Y Series for College Bound Daughter?

I am looking at laptops for my daughter and we both really like the Y series - size and everything I am reading about it on the Sony site looks good. However, we can't find one locally here in Austin to look at so I am probably going to have to order it.

Y owners - happy overall? Anything we should look out for in particular? Also, is the plastics on it "slick" (mirror polish) like is all the rage now? My daughter hates the HP's and Toshiba's that are out now that have that polished effect. Finger print magnets!

 

Austin, Texas? According to the Sony website, there is a sony store at the The Domain shopping mall.
Anyways, I saw the Y model in person, and I'm planning to pick one up for myself for work. The build quality seemed pretty good.

 

My 2 cents...If she is going off to college you might want to make sure that she knows that the y series does not have a dvd drive and that she will probably need to purchase an external one some where down the line. Also, at the $800 current price I can't say the y series is a terrific value. The S series is currently $1000 at bestbuy and the old SR can still be found online for $900 without tax...

 

I think in the owners' thread there are a couple cases of loose batteries and someone saw narrower screen viewing angles compared to Asus UL30. Have you checked that thread out? It's pretty manageable compared to the Z thead.

I agree that right now the pricing is not that great, it was discounted to $699 earlier but the promotion ended last week. Fortunately, you should have a little time to shop for a deal on Y. Your daughter should also qualify for 10% educational discount (you may have to call) if you buy directly from Sony.

BTW, I'm assuming you have checked and make sure that either Y complies to the school's computing requirement or she will have another computer that will comply.

 

Yes, you should check out the owners lounge, I'm a student and I'm very happy with my Y-series.

As someone said before, note that it does not have an optical drive. That isn't a problem for many students since software is often downloaded along with multimedia, it maintains the low weight and small form of the notebook.

 

Totally forgot there was a Sony Store close by. We are going tonight to look.

 

Thanks all - was aware of the need for an external drive and she is going to UTx, which is a Dell/HP/Apple campus - they don't really have any "requirements" we have been given.

 

Not sure if this is true for her campus or if it matters that much: in my university there's this laptop service center, where people who bought a machine through the school can get it serviced / repaired by dropping it off there. So it's really convenient, if something bad happens

 

A Y series is a good choice for a student.

What is she going to be studying? I say this just in case she is taking classes that may require a notebook that has more power. The Y series is designed to be light, small and have long battery life, it won't have the power for more demanding applications.

 

I'm a UT-Austin student currently, and I have a Sony SR laptop. I have to say one of the reasons I got it was because Sony has gone against the trend and managed to use matte plastics, and I believe the Y series is consistent with that. My Sony has lasted me a long time (mine's built quite well), but the one factor I hate is the battery life--with a campus as big as UT's, mobility is key. The Y series should be quite better than mine, but at the cost of performance.

The most notable other notebook that satisfies these requirements is the Macbook Pro. Obviously it's more expensive, but the casing is matte and of really great quality, and the battery life would be even better--she's gonna see a LOT of those on campus. Anyway, I think the Y series is a good budget choice.

 

Yep, Macbook Pro was on the list, but she actually likes the Sony better (she has grown up on Windows) - and the Sony is about $400 less!

 

Y-series isn't plastic, it's a magnesium alloy matte build.

*points to sig*

 

Actually went to the Sony store today (per earlier post). Yes, it's a winner. We're ordering one before the end of the month.