what do you think of Sony Vaio?

[BriGy86]

only reason i ask is because a guy i work with hates sony with a passion and im not sure why(we work in retail and he sells computers)

i haven't really heard anything bad about them and was wondering if other people had legit reasons to hate/ dislike Vaio

 

[FlyingPenguin]

You didn't specifiy desktops or laptops. Sonys laptops are very nice but they're absurdly overpriced. They're targetted at power multimedia users. If you're not going to do video editing, you're wasting your money.

I wouldn't use a Sony desktop as a doorstop though.

 

[BriGy86]

this guy just hates them in general

but where we work we have mostly laptops

whats so wrong with the desktops?

 

[Cheesetogo]

Originally posted by: BriGy86
this guy just hates them in general

but where we work we have mostly laptops

whats so wrong with the desktops?

underpowered and overpriced

 

[wchou]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo

Originally posted by: BriGy86
this guy just hates them in general

but where we work we have mostly laptops

whats so wrong with the desktops?

underpowered and overpriced

 

[oog]

sony reputedly has horrible customer service.

 

[JoLim24601]

my sis has had a vaio laptop for 5 years and hasn't been given a problem once. except for the fact that it was 3000 dollars.

 

[BriGy86]

so the actual hardware isn't bad

just the price the hardware and crappy service?

 

[knothead34]

sony.....compaq/hp.....emachines. those machines just have low end hardware. ive seen sonys desktops with crappy video cards and i think they are over priced. better off to configure a computer yourself i bet it would be cheaper and perform better only downside you wouldnt get all the software that alot of those companies give with there desktops.

 

[Penth]

Originally posted by: knothead34
sony.....compaq/hp.....emachines. those machines just have low end hardware. ive seen sonys desktops with crappy video cards and i think they are over priced. better off to configure a computer yourself i bet it would be cheaper and perform better only downside you wouldnt get all the software that alot of those companies give with there desktops.

What downside? I hate computers that come off the shelf with 40 icons on the desktop and as many unnecessary processes running from the first boot. I don't need a program in my tray to check for new mouse drivers...

 

[JackMDS]

The general population Buys, Loves, and Hates according the criteria that has nothing to do with the criteria that are used by hobbyists like the one that participate in forums like this.

When people can not, or do not want to read and understand what they buy, they stick with, Names, Advertising, and Marketing Gimmicks rather than the technological factors.

The notion of loving or hating a Brand is Ridiculous at best:shocked:. Every Brand has Good models :thumbsup:and Bad models,:thumbsdown: and variety of prices and sales that has to be factored in as well.

I have a Sony VAIO portable, it a real power house that do better then many Desktop.

It has one problem, the cooling system gets dirty and the HSF clogged. Twice a year I have to spend 20 minutes opening the unit and clean the Cooling system.

Otherwise I really like this Portable Power House.

:sun:

P.S. For any one who has similar problem: Sony VAIO - Cleaning a Sony VAIO GRZ-630 Laptop Computer to avoid over heating.

 

[The Green Bean]

Originally posted by: wchou

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo

Originally posted by: BriGy86
this guy just hates them in general

but where we work we have mostly laptops

whats so wrong with the desktops?

underpowered and overpriced

 

[wchou]

Sony are known to be very expensive and lack innovation. I just wish they died already like the dinosaurs in prehistoric times.
Sony burner sucks
Sony tv sucks
Sony vcr sucks
Sony monitor sucks
Sony speaker sucks
Sony stereo system sucks
Sony cd player sucks
Sony computer sucks
and last...
Sony laptop sucks the most.

 

[GeekDrew]

I had a Vaio Laptop... I had to take it in for warranty service several times. Definitely not something that made me happy.

I've had no problems with their TVs, VCRs, Monitors, or Stereos, though. I just don't like their computers.

 

[montag451]

Just the fact that new 'Vaio's come out every week pisses me right off.


Apart from that - I know ppl who use them for their research or business and they have no probs.
Too expensive for my tastes though

 

[twitchee2]

well 2.5 yrs ago i bought a sony viao destop combo thing (speaker monitor printer) it was $1600- $300 MIR. it had 512 pc 2700 ram, p4 2.4, 80gb 5400ropm HDD dvd rom and a cd rw. looking back at it was a rip off. it run very hot have a 150W psu and the only 2 fans on the enitre thing are the cpu and psu. it works it gets the job done but it very hot and they they like integrated graphics.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
The general population Buys, Loves, and Hates according the criteria that has nothing to do with the criteria that are used by hobbyists like the one that participate in forums like this.

When people can not, or do not want to read and understand what they buy, they stick with, Names, Advertising, and Marketing Gimmicks rather than the technological factors.

The notion of loving or hating a Brand is Ridiculous at best:shocked:. Every Brand has Good models :thumbsup:and Bad models,:thumbsdown: and variety of prices and sales that has to be factored in as well.

I have a Sony VAIO portable, it a real power house that do better then many Desktop.

It has one problem, the cooling system gets dirty and the HSF clogged. Twice a year I have to spend 20 minutes opening the unit and clean the Cooling system.

Otherwise I really like this Portable Power House.

:sun:

P.S. For any one who has similar problem: Sony VAIO - Cleaning a Sony VAIO GRZ-630 Laptop Computer to avoid over heating.

What he said. I like the Vaio notebooks & towers, but you are definitely paying 10-20% more for the Sony name in most places. The notebooks are a trendy pick for business professionals because they buy them a brick & mortar retailers & know they will get special treatment for spending the extra dough.

 

[Tostada]

I've always liked Vaio laptops. I think they're the best looking laptops out there. They are pretty expensive, though, and I've heard so many people complain about them that I don't think I could get one.

As far as Vaio desktops, they get a pretty big thumbs-down from most people.

 

[stickybytes]

i have a sony vaio notebook for about 4 years now and it hasn't given me any problems that were hardware-related.

sony notebook's in general are probably the best looking, most innovative and of course, most expensive. most of the time however, you are paying for the name and not the quality. just recently, sony released a very ultra-thin notebook that looked very nice and portable. of course it costed nearly 3k but some rich folks will probably buy it anyway because of the looks and the name. and like montag451 said, they practically come out with a new notebook every few weeks as if they were in the fashion business.

sony notebooks are good if you have the money to splurge but anybody looking to get the most cost-effective notebook or desktop for that matter, should definetely look elsewhere.

 

[Ken90630]

For what it's worth, Sony drives me nuts. I've bought, off the top of my head, about 5 or 6 Sony products over the last 10 years or so. Every single one of them has broken down and needed service before I thought it should. Some little drive belt breaks, or a gear snaps, or a switch goes bad, or the AC cord socket comes loose ... often not too long after the warranty has expired. :frown: I have no proof of it, but I personally suspect they intentionally put cheapy parts, that they know are likely to fail after a certain amount of time, in their products to generate service revenue.

Having said that, to me they're kind of like sports cars: when they work, they're great and you love 'em. When they work, I've been very happy with my Sony products' actual performance. I bought a Walkman Pro awhile back to record lectures when I was in college, and it's the best Walkman, performance-wise, ever built by any company AFAIK. But it broke down long before it should have and I had to pay to get it fixed. I'm tired of driving 20 miles to the Sony service center to drop off some broken product, then paying an arm & a leg to get it fixed, then driving 20 miles again two weeks later to pick it up. Not the end of the world, of course, but it's a pain in the butt nonetheless.

To me, generally speaking, Sony stuff just isn't reliable enough over the long haul. Whether any other brands are consistently better over their whole product line, I don't know. I'm just shying away from Sony from now on unless they have a niche product (like my Walkman Pro) that I can only get from them. (And they do make really nice Mini DV camcorders -- I'll give them that. But how reliable are they? I dunno! )

Oh, and I agree with the other posters in this thread about their desktops being overpriced. You're paying for the Sony name, and I just don't see anything remarkable about their desktop computers that would warrant paying extra for them. A comparable Dell would be just as good for $100 or $200 less. And you could build your own for less (unless they bundle in a bunch of fluff software on the cheap). As for laptops, Apple, IBM (ThinkPads) and Fujitsu would be at the top of my list, way ahead of Sony Vaio.

Just my two cents, and I agree with nearly all the other posts in this thread as well. I think you're getting a pretty accurate consensus here.

 

[Arcanedeath]

The Sony laptops are some of the least reliable I've ever seen or had to service, They tend to look ok and have decent specs but are poorly designed and very much overpriced across the board. Their desktops are just like any other OEM's altho they tend to be more geared toword the media center crowd and tend to be overpriced as well. And as was mentioned Sony tends to have reliability issues w/ its PC products.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
The notion of loving or hating a Brand is Ridiculous at best:shocked:

Disagree, and most product review organizations would as well. Sony has a long history of foisting overpriced low quality goods on unsuspecting consumers, riding the good brand image they've made for themselves with high end professional products. They also all but invented planned obsolescence.

 

[forrestroche]

Originally posted by: Gurck
[Sony has a long history of foisting overpriced low quality goods on unsuspecting consumers, riding the good brand image they've made for themselves with high end professional products.

I am confused by this statement - I have a vaio desktop that I got at ubid.com about a year ago for an outstanding price (just have to wait for the right auction to come along). It was a "refurb" which on ubid often means it's just a closeout that manufacturers want to dump without denting sales of new models too much. I paid slightly less than it would have cost me to buy the same components individually and as has already been pointed out, the design of their systems is attractive. Parts included intel ht, asus, samsung, pioneer, radeon, seagate... That I am aware of these are not "low quality goods." With the exception of the monitor which I bought separately there is not a single "sony" component in the system. Oh, I'm sorry - you must be talking about the keyboard - that is sony it seems.

I have noticed one thing in debates about a specific product - you ALWAYS get lots of people with about a thousand times more posts than me who DO NOT AGREE. The discussion becomes about as meaningful as a debate about "who was the greatest golfer ever?" (Bobby Jones), or "what was the coolest dinosaur?" (Stegosaurus).

They also all but invented planned obsolescence.

That would be a hard argument to sustain. Can you substantiate this idle claim?

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: forrestroche

Originally posted by: Gurck
[Sony has a long history of foisting overpriced low quality goods on unsuspecting consumers, riding the good brand image they've made for themselves with high end professional products.

I am confused by this statement - I have a vaio desktop that I got at ubid.com about a year ago for an outstanding price (just have to wait for the right auction to come along). It was a "refurb" which on ubid often means it's just a closeout that manufacturers want to dump without denting sales of new models too much. I paid slightly less than it would have cost me to buy the same components individually and as has already been pointed out, the design of their systems is attractive. Parts included intel ht, asus, samsung, pioneer, radeon, seagate... That I am aware of these are not "low quality goods." With the exception of the monitor which I bought separately there is not a single "sony" component in the system. Oh, I'm sorry - you must be talking about the keyboard - that is sony it seems.

I have noticed one thing in debates about a specific product - you ALWAYS get lots of people with about a thousand times more posts than me who DO NOT AGREE. The discussion becomes about as meaningful as a debate about "who was the greatest golfer ever?" (Bobby Jones), or "what was the coolest dinosaur?" (Stegosaurus).

They also all but invented planned obsolescence.

That would be a hard argument to sustain. Can you substantiate this idle claim?

Please read before posting. I'm not commenting on their PCs, but rather responding to something another poster said.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: forrestroche

Originally posted by: Gurck
[Sony has a long history of foisting overpriced low quality goods on unsuspecting consumers, riding the good brand image they've made for themselves with high end professional products.

I am confused by this statement - I have a vaio desktop that I got at ubid.com about a year ago for an outstanding price (just have to wait for the right auction to come along). It was a "refurb" which on ubid often means it's just a closeout that manufacturers want to dump without denting sales of new models too much. I paid slightly less than it would have cost me to buy the same components individually and as has already been pointed out, the design of their systems is attractive. Parts included intel ht, asus, samsung, pioneer, radeon, seagate... That I am aware of these are not "low quality goods." With the exception of the monitor which I bought separately there is not a single "sony" component in the system. Oh, I'm sorry - you must be talking about the keyboard - that is sony it seems.

I have noticed one thing in debates about a specific product - you ALWAYS get lots of people with about a thousand times more posts than me who DO NOT AGREE. The discussion becomes about as meaningful as a debate about "who was the greatest golfer ever?" (Bobby Jones), or "what was the coolest dinosaur?" (Stegosaurus).

They also all but invented planned obsolescence.

That would be a hard argument to sustain. Can you substantiate this idle claim?

uyou are obviosuly in the extreme. you are satisfied with yuor purchse that you got at a very extremely low(for viao anyway) price.

as for your paying slightly less, welcome to 2004/2005. all major manufacturers will sell you a system for slightly less than it would cost you.(even dell as it frequently runs huge deals) simply because they are buying in bulk and they buy OEM products. Look at your sony's innards and tell me the wiring is not a mess, or that your power supply is not 240-270W. That yuor samsung isnt lower of the line drive, that the asus motherboard isnt either uATX or so locked down there is barely a choice in mb bios. go to divice manager and tell me that radeon isnt bottom of the line or close to it(recently saw a over 2k media center pc with a "Blazingly fast" according to the label X300SE(also, my friend's $2600 pc had a gefoce 4 mx440 when he bought it last year). sorry, but you couldve had to not hold out and gotten a similar hp or dell system for about as much as the refurbished system cost no a daily basis.

yes, they use "high quality" components but what else would you expect them to use? basically, they are forced to use ASUS, Intel, ATI, etc because besides a few competitors whom they cant use due to signing exclusive agreements to get lower prices, there is no other choice in the computer industry.

for the same premium sony charges for ther retail systems, you could easily got to a custom pc builder and get a much better system for less. ABSpc is much lower in price and even premier builders like FalconNW are comparable. when yuo look at quality to price ratio sony is severely lacking.