Customer Reviews
Sony Vaio 
2008-04-17
The laptop is perfect for everything I need it for. I am a full time student and have a full time job. I spend a lot of time on the computer and needed something easy to carry with a good battery life. It has been great!
Good laptop but without webcam 
2008-04-14
A very good laptop with descent speed and very good looks. Desirable option at this price.
Can someone tell me? 2008-03-02
I have just purchased VGN-NR110E/S and am so far satisfied with it,
but I just saw that Amazon sells NR160E(NEW) much cheaper than NR110E.
Can someone tell me how this could happen?
Nicely designed value laptop 2008-02-29
I bought the NR160E/S version, with 1.5GHz Core2Duo processor and 1GB RAM, which I immediately upgraded to 2GB. The keyboard is very ergonomical with widely spread keys. The touchpad is not very precise, but the right side of it is like a scroll wheel of a mouse, so it's perfect for web-browsing if you don't have a mouse with you. The screen is shiny, but as it is very bright, there are no chances that it will pose a flaw. There are 4 USB plugs, 2 on each side. There's also a wireless switch, which might come in handy sometimes.
All the flaws that previous buyers have brought up somehow refer to the Windows Vista operating system. Although, I did have my own copy of XP Pro, I didn't reinstall the system to it, but decided to keep Vista. Vista is proven to perform quicker on dual core and high memory computers, and multitasking is my necessity. So if you run MS Word, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Corel Draw at the same time like I do, keep your Vistas, ladies and gents, but just make sure you update it regularly and uninstall the unneeded Sony and other bloatware blocking the veins of this powerful computer.
The only objection I have is the cheap plastics used on the casing of the laptop, but this being the cheapest Vaio, it is understandable. If I had to buy it again, I'd definitely go for it, but maybe I would choose the white version rather to the silver I bought.
Song VGN-NR185E 2008-02-24
Delivery was on time as promised. Shipment arrived in good condition. I still havn't got to the support documentation or find out whether I can obtain a backup of what comes in the laptop yet. Unit itself is plug and play. In general, I am very satisfy with my purchase. One thing I regret though, was if I would have waited for a few more days, I could have gotten the unit with a different color for the same price.
Great laptop, especially for the price 2008-07-12
I've had this laptop since November 2007, and I have been EXTREMELY happy with the purchase. I previously had a terrible Toshiba P35 that was dying a horrific death, and I needed a computer on which to write my dissertation. Needless to say, the Sony NR120E has exceeded my expectations for a relatively cheap laptop. Quick pro/cons:
Pros:
- Great, vibrant screen (great size for a screen, you definitely don't need an external monitor with this computer)
- Good keyboard, very comfortable for typing
- Easy access to 4 USB slots, with two slots on either side of the computer
- Lots of connection options, memory stick, SD card reader, etc.
- Big hard drive for a laptop of this price
- Everything works, no severe hardware problems thus far
Cons:
- Battery life is definitely closer to the 2 hr range, rather than the maximum 4 hrs specified by the manufacturer
- As mentioned by other reviewers, lots of junkware pre-installed
- Not the fastest laptop ever (but it is quite good at handling multiple open applications at once)
I would definitely recommend upgrading the RAM to 2 GB. I also recommend using the "Ready Boost" feature with Vista. I am using a 2 GB memory stick that fits into the built in memory card reader, and so far, Vista is working great - sure, it's a resource hog, but I have had no problems with crashing.
One more thing - be sure to upgrade this computer to the most recent BIOS and drivers, provided on the Sony website. I initially had a problem with the wireless connectivity on this computer. The wireless connection would disconnect randomly, and the only way to re-connect would be to re-start the computer. Upgrading the hardware drivers and the BIOS fixed this problem completely.
This computer has a great design, and most importantly, it works fantastically. For the money, that's all I could ever ask for...
Budget laptop: Sony nailed it! 2008-06-24
I've been using NR-160E for 6 months and have never been happier about my laptop. In the last 2 years I've been through 2 Toshibas and one Dell. And those lappies made me want to get rid of them as soon as I got them. The Toshibas were noisy, the Dell was built very cheap and the screen was blurry. So, what do you get with this Sony? (I'm going into the spec detail, as the budget laptops are basically the same now) .
a) Wonderful screen - crisp and colorful
b) Excellent performance. Very quiet. From normal distance (3ft) you can't here the fan at all and all of the time! Rather fast. This is faster than Toshiba with 1.67 Mhz C2D processor. Really, both Vista, both C2D, both 2MB L2 cache, but Tosh is 1.67 Mhz is noticeably slower than 1.5 Mhz Sony - go figure! I thought I'd need to get another stick of RAM here. No, 1G works perfectly alright for me in net browsing and Openoffice text, spreadsheets, video watching.
c) it's very comfy and beautiful to look at (the brown one). It comes with textured hand-rest panels (much better than those glossy- "hello sweaty palms"- Toshibas) and excellent comfy keyboard.
Definitely, a keeper!
Excellent 2008-06-15
I bought this laptop on Black Friday. It was a great deal from Best Buy for 399$. True that theres lot of additional software (most of it are trial versions), but doesnt hurt - just deleted. What a great display and keyboard and esp. wonderful deal - a sony brand for less than $400!!
Condition of My item 2008-05-21
This item came in great condition and in a timely manner.So far it has worked very well.I am now thinking of purchasing another one.
Rodney.
No web cam? 
2008-04-18
No webcam which isn't a huge deal, the 1gb of memory can be upgraded, but what the hell is Sony think they are doing spamming Vaio users with Vista bloatware. This notebook lags so badly, and by no fault of it's own it's just all the bloatware that Sony loads on these computers to annoy and slap users who paid their hard earned money for a good notebook. To save everyone time go to yahoo or any search engine and type in "remove crap ware tool" and download it. Rather then spend hours removing all the needless nonsence that is bloatware off this notbook, this program will scan your computer and bring up an amazing list that you can select what programs you want removed, saves time, lots of time considering how much spam is on this machine.
Happy hunting!
