New Sony laptop worth buying??

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cosmictraveler

cosmictraveler

Be kind to yourself always.
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I've been thinking of buying a laptop and this one interests me because of the solid state HD, which means there's no moving parts involved any longer and I can get a 6 GB RAM as well with it. It also has a 8 hour battery life when in use and less than an hour to recharge it. Looks nice and is very compact, it may just be to compact is the only down side to it.

Model Number: VGN-TT290 VGN-TT290 Configure-to-Order Model Features
Big performance from an ultra-portable design, the customizable VAIO® TT290 notebook blends Blu-ray Disc" with cutting-edge computing technology.
Available features:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor up to (1.60GHz) with Centrino® 2 technology
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate with Microsoft Windows XP Professional downgrade disc available and other editions
11.1" widescreen LCD, 2.87 pounds
Up to 4GB of configurable RAM
Up to 7.5 hours standard battery life
Built-in MOTION-EYE® camera and microphone
Biometric fingerprint sensor
Optional Blu-ray Disc™ read/write optical drive
Your choice of HDD up to 250GB or SSD up to 256GB with RAID technology
HDMI™ output
Built-in Bluetooth® technology
Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband Built-in



VGNTT190UBX.jpg



Anyone have a SONY? What are your opinions of this laptop? I can get a 256 GB HD as well.
 
My first laptop was a Compaq. It started falling apart immediately and was completely dead as soon as the one year warrenty expired. Since then, I've gone with Sony Vaio's and have had minimal problems (my first one developed a short in the power cord after about four years, I'm now on my second one).
 
As a technician, I hate sony laptops. They are so hard to take apart...but that generally isn't much of a concern for an end user. People ask me all the time what's the best brand of laptop. I'm convinced they are all about the same, as they all made by the same chinese guy in the same chinese factory. :)
 
MacGyver1968 said:
As a technician, I hate sony laptops. They are so hard to take apart...but that generally isn't much of a concern for an end user. People ask me all the time what's the best brand of laptop. I'm convinced they are all about the same, as they all made by the same chinese guy in the same chinese factory. :)
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That is the funny thing about talking to people that just USE technology. It doesn't matter to them how hard it is to fix, they never know.

I think this is the kind of question that cannot be answered without knowing what the person intends to do with the computer. Personally I would be very reluctant to spend more than $1000 on any laptop. How much portable processing power does the user need?

I'm sorry, but lots of people buy technology for status and never really use its capability. The manufacturers know this and design things to appeal to whatever psychological reason people have for buying.

I am waiting for a number of 10 and 12 inch netbooks with Nvidia ION technology to choose from. I don't need a portable dual-core. I live with my 500 MHz Panasonic Tughbook 'til then. Cheap and unbreakable are more important to me than POWER or COOL.

psik
 
You might want to think about whether or not the 6 GB of RAM would actually do anything for you. I recently got a new computer and paid a little extra to have 4 GB, and I virtually never use it. Vista takes up about a GB, and if I'm running a game or some engineering software or something it might take up another GB...but that's about it. The extra 2 GB that I paid for usually just sits there unused. Of course if you have special application or something that eat up RAM then your situation might be different.
 
11.6 inch netbooks aren't exactly compact. They are pretty useable, and handy in my opinion. I've been shopping around for a 10 inch one, and I'm fine with it. I heard that a good powerful netbook right now is a Gateway model running an AMD. Dual core really does you no good at this point. I too would hold out for the ion, which hopefully isn't far away.
 
cosmictraveler said:
I've been thinking of buying a laptop and this one interests me because of the solid state HD, which means there's no moving parts
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Although I have seen hard drives fail within a few weeks I usually expect them to last 3 to 5 years. But I have seen purely electronic components fail within a few weeks also. I bet more people lose data because of viruses than because of hard drive crashes.

Best Buy wipes people's drives when they can't figure out how to recover stuff. LOL

psik
 
Do you really need a portable computer? Not enough people ask themselves this question. Laptops have become stylish, but many (possibly even most) of the people purchasing them would be better served by a desktop computer. Having to fit everything into a smaller space makes things more expensive, which is one of the reasons you generally get better performance out of a comparably priced desktop. Having everything crammed together also makes it more difficult to get rid of heat, increasing the thermal stress, and shortening the life of the components. With a desktop, you get a bigger keyboard (that you can position where you like), a larger monitor, and an easier to use mouse. Some people add a larger external monitor, a separate keyboard, and a separate mouse to their laptop, and then never move their laptop. Which makes you wonder why they purchased a laptop in the first place.
 
Sony makes a good laptop.

Never buy HP or Dell. They both suck royally.

My personal preference, however, is Gateway. I've had two of them. They are rugged and have never done me wrong.

~String
 
Repo Man said:
Do you really need a portable computer? Not enough people ask themselves this question. Laptops have become stylish, but many (possibly even most) of the people purchasing them would be better served by a desktop computer. Having to fit everything into a smaller space makes things more expensive, which is one of the reasons you generally get better performance out of a comparably priced desktop. Having everything crammed together also makes it more difficult to get rid of heat, increasing the thermal stress, and shortening the life of the components. With a desktop, you get a bigger keyboard (that you can position where you like), a larger monitor, and an easier to use mouse. Some people add a larger external monitor, a separate keyboard, and a separate mouse to their laptop, and then never move their laptop. Which makes you wonder why they purchased a laptop in the first place.
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Everything you say is totally true. I have owned two laptops. I bought my first one when I got a marketing job with Costco wholesale years ago. I thought I'd use it, but found that it basically sat in my hotel room until I checked my email. I stopped lugging it about the third trip in. Since then I bought a second one, believing that I needed something portable. I payed for it too: the first one cost me $2,600 and the second a grand less. In either case, a PC would have cost less than half and probably had more "bells and whistles".

Don't get me wrong, I love my Gateway, but next time 'round, I'll be getting a PC.

~String
 
superstring01 said:
Sony makes a good laptop.

Never buy HP or Dell. They both suck royally.

My personal preference, however, is Gateway. I've had two of them. They are rugged and have never done me wrong.

~String
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is that laptops or computers in general because my current one is an HP
 
the first one cost me $2,600 and the second a grand less. In either case, a PC would have cost less than half and probably had more "bells and whistles".
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That is why I wouldn't spend more than $1000 on a computer. Spend $2000 and in 3 years it is worth about $500. I would rather spend $1500 on an Oriental rug. These netbooks look like they should be powerful enough for any portable stuff I need. I tell people to buy used desktops and replace the hard drives. You can get a used dual-core for less than $300 and a new hard drive is less than $100. Why spend a lot on what you know is going to depreciate fast?

psik
 
Repo Man said:
Do you really need a portable computer? Not enough people ask themselves this question. Laptops have become stylish, but many (possibly even most) of the people purchasing them would be better served by a desktop computer.
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I use my laptop in multiple offices. Plus I love being able to lie on the floor, or lay back in my easy chair, on my bed, sit outside smoking a cigar, or whatever and still access the internet or work on various documents.
 
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