Sony VAIO VPC-CW23FX/B 14-Inch Laptop

by Sony

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00375LI1A
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 17, 2010

Product Description

A strong and powerful 14 inch (diag.) notebook that meets your computing needs and lets you enjoy web surfing and multimedia entertainment in style.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars one touch web access .... NOT, March 18, 2010

By 

Im Dissapointed (California USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sony VAIO VPC-CW23FX/B 14-Inch Laptop (Personal Computers)

I bought this model of sony vaio on 3/10/10. I read the reviews and product description before I bought it. And I like what it says, so I ordered it. Now that I have it I was disappointed to find out it does not have a one touch web access. This is one of the reason that I chosen this model of sony laptop. In their product description "The CW also features fast, one-touch access to the Internet without booting up the operating system--just press the "Web" button." I read the manual and this features is not included. So people beware not everything you see in their product description is acctually the one your buying !!!Sony VAIO VPC-CW23FX/L 14-Inch Laptop (Blue)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice laptop computer, but..., March 21, 2010

By 

F. Viernes "fox_1" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

Positives: Great features for the price, Intel i3 processor, blue ray player , 500gb, windows 7. Negatives: Glossy exterior smudges easily with fingerprints and marks clearly visible, requires several wipedowns. No light up keyboard, plastic exterior feels fragile and flimsy. It's no Apple Macbook Pro, but good laptop in the PC universe.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-priced, Study Laptop, May 4, 2010

By 

K. Ramirez "Nerd Extraordinaire" (Skokie/Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony VAIO VPC-CW23FX/B 14-Inch Laptop (Personal Computers)

I purchased the Sony VAIO CWFX/B on April 27, 2010.

I actually got the laptop as a FREE replacement via Sony's seriously awesome extended warranty program.

The i3 processor flies and the RAM and harddrive are more than enough to handle moderate to moderately-heavy computing. One fact that is often overlooked: the graphics card. Unlike similar laptops at similar pricepoints over at HP and Dell, this laptop packs a fine NVIDIA 310M GeForce laptop with Cuda. For all you non-technie-aficionados, that means it's a rockin' card.

And when I say rockin', I don't just mean that it's rockin' for the size and weight of the laptop (although, to be fair, the size and weight are pretty admirable for the computing power), I mean this is the upper-middle class of laptop graphics card. It would be hard to find a better graphics card in this size of computer.

Speaking of the size, it is perfect. This computer weighs in at just under 5 1/2 lbs, and the screen is a super-glossy widescreen. This can be moderately frustrating in bright sunlight because the glare is pretty ridiculous, but in anything less than bright sunlight, typically the laptop screen does OK.

Also, I know the other reviews mentioned it-- but this thing does not overheat. Now, I love Sony but they do sort of have a rep for sucking with overheated laptops. Not so here, friend. This laptop runs cool pretty much all the time, and I have yet to see it take over 55% of the CPU's resources.

The design is pretty great right out of the box. Sony knows where to put its curves and the screen feels sturdy. You get three USB ports, an optical drive, a VGA input, and A HDMI INPUT!!!!!!!! They're all well placed and easy to access. That said, the other reviewers are right: the glossy sheen loses it's cool-factor very quickly because it's pretty prone to heavy fingerprinting. I miss the days of matte computers, but that's another story.

I'm surprisingly picky about keyboards and surprisingly happy with the chiclet keyboard. This is the first laptop I have purchased without the traditional keys, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. The spacing is just right, and my only complaint is that I wish the arrow keys were bigger (I hate using WASD in MMOs, but that's another story).

Things that bug me: the speakers, quite frankly, are terrible. They sound tinny at low volumes and like they've been blown out at moderate volumes. They're less than an inch big and seriously pathetic. I have a pair of external speakers so I'm covered, but it sucks for anyone who wants to use this computer to listen to music.

I wish that Sony had sprung for a 7200 rpm harddrive over the 5400rpm one. I think it would have seriously sped up computing power, but 500gb is generous, so I can't complain. If you really want to get the most out of this computer though, it doesn't look like it would be difficult to just swap out your harddrive with a faster one.

On battery, the computer slows to a crawl and has pretty mediocre battery consumption. The laptop this replaced could squeeze 5 hours out of the battery at medium settings, this laptop squeezes out 3 at medium-low settings. It's a pretty big downgrade in battery consumption and life.

The multi-touch function is nice, but just a tisch too sensitive. And, the most petty of my concerns, they kept the computer indicator lights towards the very bottom edge of the computer instead of near the screen. I guess they didn't want the lights to distract? I don't know. But it's pretty frustrating because sometimes I hit the powerbutton, and not seeing a light, I'm not sure it's turned on. So then I hit it again and I shut the thing down. Pretty weird choice, Sony, very odd choice.

Anyway, it's a pretty great buy for the price. HP, Samsung, and Dell offer nearly-identical laptops at the same price (within 50 bucks), but those laptops have TERRIBLE graphics cards (I'm not sure the Intel Accelerator card even deserves to be called a graphics card). Thus, if you're looking for a small, mid-range, well-priced laptop:

Welcome to the Sony CW.

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