Sony Laptop

[chrisf70]

We are looking to buy a new laptop. For value for money and spec we have whittled it down to a Sony Vaio VGN-FW series laptop.

There are two in our price range, the FW21E and the FW11M. The FW21 range has just come out and the main difference is the chipset. They are both Core 2 Duo but the FW11 used P8400 chips and the FW21 uses a T5800 version.

Does anyone have either of these laptops, or if not does anyone have any of the VGN-FW series? If you do what do you think of it?

Cheers.

[pyro_maniac]

if you want a lot more spec for your money, have a look at the acer range of laptops, i dont see why you should pay a premium for the sony badge
have had a couple of acers and never had any problems at all with any of them, same goes to a lot of others i know

[chrisf70]

Thanks, I hadn't dismissed them they just hadn't appeared on my radar because of the spec and price.

I have just double checked the Acers, and to get one of a similar spec to the Sony FW11M you are paying on average about £100 more. That is for the Acer 8930G, it also has a nVidia graphic card which I try and stay away from.

I really just want to know if anyone has got one themselves?

[Waterboy]

I've got the Sony Vaio NR 21Z which has the P8100 chipset and the Nvidia 8400M GPU.

It's been absolutely bullit proof and issue free.

The 8400 is a faster running chipset than the 5800 and has a better FSB

be aware though that Sony pile a whole host of unwanted program onto their build so you'll be spending half a day taking these off to make sure it's running at its best.

Although I love my Vaio, even i think you shouldn't discount the Dell XPS Studio 16

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs

Configure it with a Bluray drive and they work out nearly if not the same in price

[chrisf70]

Cheers, I'd read that it's usual to have to strip loads out of the Sony so looks like I'll be busy for a bit. I'd looked at the Dell XPS 16, as I buy Dell for work and my wife's old laptop is a Latitude so I've always recommended them. But I can get the FW11 for about £690 all in, so it works out quite a lot cheaper than the XPS.

[sb1uk]

Most laptops ar much of a muchness. Good advise is to buy a dell . good quality and they come with reinstall discs. When you loose you operating system with vista installed and no original disc. the oem licence number on the bottom of the laptop is useless. You can't use another disc like you could with XP to reinstall.

[chrisf70]

You can always just create the recovery disks at first boot up. You don't have to have them supplied.

[Waterboy]

You can always just create the recovery disks at first boot up. You don't have to have them supplied.

Yep, my Vaio asked me to supply 2 DVD's and made the recovery discs before it would even let me on the network. Nice safety feature

The only thing i didn't like on the FW series was the gap between keys. Takes some getting used to.

Least with a Vaio, it has great after sales service from sony and they're going to last for years and not look dated

[chrisf70]

Agree on the keys, it is a strange way to lay them out. Things I've read though say that it helps with touch typing, if you've got big old fingers like I have!

[bandrew]

How much are these laptops then?