sony build/reliability

to sony Vaio owners,

I read somewhere that sony laptop products have bad build quality.
what is your opinion on it?

I am getting a Vaio E series and is contemplating extended warranty and would like your inputs.

 

I had a Sony Vaio CW series that worked perfectly for 2 and half years. No screen defects, hardly scratched, even fell off a desk and still looked brand new afterwards. That's just my experience however. If it's not too expensive then get the extended warranty for peace of mind though it's probably more justified on an higher-end model and also how long you want the notebook to last.

 

Vaio E isn't Sony's premium line, it's their consumer line, but it's not a bad laptop, my girlfriend has an EB series (15.5" Arrandale laptop) and it's been going fine and was one of the only consumer laptops back then with a 1080p screen and discrete graphics. I think they're fairly robust for their price (IMHO).

For Sony, as with other companies, their consumer lines are sometimes made by OEM companies like Quanta (the largest laptop company you've never heard of) and Compal, the 2nd largest, so depending on the laptop, YMMV in terms of quality as Sony might just be rebadging an OEM laptop and selling it back to you.

 

I've had my FW since November of 2008, so almost 4 years and the only scratch is one by the touchpad, otherwise no other scratches. The edges of the silver plastic are wearing off, mostly the corners. Hinge is as solid as it has been since day 1, the notorious barrels are all intact but I babied them a lot.

The screen has no problems really, apart from one dead pixel which I had since the start all is fine. Now there is the problem of the high pitched noise that appears from time to time when screen is woken up, no idea what it is, but after taping on the borders of the screen or moving the hinge, it goes away.

Oh ya, I did drop the computer once, by accidentally pushing it off my desk onto a small carpet, was a pretty intense moment. But it attained no scratches.

The FW is a solid machine, but others have had issues with them so who knows really.

 

My Sony VAIO VGN-FW290 (custom build) was ordered and shipped late 2008. I've upgraded it to 8GB RAM and have since shoehorned larger and larger capacity hard drives in its bay; from the original 320GB to 500GB (Momentus 7200.4) to 500GB Hybrids (Momentus XT) to it's recent and current 750GB Hybrid (Momentus XT)

It's been in use EVERY SINGLE DAY since it's delivery and often in 2-3 different locations during each day. 2008-2012; FOUR YEARS.

This means it's been repeatedly slung in a backpack and undergone countless AC cord plug-ins and countless reboots and shut downs.

It's been schlepped 2-3 times on international flights to Asia, once to the Grand Caymans, and at least half a dozen domestic flights to date.

Workload? I ride this notebook HARD. The kiddies might think this is only done through gaming, but I use mine for editing/authoring high-definition Blu-Ray, Photoshop, Illustrator, CAD modeling and rendering (the latter would max out both my cores during a 30-60 minute render)

In the first two years when my flimsy backpack wasn't so accomodating, it would first be slipped into the VGP-AMC7 Neoprene Case to provide sufficient cushioning before stowing in the backpack. With a newer backpack, I would slip a foam slipcover over the display lid to a.) minimize the display bezel's rubber feet from marking up the palmrest and b.) to prevent any chances of the keys from scuffing up the screen and c.) prevent any scuffing of the magnesium outter lid.

The underside manufacturer's label indicates "Made in U.S.A. with foreign components" My previous 5 notebooks (all Toshibas) were either made in China or Malaysia.

On my 2 and 3 year ownership points, the Toshibas would die from motherboard failure or display failure. The last Toshiba, a pricey Qosmio (2004, made in China) had keys not only wearing away the silk-screen lettering but the plastic (spacebar) was eroding within 6 months!

After 4 years of abusing my FW's keyboard, all the white lettering is intact. Not a hint of fade anywhere. Much of the surface texture is intact except the right half of the spacebar... effectively polished smooth by thumbstrikes. During use, the keyboard is the only contact I make with the notebook. Thanks to built-in Bluetooth, I use a Bluetooth mouse. No mouse dongles at the USB ports. Naturally, this means the trackpad has rarely seen use and remains pretty pristine. Everything else remains just as useable as the day it was put in service. The fluorescent back-lit display remains bright and crisp. The lid itself hinges with the same amount of friction. The amount of use I've put this thing through means I'm now on my THIRD Sony battery (stay away from the aftermarket stuff, folks).

Corrosive sweat and hand-oils (fast food, yo) seems to have done nothing to the silver plastic in the palmrest area of this FW. At the very edges where the palmrest transitions to the outter body, the edge crease shows some wear as the paint has rubbed off exposing a white plastic... hardly noticeable against the original silver.

The 16:9 Full-HD display, blu-ray burner, and condition after 4 years makes this hands-down the best notebook I've owned for its era. It continues to be my main workhorse as I type this.

I'm not sure I can say the same or recommend the cheaper race-to-the-bottom consumer models in Sony's lineup (back in 2008 AND now) You can't whine too loudly 'bout that. I'm a believer in people deserving what they pay for. To clarify, I'm not subscribing to the notion that Sony is WORSE than the other PC manufacturers... only that in today's consumer market, they ALL have reached a level playing field. At the bottom. Craptastic material choices (soft plastics) and insufficient engineering (cooling design)

If I were held at gunpoint and had to pick a $600 consumer-grade notebook, Sony and maybe Lenovo would be the lesser-of-all-evils pick... ESPECIALLY compared against getting a HP, Dell, or Compaq. With those latter selections? I'll take the bullet, thank you.

 

bump

I'm buying this laptop to last me only about 2-3 years more of school on a budget, so the $650 E series is going to be fine for me. After graduating, I'll probably get a MBP or a business laptop from Lenovo or HP (or even Sony!).

nobody really mentions a problem along the lines of a catastrophic hard drive suicide after 6 months of light use, so I think I am just going to extend the base warranty to 2 years instead of buying the accidental coverage.

Thanks everyone!

 

I think your read is correct as to operational quality. Durability of the exterior and palm rests varies considerably by machine, and the Z1 and Z2, the closest Sony comes to "business class" are highly reliable (SSD always beats HDD) but if you look at them funny they scratch.

I strongly recommend you look at Square Trade for an ADD wtty. They have a sterling reputation and you will get a 3-yr very cheaply because the price is scaled to the laptop price; Sony charges the same to add a year to the wtty regardless of purchase price. But I'm mainly recommending this because Sony's bad - sometimes horrific - customer service is legendary. With Square Trade they guarantee to fix it or refund your total purchase price within 5 business days. They are the endorsed extended wtty on Amazon and eBay. What's more, I've used them on 5 laptops and the have been good to their word. In the annals of this Sony forum you will find many, many threads from people who have been denied warranty service, blaming virtually any problem on "customer misuse."

Another little known tidbit: in the U.S. if you (or your parents if you are in school) have a homeowners' or renters insurance policy, you can add what amounts to ADD protection on a laptop for $10-$15/yr. It's usually called a "scheduled article" rider on the policy and it's cheap for laptops because the coverage is designed for jewelry and is a straight percentage - of around $15/$1,000 of insured value. But this only covers the accidental portion and for the OP I still recommend the ST extended wtty, which will cost you around $129 for 3 yrs including ADD.

 

Whoops - posted twice

 

I've been a VAIO user since 2004 (V505, SZ4, Z3, X11) and every single one of them got minor problems in a few years.

 

I'm not sure if you picked out THAT specific scenario by happenstance, but there are various instances where a manufacturer's warranty of ANY length will and will not help you.

Putting aside the quality and competence of the warranty provider and whether it's OEM or aftermarket, let's presume they'll eventually hold up their end of the bargain. Their end-game resolution for warranty responsibility is to get your hardware back and running. Period.

So what happens if...

Motherboard component fries
Under most kinds of warranty, the motherboard gets swapped out for another. Everything else stays untouched and intact. Presuming the tech monkeys did a proficient job, the notebook should come back to life as if nothing happened.
Bottom line for warranty provider?
They held up their end of the bargain and gave you working hardware
Bottom line for you?
This was a hardware-only issue and aside from time in the shop, you're back in business.

LCD display goes haywire
If the problem is attributed to the graphics hardware, it's probably integrated into the motherboard and replacement will be no different than scenario above. If the LCD screen itself went bad or cracked, most manufacturers go out of their way to EXCLUDE this in their warranty coverage. The only time I've seen screens covered is when purchasing the priciest version of their extended warranty.
Bottom line for warranty provider?
Most manufacturers will find a way to weasel out of taking care of your screen. Whether it's by excluding the screen outright or imposing a 5-pixel threshold before determining it's defective.
Bottom line for you?
Before shoveling money over for an extended warranty, make sure you read the fine-print regarding their screen replacement policy.

Hard drive dies
Whether it's the drive heads gouging into the platter or the bearings failing or the controller board self-destructing with a mushroom cloud, a hard drive failure in the eyes of a notebook maker is probably one of the simplest things for them to fix. Unscrew the bottom, remove old smokey hard drive. Install (probably refurbished) replacement hard drive.
Bottom line for warranty provider?
5 minutes to install a replacement drive and re-image the original factory software (OS, utilities, bloatware). The warranty provider has FULLY met THEIR obligation to fix your hardware.
Bottom line for you?
BUT WAIT!!!! What about the thesis paper I spent a year on? The critical & secret design files that's raised $500k on Kickstarter? THE MANGA pR0N collection??! The extended warranty means they'll carefully spend the time resoldering a new IC chip on the drive's controller board, right? Sorry bud. Data recovery is NOT part of the extended warranty. The epifany washes over that the $200-$300 tied up in and extended warranty doesn't cover the MOST important part of any notebook. The data.

For the folks shopping for $400-$700 notebooks, my advice is this. Make the extended warranty the LAST item you'll consider buying if there's still money left over.

After the notebook purchase itself, the 2nd purchase should be an ADDITIONAL hard drive of same or greater capacity than the one in the notebook. However painful, make it a religious habit of cloning the notebook drive to this on a frequent basis. (IMO, the cloud is still too slow and not "everywhere" enough to store and fetch large chunks of data)

If there's still money left over and you're considering dropping $200-$350 on an extended warranty (which would kick-in after the OEM's 1st year) I would have opted to apply that money toward a newer budget laptop (to be back up and running hardware wise) and simply connect the still-functional hard drive (or its clone) to the replacement computer.

If a budget laptop dies 15 months into ownership and conveniently out of it's warranty period, it'd burn me up to know I've tied up $200 (extended warranty) to get that POS back up and running (proficiency of the tech monkeys notwithstanding) when I'd much rather take my chances applying that amount toward a different brand (and presumably in 15 months time, the budget models will be even faster). With the good practice of regularly cloning the hard drive, the harm from a "catastrophic hard drive suicide" is virtually a non-issue.

Yes, I forked out the $279 for Sony's extended warranty 4 years ago. In retrospect with the precautions I now take, that money could've been used for a lot of other stuff.

 

Carter makes many good points but here's why I still think an ST 3 yr (really 2, the OEM wtty handles the first year) full ADD coverage will cost you less than 20% the cost of the laptop. If you drop an dc crash a screen with ST, you will get it fixed or replaced no matter what sort of problem on Carter's list you have. With Sony, they constantly refuse to replace LCDs even if you buy their ADD coverage! It's nuts, but it has been reported over and over and over.

If you plan to pay around $700 for this machine, placing a $119 bet that it will fail, be dropped or doused in liquid gives you good odds. With this wtty, the later the better, because if the cost to fix is more than about 40% of the cost of the repair they'll just cut you a check for the purchase price, and you can use it for a new one. Sony has another obnoxious policy - it's in the small print and been reported here, but few people know - that under any of Sony's extended warranties, they will only do repairs or replacements up the original price you paid for the laptop. So, if you have a motherboard fry and they replace it under wtty, then you drop it and total it, you will get a check for the purchase price minus what they value the MOBO replacement cost.