



Awesomness in a small package!
This is the second Vaio that I have owned and I think that it is worlds better than the first one. THIS HAS EVERYTHING! A big 250GB hard drive for tons of storage, a Core 2 Duo Processor which is almost human brain fast when it comes to doing photo editing and manipulation and for working with just about anything else simultaneously, DVD read and write capability that is beyond easy especially with the disks that hold up to 8.5 giggle-bytes (he he) of data and the apps that come pre-installed for writing. You get a built in web-cam that is great for video conferencing. SD Reader right on the side so you don't have to hook up anything else to get pics or whatever data you may have off of your SD Cards. Extra security with the Biometric finger print scanner which can replace the log-in password. Only you can get into your computer! It's a little frustrating enrolling your prints but just remember to push your finger down on the scanner and slide, not just swipe it across. It also has an ExpressCard 34 slot if you're into expanding things that way. And I almost forgot about the bluetooth connectivity! If you have a printer with bluetooth you don't even have to be in the same room to print! HOW COOL IS THAT!
It is lighter than the other notebooks that I've tried out which is great if you like to take it with you or you have to take it with you. You don't want to have to lug an extra 10lbs on your shoulder or in your hand all day! The keyboard is different but nice. There is actually a space in between the keys so you can feel the edge of the keys and you don't accidentally hit the wrong keys unless your fingers are really big. I think a man might have a hard time with these keys but they are perfect for a woman's small hands. They've also removed some keys to make it smaller. On the right side there used to be the PageUp and PageDown, Home and End keys. They aren't there any more. Sony has combined these keys with the arrow keys down in the right hand corner of the keyboard. You have to press the function key to operate PgUp and PgDn, Home and End. My husband didn't like this at all but I have already taken to it like it was never any other way. On the old VAIO the speaker volume used to be accessed in the same way, with the Function Key on F3 and F4. Now they are at the top off of the keyboard with an A/V Mode button, Capture Button, and what I think is really cool, a Display Off button. They also added the Audio/Video control buttons. Those are down below the mouse keys. A little inconvenient when it's on your lap but you can either deal with that or not.
The battery is a standard battery. It lasts about two hours, but if you put it in power saving mode then you can get about four hours out of it. I am almost wet-myself-excited about that considering that the battery on my last computer would last about 15 minutes. If you need a battery that lasts longer than four hours without needing the power supply you can purchase a long-life battery, or you can put the computer on your desk, get your butt up out of your seat and go take a walk or something because four hours is a long time!
I also love that the wireless switch is on the left side and not on the front anymore. I used to hate having my computer on my lap and accidentally switching off my wireless access! There is nothing worse than doing that in the middle trying to upload a file or download music! All of your connections are on the sides as well. Two USB on the left and one on the right. Mic, headphones, FireWire, S-Video and VGA on the left and Ethernet, CD-DVD drive, SD reader and Magic Gate on the right.
It gets a little warm but not volcano hot so that you can't hold it on your lap for even a couple of seconds. It's easy to keep this baby right on your lap where she belongs! The LCD is a little small compared to other models in the same price range, 14.1". But If you want a small computer, like I did, this works just fine. I mean come on, what person, man or woman, would argue with 14 inches. !) If you want anything bigger than that, get a desk-top model! And like everything new, Windows Vista does take a little getting used to but once you do, it's like you've used it your whole computing life.
It really is the perfect computer for productivity. If you are looking for something that you can do gaming on then you may want to upgrade your RAM. This does come with 2 gigs installed but it's upgradeable to 4. I plan on doing that anyway! With memory, Bigger is Better!
All in all, this is a really good computer! You could do a lot worse than this one but I think anyone that knows what to do with it will be more than pleased!
And if you have a problem with the fingerprints getting all over the black, there is this neat little thing that they sell here at Amazon.com. It's called a cleaning cloth! Don't let fingerprints stand in your way of a really awesome computer experience.