Sony VAIO VGN-SR220J/H 13.3-Inch Laptop Review
Sony VAIO VGN-SR220J/H 13.3-Inch Laptop Review from mom2sarah. Don’t blame Vista…this is a great Laptop with a few tweaks, Let me first state that I got a Great deal on this laptop which factored into my rating. Right now Staples has it for $800 and there is a $450 trade-in offer from SONY if you exchange it for any Dell laptop ($300 for a non-Dell laptop). So, for $350 (+tax) after rebate, it’s the “Deal of the Century” as Sony is also including a mail-in offer for a Free SONY Mobility or Productivity Bundle until 6/30/09. I opted for the Productivity Bundle as I wanted the docking station. It also comes with a bluetooth Mouse and a slim AC stick. So, I simply could not resist this deal ! Sony is obviously trying hard to take away some of Dell’s market share and I have to admit that I was happy to give Sony a chance.
Having said that, this laptop is not perfect but unless you are going to spend $2K, I don’t know many that are. I have owned my share of laptops which include HP/Compaq , Asus eee, Lenovo, Sony and several Dell models.
My biggest complaint about any Sony laptop is the amount of crapware that is installed into their laptops. It really is shocking. I strongly recommend you do a Clean Install . It makes the laptop at least twice as fast if not faster. You can remove the programs manually or use pcdecrapifier if you are not comfortable doing a clean install. Neither will yield a perfectly “clean” hard-drive but it will get most of the junk off your computer. And before you proceed, make sure to make Recovery Discs as they do not ship out with any. It comes with VISTA OS which I have personally had a great experience with. I know there are a lot of haters out there but it is now a mature OS and I would recommend that you give it a chance before joining the “Vista Sux” club.
The Best Part about the SONY is the Screen. WOW. I love watching TV shows and movies on my laptop and the image is nothing short of stunning. I have been very disappointed in the past with the screen on my Dell 15.4″ laptop. I can’t even bear to watch anything on it Full-Screen as it only accentuates the poor image. The speakers unfortunately, is not up to par. In fact, they are actually “bad” so I end up using my BT headphones with it almost exclusively. It’s kind of surprising as SONY is known for their “entertainment” factor but oh well. A lot of people have also complained that there is no HDMI port even though there is a space alloted for one. If I could redesign this laptop, I would definitely add better speakers, HDMI, more USB ports (!) and maybe a backlit keyboard.
Overall though, I am very pleased with my Sony laptop. I think 13.3″ is the perfect size offering both portability and decent screen + keyboard. I have also owned a Dell m1330 (they are very similar) but the Dell unfortunately does not offer a docking station which is essential for me. The SONY anticipated that buyers will use this laptop for both Work and Play and you can even set different “modes” with different websites, bookmarks, programs ETC which is a nice feature, not a crucial one by any means, but still a nice idea. Finally, it does get WARM but not HOT and I have used it for hours with it on my lap (wearing shorts) with no problem. It is also whisper-quiet (except for when playing a DVD) which I appreciate. My HP’s fan was so loud that I ended up giving my laptop away to a family member. If you can get this laptop for less than $600, I would definitely recommend that you do. I have not yet had to deal with SONY technical help dept so I can’t comment on that aspect but I am hoping that I won’t have to !
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