Subscribe Feed (RSS)It’s funny when you try to find cheap Sony VAIO laptop because when I say “Sony VAIO” most people think about “expensive”. This series was usually associated with a special kind of users, those who care a lot about appearance and that have money to spend a laptop which is not the best one that money can buy… but it’s a Sony!
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We have found a cheap Sony VAIO laptop. In fact, at $700 it is one of the cheapest Sony VAIO laptops around. The VAIO VGN-NW270F/S is more than a long name, it’s about quality and looks and this is why Sony VAIO laptops are difficult to file under “cheap”. This is a great mainstream laptop which has good specs and is useful for a lot of things. First of all you have a Blue-ray drive and this is a feature you will not find in similarly priced laptops. Combines with the VGN-NW270F/S’s 15.5 inch screen, you can now watch high-quality movies right in the comfort of your own house (and even bed) or wherever life may take you (and your new Sony VAIO). The processor is a 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 which is a common choice for good mainstream laptops. You get 4 GB of RAM which means you can either run Windows Vista or Windows 7 on this laptop. There is a pretty good chance you will get your unit with Windows 7 Home Premium preinstalled. 320 GB of disk space should be enough even if you are planning to use this laptop as your primary computer. The graphics card is an Intel GMA 4500MHD and it is weak as we expected. In our days, if you want a decent video card, you have to buy a gaming laptop which is expensive (and by expensive I mean over $2000 for a good one). However, don’t be afraid to use this laptop as a desktop replacement because aside from the weak video card, it meets most of the necessary requirements.
We think this laptop is very good looking as well as functional. Even if some may find all that silver case boring, we think it makes the laptop shine as if it were a diamond. The chassis is made out of plastic for it does not look cheap at all. If you don’t like the color, you can always choose a model with the same specs which is available in pink, brown and white (what, no black?). The keyboard definitely looks like the one on the Apple MacBook. It’s white and there is considerable spacing between the keys. If it weren’t for that extra space, Sony could have easily added a numerical pad even if it meant extending the surface of the keyboard all the way to the left and right edges of the laptop.
However, we are used to not having a num pad on the laptop and this is actually a common feature for laptops above 16 inches. When you use the touchpad for the first time it may seem a little rough and it may be uncomfortable for the fingertips as it feels like you are rubbing them against sandpaper. After a while, you will find it to be quite responsive and realize that the feeling you had at first is because you are probably used to glossy touchpads that let your fingertips slip on the surface. You have a four-way scrolling possibility. The left and right mouse buttons are ok, even if some people may find the clicking sound annoying at first.
Above the keyboard you will find a power button and surprisingly only 3 other buttons compared to the multimedia controls we usually expect to find in a Sony VAIO. One of the buttons is used to launch your default media browser, another button will turn the display on an off and the third button is mute. If you find yourself in the situation where you will be in need of those multimedia control buttons (and, trust me, you will), you will have to use the F keys. The keys you can use are marked with specific images so you’ll know exactly which buttons to press. The display has a 1366 x 768 native resolution and due to the glossy screen, you’ll get a kick out of watching movies because the images are sharp and clear. No need to worry about annoying reflections even if you are standing under powerful light. The integrated speaker produce decent sound and there are no distortions even if you turn up the volume. However, we’ve heard better. This laptop has 3 USB ports, an Express Card slot, the Ethernet port, the VGA and HDMI out, a mini FireWire, a multi format card reader plus the stereo speakers, headphone and microphone jacks. We love the Blue-ray player so this means it’s thumbs up for the Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F/S as far as ports and connections go. If you are not satisfied with wathing a movie on this laptop or if you want to get together with some friends and watch it together, you can always attach an external monitor with a bigger display and enjoy the true quality of movie entertainment.
This laptop has a 6-cell battery which is not that famous for the power it provides. With this battery, you will get about 3 hours and 30 minutes of battery life under intense and continuous usage and this is ok compared to other similarly configured laptops (it even outruns the Sony VAIO NW125). This laptop can definetly compete with some HP Pavilion dv4 and dv6 laptop models, not to mention Dell Inspiron 1470 or the Toshiba Satellite E105. However, you will find much better Sony VAIO laptops available on the market, which much better specs. The difference is that you will have to pay around $1000 – $1200 for such a laptop. Like we said, Sony is a brand which has positioned itself in the consumers mind as being a rather expensive name in the computer business so this is why it is hard to find cheap Sony VAIO laptops. Well, you can always try refurbished…
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Tags: Apple MacBook, laptop, Sony, Vaio