VGN-FW460J/B at Fry,s for 1099.00 with 50.00 rebate
and I love It, If I could only get Games to run, Has ATI 4650 HD 1GB
VRAM, 16.4 screen plenty Bright, Factory speakers Suck and I emailed Sony and told them about It Too, Sound thru my Sony surround sys is off the hook
Blue Ray playback via HDMI is fantastic!
Also Cannot get the Motorola H9 HD BlueTooth head set to hook up for music and Phone.

 

LJames, how is the screen? Is it an Xbrite ECO or the Full HD.

 

Still deciding between the Toshiba or Sony. I would like to have a FW with Full HD. I could buy the FW480 from Best Buy because I have gift cards and this is no tax weekend and turn around and sell it on ebay or these forums. What do you think. Would I lose a lot of money? A FW490 with Full HD is cheaper than the FW480 at Best Buy. Oh, decisions, decisions.

 

To tell you the truth if those gift cards are best buy only, then i would go ahead and buy that FW480. Something like that for free can't be beat. Unless you can find somebody to exchange the gift cards for money.

 

I purchased the FW480 from Best Buy this morning. Today started the tax free holiday in Tennessee. I arrived at Best Buy at 10:30am and was told to take a number. I was number 119 and they were serving number 52 at that moment. After an hour later, I finally picked up my Vaio. I was still deciding between the Toshiba A505-S6965, but after looking at it for a while, I decided against it due to all the lights on the computer.

The screen on the FW480 is real bright. From what I have read, people on these forums are against the Xbrite-ECO screen. They say the Full HD screen is a lot better. If that is so, the Full HD screen must be amazing because the Xbrite-ECO is very nice. I'm overall real happy with it. I'm installing World of Warcraft and just finished installing Windows 7 RC. Everything works great!

 

Just out of interest, did you clean install win7 or upgrade? I'm just wondering about whether or not i'd have trouble getting drivers to work and if i should clean install vista or win7.

 

I just upgraded to Win7. I ordered my Windows 7 kit from Sony for free yesterday too. I'm going to wait until October to do the clean install. The website said that the kit will come with the actual Windows 7 disc and a disc of Sony software and drivers. The only problem I had before upgrading, is that I had to uninstall the ATI drivers and software prior to upgrading. Everything works great.