Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-SR410J/H 13.3-Inch Laptop - Gray

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my second laptop, upgrading from a Toshiba Satellite. Sony has done a lot of good and bad things with this one. It is meant both for home and office. A powerful performer with a small size. As with other Sony products, it is a beauty.

PROS:
1. Speed - The laptop I got has an Intel Core2Duo P8600 which is blazing fast and coupled with ATI graphics (128mb graphics card in my laptop) it works perfectly fine. The RAM in this can be upgraded to a DDR3 (it comes with DDR2-800 standard).
2. Screen - LED backlit LCD 1280x800. The screen is awesome and vibrant, excellent colors and extremely bright (I keep the brightness to 4 out of 6 levels normally) and it very good for watching movies.
3. Keyboard - The full-size VAIO-style (or Macbook-style) chiclet keyboard is great to type on. Well-spaced keys with low errors while typing. You know this when you start using it.
4. Touchpad - Ok. This is no Macbook with multi-touch but it has a nice matte textured, large touchpad. It is very responsive and convenient.
5. Switch-Mode - This is a new feature Sony has brought up. It allows up to 3 custom settings for 5 buttons. For instance, you can have a setting for home use and specify 5 applications which can be easily accessed by 5 buttons located just above the keyboard. You can also set different wallpapers for each setting. Quite a handy feature.
6. Integrated webcam and microphone - These are pretty standard on laptops these days but the picture quality and sound quality from microphone is good.
7. Styling - The new Vaio design (tube-styling or whatever they call it) is amazing and it looks pretty good. Overall the laptop looks sexy.
8. Construction - The laptop is quite sturdy and has a solid feel to it.
9. Cooling - This machine has ample cooling vents and at the right places. I can hardly hear the fan even when I am playing games on this (yes, I do play games and they run smoothly). The bottom hardly heats up and you can keep working with this on your lap for prolonged hours.
10. Wifi and bluetooth - Well, these come standard with wifi-n and bluetooth. I find Sony's SmartWi application quite handy (don't know why people complain about this). I can turn on/off bluetooth right from window's sidebar easily and its easy to setup.
11. Battery Life - Well, don't know if its really high but it gives about 3-3.5 hours battery life with normal use, wifi on, bluetooth off and LCD brightness at 3.

CONS:
1. Sony bloatware - Well, a common problem with all the Vaio laptops/desktops - Sony's pre-loaded softwares. I find some of them handy while some of them are junk and are just taking up space.
2. Speakers - The sound from the speakers is acceptable but not loud. Come on, this is just a 13" laptop...you're not going to make it into a boombox.
3. USB ports - It has just 2 USB ports, could have had at least 3.
4. No HDMI out - Well, I think the new systems have a better graphics card and HDMI out. My machine is a SR190 model and one of the earliest. The subsequent SR290 and SR390 (and similar numbered models) have better graphics and HDMI out, but 2 USB ports still.
5. LAN port and modem-port cover - I don't know what Sony was thinking when they came out with this cheap idea of putting a flimsy, plastic cover on these ports. It would have been better if they were open. The plastic cover hangs out once in a while with the slightest of touch. Quite annoying.

P.S.: I am running Windows 7 RC dual-booted with Vista on this laptop and it works absolutely fine. The 'Switch Mode' buttons do not work as Sony has not yet made a driver for Win7. Believe me, Vista runs fine on this.

***UPDATE 02/05/2010***: I am now running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on this sweet machine. It works flawlessly, Sony even has drivers for Windows 7 for all of the SR models on its support website.

2 STaRS
- Sony VAIO VGN-SR410J/H 13.3-Inch Laptop.
- Gray 64bit vista home premium, 4gb ram, t6500, core2duo,

Same problems as other people have found:

problems:
1- long! startup times 2min and 45 sec. or longer.
2- audio quite low[ i must use logitech desk speakers. many times].
3- faulty registry cleaner,deletes certain system folders therefore freezes up:
[must use system restore IN SAFE mode to return to working state] .
4- creating restore point:takes about 5 minutes for system restore screen to even show up.
5- must wait for sys restore screen, for 8 minutes in safe mode!
6- my older vista 32bit model ran faster than this 64bit.


some advantages:
1- picture is super clearer than my 32bit vista home prem.
2- vaio mechanical internal fans are always super quite,no noise!
3- vaio customer support free and RESOLVES issues,even after 2years!
4- my older 32bit vaio model still great after 3 years.

should you buy THIS vaio-sr410jh -NO !!!!
should u buy ANOTHER vaio model YES !!!!

i gave up on Dell[3 DELL models-3 hard drives failed,each after a year.] !
DELL customer support does not resolve issues but they are polite.
my COMPAQ laptop from 7years ago still works,but uses a HALF!! gb ram system.-is slow.BUT WORKS!

just buy a different sony vaio model.
definitely avoid this sony sr-410jh model.!

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In my case I got pretty disappointed with this product. The system is quite slow and the battery finishes in less than 2 hours, much different than the promise. I think I will have to add extra memory and live with its minimum autonomy. I wouldn't recommend anyone buying this product with this configuration.

Aside from the bloatware, Sony offer very poor support past the release of any model. They will not and do not support any OS other than the factory install. An extract directly from Sony Support had the following to say:

"I'm happy to assist you with the information regarding Drivers for the Windows 7 Operating System. Your Sony VAIO Computer is shipped with preinstalled Windows Vista Home Premium Operating System. It does not support the Windows 7 Operating System. Sony's VAIO Computers are designed for, and supported under, the OEM version of Windows pre-installed at our factory. If you install any other Operating System in your system, you will need to contact the manufacturer of that Operating System for any and all support issues or device drivers and Software utilities they may have available. This includes, but is not limited to alternate versions of Windows and/or dual-boot configurations."

In addition, even the newer ones do not support XP mode under Windows 7. They have disabled some of the Intel features. As their Xavier Lauwaert explains:

"Contrary to perceived opinion, we have received very little if any requests to enable VT technology up until very recently.

In addition, our engineers and QA people were very concerned that enabling VT would expose our systems to malicious code that could go very deep in the Operating System structure of the PC and completely disable the latter."

Suggest another brand

This is an excellent buy. The letters are well placed. I have given it a test run on yahoo voice and I am impressed with the clarity. I believe that this Sony Vaio will last me a long time. I would recommend this to anyone.