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The hard drive protection kicked in and after sustaining a 3 foot fall all is well.You only have 30 days to purchase the accidental damage warranty from Sony after buy the notebook - I didn't need it, but I would recommend it. I purchased this laptop almost a year ago and once I cleaned the bloatware off I can't say enough good things.The unit slid off my lap onto a thinly carpeted floor.
What I like- Light weight, sleek design and very thin screen- Discrete graphics card that can handle multi functions: games, graphics editing, movie.- Bluetooth, finger reader, high-resolution cameraWhat I really hate- Windows Vista - One among worst product from Microsoft, I wish i could replace Windows Vista by XP (doing that, we will get trouble with drives)- Too much bloated software, i took me 1hr to remove all of them
But they told me I had no choice. Why, so I can wait a week to have them send it back to me broken again. You should be able to find good reviews of the computer elsewhere, so I won't go into that.But I will share with you my nightmarish experience with their service.About 6 months after buying it, I dropped the computer from a low height. I've dropped Dells and Acers in my life and not had problems.So I paid $800 to have them fix it at their repair center. They want me to send it back to their support center. It was unusable.I called their support line (and suffered through the typical long wait) and they told me to send it back to their repair center. Why would I do that.
I called them back to report the issue. When they sent it back to me it was still broken.
The battery didn't work, the screen would flash unpredictably, etc. They wouldn't charge me for it.Guess what.
Totally my fault, though because it's a delicate machine it was damaged. So I send it back.
Every time I deal with their support people it takes 30 minutes and is very painful.I will never buy Sony again. They did fix it, but they sent it back to me with a host of new problems.
I protested--I just did that, and I had to wait a week for it to come back, and when they did send it back it was broken.
It might be handy to have some these software too though if you don't have your office or adobe cds ready, you can use the trial versions in the meantime for a while.The overall design is really sleek, and keyboard really feels soft and nice, your fingers are sliding on the keys. I wish they made it a little more sturdy.In the overall it is definitely a fast, sleek and very portable computer. I mainly use the computer for research and simulations. In the past I have sent my previous computer for the fan had started making too much noise. I have been a vaio sz user for more than three years (~3.5), have bought one for my wife and brother as well.
The next day I called sony service, a prepaid overnight ups box arrived to send the computer to them and the computer came back within a week with the fans cleaned up and problems fixed. Even if you are running many programs together including matlab, mathematica, photoshop, office programs etc. As to compare between different models although initial models had some problems, it is improving in time, going quieter and faster.The only problem I have is that I have to pay attention extra care to protect the lcd as the casing is pretty thin and doesn't feel strong enough. I would definitely recommend this computer if you want a portable one yet you do not want to sacrifice performance. The downside is after a year of frequent use there is a slight wear that you can guess from the outer look which keys are used most frequently (may be this is a problem in all computers out there). It would good to have an xp downgrade cd though for those who want to use xp.
I have used different versions, 160, 330 and 650 last. high speed mode can handle them pretty easily. As it comes to the service I don't have experience with other brands to make a comparison however I can comment on my personal experience. It is surprising to see so many negative feedback as I did not experience anything that bad past three years with so many different computers. It is still fully functional however a better material should be used.Some people say it doesn't come with a restore cd, well it has a very nice restore program, you can just say go and it restores the computer to after factory state, and if you like you can burn your own DVD's too. Come on, if you are a little patient you can get rid of them in an hour after you first turn on the computer.
As regards to performance, it is fast indeed. I don't see the reason why people are getting troubles with speed.Yes it is coming with lots of software junk however I don't understand what those people uninstalling for three days.
If you are hoping for a level of support that justifies the premium price you will be disappointed in my opinion. I sent it in for warrenty work and Sony wants close to $700.00 to replace it - looking at what others have posted on the web this seems typical of their level of support.I am sorry I spent the money on what was billed as a break through product that really is just a product that breaks. I had this notebook for about 8 months - all of the problems with bloated software described by other reviewers hold true - but I can deal with that hassle.I have a hardware failure that involves the hinge on the notebooks screen this failure is related to poor workmanship - ie: cheap flimsy screen and hinge. The hinge is loose and will eventually fail - this problem is well described by others on the web.
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