sony vaio reliability.....

Im wondering about problems with the sony notebooks....I had numerous sony products crap out on me in the past, so im leery of ordering 3g sony notebook. I freakin love the look of the machine itself, but scared of reliability issues.

 

Its good

My R505 P3 is still running
My T150 is still running (my mom's)

those are the only old Sony I have

 

My 7 year old Z505S is still running flawlessly. Its durablity is remarkable.

 

ASUS actually takes orders from Sony. And we all know how stellar ASUS quality really is.

 

Here's PC World's reliability ratings. Sony is up there with Dell and the rest:

http://www.infotoday.com/linkup/lud100104-goldsborough.shtml

Don't know if that's a good thing!

Never mind, that's an old link. Consumer Reports just issued a report listing Apple as the most reliable notebook. Will try to get all the ratings asap.

http://hd.bloggingstocks.com/2006/10/13/apple-still-leads-the-pack-at-consumer-reports/

 

Last month, an unknown company said that Lenovo and Apple were tops, but no mention of Sony:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4600&ref=y

 

A few years ago, Asus (with Twinhead) OEMed some low-end models of Sony, like K, F series, and their build quality were so so. The high-end vaios have never been OEMed. Most high end models were made in Japan or assembled in USA.

Well, Asus makes decent laptops recently, but it did not in the past.

 

Ok, thats good to know.

im tossing up between an asus and sony acutally. but I love the style of the sony, so maybe the route I go with.....

 

That reminds me, where are the sz3xx made in?? On the back of your laptops, does it say china or japan/usa? If it says japan/usa, I would actually be impressed since your paying over 2-3k!

My money would be it is from china or something like that. 12+ years ago, Sony used to be a legend in brand name and quality but then they sold out and made everything in china and etc. They don't have the same quality as the "Sony" brand used to back then. Panasonic I think still the only one or few that makes everything in japan!

 

The SZs are made (assembled) in Japan/USA.

Most Panasonic stuff these days are made in China as well.

 

Are they both made and assembled in japan/usa? That's great!!! I am suprised about panasonic, because I thought their plasma/laptops and other stuff are from japan. Who knows, maybe just the high end.

 

Does country of final assembly really make a difference anymore? I know that it used to, but now does it really? I seem to hear just as many complaints about Sony workmanship from Japan, or Fujitsu from Japan as well. Yet everybody loves Lenovo and they are manufactured in China.

 

If it helps your decision any, I currently use an Asus W5F and I'm about to order an SZ360. Here's what's wrong with my six-month-old W5F:

1. Will not go to sleep reliably. Need to wait for light to start flashing before closing lid otherwise it wakes up again! This really sucks big time.
2. A 5-mm white spot showed up within weeks of owning it. It's not center-screen, but it's highly irritating nonetheless.
3. Light indicator symbols started "peeling" in the first month, now you can't even distinguish what is the hard disk or the battery charging light!
4. Cannot use highest brightness unless it's plugged in, even though it's always set at the highest brightness.

I hope Asus will be able to fix the first three problems, but it does require sending my lappy in and waiting 7-10 days for turnaround, even though I live in SF and the company is located in Fremont, an hour away, which is why I need two notebooks at all times (sold my POS Acer TM8104 in July).

YMMV but this wonderful technology is proudly made in Taiwan.

 

had an ASUS S1N (gave it to my dad) and it was crap... OS was chinese even tho i requested english. First machine had dead speakers, 2nd machine had dead pixel. Kept on having blue screens and the ram cover did not fit properly. So yeah, crap battery life aswell...
I now have a SZ18 (SZ1X Premium), had it for over 1/2 year, no problems, still working good, still lovin it!
Oh and my other Sony products still working like my P3 VAIO Slim Desktop =p