I bought this laptop today, as a replacement for my dead (but well specced for £400) Samsung. The spec of this Vaio (£100 more) is everything the Samsung had and more. Bigger Hard drive, more RAM,3rd Gen I3 processor, USB 2&3 ports… The external case/ chassis feels nice & solid, it’s quick to boot up, the keyboard is well spaced, nice screen clarity with no nasty reflection, decent sound quality and it looks good too. It’s running Windows 8, which I’m still finding my way around….But I like it so far!
Dislikes? Well, there’s always something I guess. There’s a little too much flex to the plastic panel for my liking, when using the keyboard and the one piece touch pad feels a little odd/ flexible (as windows 8 requires you to press the corners of the touchpad. And a late addition, the webcam image quality is poor After looking at a few other £400-£500 machines, I was happy to go with the Vaio reputation and spec for the price, and I’d say its worth a look in thjis price bracket
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This review is from: Sony SVE1512J1EW.CEK Vaio E Series 15-inch Laptop (White) – (Intel Core i5 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Windows 8) (Personal Computers)
Let’s get this straight- this is a great laptop from Sony…the keyboard’s more good-looking and ergonomic, the screen is brighter, the battery life is way better and the processor is faster than my wheezy old 6 year old Vaio. So far, so good, then…so why the bad rating? Windows 8 in concert with Norton antivirus…just hateful: I’ve lost count of the number of times a ‘This Page Cannot Be Displayed; Check the Site and Reset Internet Connexion’ alarm comes up…pages hang…Amazon/Expedia/Photobox/ANYONE’S transactions hang and abort…Facebook takes an age to update…Hotmail simply won’t allow the download of attachments (not just exe’s, pdf’s, jpeg’s and word/excel files!!)..and that’s before we get into the fact that ‘8’ is primarily designed for touch screen machines, which this laptop isn’t. The only thing that makes life liveable at the moment is that the old Vaio that this machine was meant to replace (!!) just chugs on…slow, but reliable and satisfyingly retro. My advice…WAAAAAAAIT for the public Beta testing of Windows 8 to complete before buying a non-Mac computer; if you can’t wait, buy a ‘7’ machine in the sales. Sooooo disappointed.
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This review is from: Sony SVE1512J1EW.CEK Vaio E Series 15-inch Laptop (White) – (Intel Core i5 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Windows 8) (Personal Computers)
I had a similar experience to another reviewer on here, in that my new Vaio laptop kept freezing and not loading properly. I’m guessing that there may have been a “bad batch”. I sent mine back as well and opted to receive a replacement. It arrived quickly, and I’m glad that I kept the faith and tried again!
The laptop itself is great to look at, with a very easy set up. I was up and running within 10 mins. Windows 8 takes a bit of getting used to, but so does anything that is new. The first thing that I noticed was the speed of everything. From turning it on in the morning to actually getting on the Net literally takes a matter of seconds. Very impressive and very useful if you are in a hurry, or just generally impatient like me!
I don’t use my laptop for anything heavy duty, just everyday browsing, emails, music etc, but it is all done seamlessly and efficiently, with no hesitation or annoying time lapses between tasks. The build quality is really good, it feels solid and you feel assured that it is a well known make with a good reputation.
If I had to say one thing that I’m not so keen on, it would have to be the touch pad. It is very sensitive, and I have found myself “zooming” in and out of web pages unintentionally. Saying that, there is a short tutorial on how to use it properly, and you have many customisation options to suit you (I have turned off the zoom!!), so I wouldn’t let it stop you buying one if it is on your list as the more I use it, the easier it is becoming.
All in all, I am really pleased I chose this laptop. If you are considering one, then I suggest that you pop into PC World to have a look at it, then come back to Amazon to buy it, you won’t be disappointed.
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Sony Vaio almost great,
I bought this laptop today, as a replacement for my dead (but well specced for £400) Samsung.
The spec of this Vaio (£100 more) is everything the Samsung had and more. Bigger Hard drive, more RAM,3rd Gen I3 processor, USB 2&3 ports…
The external case/ chassis feels nice & solid, it’s quick to boot up, the keyboard is well spaced, nice screen clarity with no nasty reflection, decent sound quality and it looks good too.
It’s running Windows 8, which I’m still finding my way around….But I like it so far!
Dislikes? Well, there’s always something I guess. There’s a little too much flex to the plastic panel for my liking, when using the keyboard and the one piece touch pad feels a little odd/ flexible (as windows 8 requires you to press the corners of the touchpad.
And a late addition, the webcam image quality is poor
After looking at a few other £400-£500 machines, I was happy to go with the Vaio reputation and spec for the price, and I’d say its worth a look in thjis price bracket
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Great laptop waiting for a robust OS.,
Let’s get this straight- this is a great laptop from Sony…the keyboard’s more good-looking and ergonomic, the screen is brighter, the battery life is way better and the processor is faster than my wheezy old 6 year old Vaio.
So far, so good, then…so why the bad rating?
Windows 8 in concert with Norton antivirus…just hateful: I’ve lost count of the number of times a ‘This Page Cannot Be Displayed; Check the Site and Reset Internet Connexion’ alarm comes up…pages hang…Amazon/Expedia/Photobox/ANYONE’S transactions hang and abort…Facebook takes an age to update…Hotmail simply won’t allow the download of attachments (not just exe’s, pdf’s, jpeg’s and word/excel files!!)..and that’s before we get into the fact that ‘8’ is primarily designed for touch screen machines, which this laptop isn’t.
The only thing that makes life liveable at the moment is that the old Vaio that this machine was meant to replace (!!) just chugs on…slow, but reliable and satisfyingly retro.
My advice…WAAAAAAAIT for the public Beta testing of Windows 8 to complete before buying a non-Mac computer; if you can’t wait, buy a ‘7’ machine in the sales.
Sooooo disappointed.
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Good All Rounder,
I had a similar experience to another reviewer on here, in that my new Vaio laptop kept freezing and not loading properly. I’m guessing that there may have been a “bad batch”. I sent mine back as well and opted to receive a replacement. It arrived quickly, and I’m glad that I kept the faith and tried again!
The laptop itself is great to look at, with a very easy set up. I was up and running within 10 mins. Windows 8 takes a bit of getting used to, but so does anything that is new. The first thing that I noticed was the speed of everything. From turning it on in the morning to actually getting on the Net literally takes a matter of seconds. Very impressive and very useful if you are in a hurry, or just generally impatient like me!
I don’t use my laptop for anything heavy duty, just everyday browsing, emails, music etc, but it is all done seamlessly and efficiently, with no hesitation or annoying time lapses between tasks. The build quality is really good, it feels solid and you feel assured that it is a well known make with a good reputation.
If I had to say one thing that I’m not so keen on, it would have to be the touch pad. It is very sensitive, and I have found myself “zooming” in and out of web pages unintentionally. Saying that, there is a short tutorial on how to use it properly, and you have many customisation options to suit you (I have turned off the zoom!!), so I wouldn’t let it stop you buying one if it is on your list as the more I use it, the easier it is becoming.
All in all, I am really pleased I chose this laptop. If you are considering one, then I suggest that you pop into PC World to have a look at it, then come back to Amazon to buy it, you won’t be disappointed.
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