Technolust

[Steve Bildermann]

Topflight design, tiny size, and long battery life all surface first in gear marketed in Japan. Why don't we see this great stuff here?

PC World Article

VAIO PCG-X505

Sony blu-ray DVD recorder April release

[Cubed]

I worked with a secretary who resigned from Sony's HQ in Shinagawa. She said that if it's small Sony will make it well. If it's bigger than a walkman, don't touch it.

Sony TVs have an atrocious reputation in the UK for reliability, but are good on features. Is the VAIO any different?

[kimpatsukun]

I think that has always been Sony. High technology spec, higher price, lower quality. But it's always had a following, always better packaging, etc. I work for Sony and that was the first thing on arriving from another semiconductor company was the speed and focus on a product. In some of the Bluetooth products these wierd and wacky ideas were coming up for product presentation. I think the quality takes second stage to the looks and special features.

All the big Sony products have bugs. PS2 had problems with the Emotion Engine chip, as well as the first products lost AV sync when playing DVD's.

I would not recommend a VAIO laptop. I have to use one. The keyboard and mouse pad just do not seem robust enough.

Having said that, last year I bought a Sony VAIO Wide in Japan. I am in love with this. I have never had a problem, it is so compact for a desktop, hardly any ghosting on the LCD and very unique looks.

[Taro Toporific]

I think that has always been Sony. High technology spec, higher price, lower quality....I would not recommend a VAIO laptop..

I would STRONGLY agree with that opinion of the VAIO notebook and Sony in general. Sony has paid a lot bills around the Taro household until last April and "Ohhh Lordy the trouble I've heard."

Sony's troubles could not have happened to better bunch of head-in-the-clouds, Sony-Way-ists.


Case in point...

Restructuring spells profit decline for Sony...Japan Times Thu Jan 29 2004 09:40:00 GMT+0900
Sony Corp. reported Wednesday a 26 percent decline in net profit for the October-December period due to restructuring expenses....The electronics division's operating profit was down 40 percent, and sales were virtually flat at 1.47 trillion yen....sales of PS2 game consoles fell due to markdowns, and a heavy investment in the development of semiconductors for the next-generation console hurt operating profit, which fell 1.6 percent to 70.5 billion yen....Sony Music Entertainment Inc. in the U.S. The division's revenues meanwhile slipped 3 percent in the period.

[Neo-Rio]

I have a SONY VAIO PCG-XR1 (PentiumII 333Mhz) which suffered a hard disk death not so long ago. It went ok for 3 years until the first hard disk failure. A trip to SONY's repair people cost $$. Later on the hard disk started making some nasty clicking noises until it died completely.

Looking at the design of the laptop, most of the processor heat actually accumulated right under the hard disk, which meant that the Hard disk read/write head really must have bent out of shape inside the mechanism.
An attempt to get a replacement hard disk for the machine in Akihabara turned up nothing because the BIOS wouldn't take a newer drive.

So no, I would not recommend a SONY... if for no other reason that that my last experience with them gave me this.

(On a side note, I got the laptop running with Knoppix Live Linux CD Japanese version, so I can still use it to do basic tasks like surf the net, use open office, and do email. Everything runs off the CD, and is a bit slow, but it still works. And if anyone wants this laptop for a thousand yen or two, please let me know)