Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-FS550 15.4" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 730, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive)

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

 

 

Pros:
- the best 15.4" screen I've seen on a laptop, much brighter than the Toshiba M45 (though colors are slightly washed out)
- thin and relatively light considering the specs
- exceptional design, runs cool, very quiet
- easy to upgrade hard drive, RAM, or battery
- Sony's are known to be very reliable but if they do break down you might get the runaround from Sony

Cons:
- lots of useless software pre-loaded that makes the system much slower than it should be
- difficult to perform a clean install (instructions are vague on Sony's site) but the system is MUCH faster if you do
- connectivity ports are on the sides rather than along the back of the laptop which can get messy
- LCD emits slight humming noise when brightness is set at less than full (this is a known issue)
- shared video memory (perfectly fine for typical tasks, not okay for games)
- slow 4200rpm hard drive (though easy to upgrade to 7200rpm)
- Sony's support isn't the best: long hold times, weak web support

Conclusion:
definitely check out the Fujitsu N3510 and Toshiba's M45, which both have similar glossy displays, though I think you'll find the Sony to be the leader of the pack. Good luck!

Before i get this, i was using Hp zv5000, compaq r3000 CTO.

i feel like it is way better than those.
keyboard is OK(except small right ctrl key) and screen is very bright.

only complaint is memory.
amazon.com said it will be one 512MB but mine, it's 2*256MB combination.

most of the time, i do 2D drawing, artworks for engraving using corelDraw, so 1G momory is MUST. If you take a look product description, it says

***Memory: The 512 MB of built-in memory (1 x 512 MB, DDR SDRAM) is a good start for power users, and it offers a faster than average RAM speed (333 MHz). It has two memory slots in total, with a maximum memory expansion only 1 GB (2 x 512 MB)****

However, it is not true. it will be two 256MB and no empty slot for upgrade. I'm in trouble caz i'd already bought 512MB memmory.
beware that i comes with 2*256MB.

By which I mean that their products are very attractive-looking but also very overpriced, overhyped, and totally dependent saleswise on the huge (and expensively maintained) brand-name recognition.

However to be fair, Sony unlike Bose does at least publish full specs on all of its computers, where Bose doesn't even tell you how many watts per channel its audio stuff is! And Sony isn't quite THAT bad for computers, just notoriously unreliable.

My wife was given one of these computers at work and it has been constantly in the shop!

I have worked in IT for over 20 years and the machines that we spend the most time repairing are Sony VAIOs and Compaqs/HPs.

My advice is, if you're on a budget go with Dell and if you have more money to spend buy a Toshiba or IBM. Sony needs to concentrate on making TVs which it's still very good at!

(...)

About the product...

Pros:
-excellent screen
-Nice keyboard
-Nice touchpad (configurable)
-Good performance but not for gaming
-sery slim, lightweight, sexy notebook

Cons
-battery life is exactly 100 with full brightness
-slight humming noise when brightness is not set to full otherwise runs very cool
-shared RAM ... not for heavy graphics uses
-hard disk is slower but I don't care
-Short keys S1, S2 are not well designed

conclusion:
A must buy notebook

I really liked the look of this computer in the store so I bought one right away. The screen gets a 6 out of 5 stars. Its the best I have ever seen. The construction is above average also. Seems to have some hard plastic. The bad part is that the hard drive makes a clicking noise every min or so. Gets really annoying. I got rid of a sony notebook in the past becasue of that. Plus its a slow harddrive. New CPU Sonoma or something but its pretty slow if you ask me and the ram is not the new DDR2 ram. The computer gave me some other minor problems and the clicking was killing me. I sent it back to Amazon. And let me take a min to tell you how much I love Amazon. Never a problem. I am a Prime member and I highly recommend yo become one. Free 2 day shipping. I buy everything here. Sadly they don't have the laptop I traded the sony fs for which is the HP nc8230. So far the best laptop I have ever had. 5 stars. Made out of magnisum alloy and has the DDR2 ram. mmmm. Back to the FS

Pros:
Screen (by far the best I have seen)
Design (its almost as nice looking as a mac g4)
Keyboard( nice size and the keys were cut lower and gave more surface room on top.)
Power cord( becasue it wasn't as long as a hose and was easy to manage.)
Cons:
Power cord (becasue the transformer was huge
Battery life (was below average. I got like 2 hours off the thing with the screen turned down.)
Hard drive was the typical slow loud sony hard drive.
intagrated video card. (come on)
Ram (come on)

Over all for home use this is great. For business use forget it. Get a business notebook built for the road with qualtity parts that won't crap out on you. Sony is great at design. But as bad or worse then dell for parts. I think this will be my last Sony.

I HAVE THIS LAPTOP SINCE 3 YEARS. IT STILL WORKS GREAT. COMPARED TO OTHERS THIS ONE I BEAUTIFUL AND FEEL VERY GOOD TO WORK WITH.
I LOVE ITS SLIMNESS.
NO COMPLAINTS, EXCEPT THAT S-VIDEO FEATURE WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT, BUT THIS ONE DOESN`T HAVE IT.

pros:
- good screen
- nice design (sleek and thin)

cons:
- flimsy latches (both broken), poor CD door (also broken), plastic surrounding the power adapter "peg" inside of notebook broke off
- battery life is awfull (lasted about 3 hours and now is totally dead)
- very short power cord

This is a great computer, but you will have trouble when converting 8mm video Cassetes from Sony Camcorder with out the I.Link 4 pin to 4 pin. I had to buy Pinaccle Software and Accessories to hook the 3 pin connector from the Video Camera via USB port to my Laptop. Check the battery life which was like 1.5 hours whith the low resolution mode on.
Sony does not advertise this product anymore and you will have trouble when you look for FS550 on the Sony Website!!.

:-)

Pros: Nice screen, nice hardware configuration ie...CPU, RAM, HD etc....stylish look, light weight, DVD Burner, keybooard

Cons: These are more of what I would like to see in a laptop so its just not this one specific...no video out connection for TV, no infrared or bluetooth, integrated video, price

Overall this is a nice laptop. There are other brands that would carry more features for the price but I generally find myself supporting SONY for there products. Unless you are a SONY fan like me you could save some money and purchase a different brand.

Want a sony? Please, please for your own good take the time to read these following links. Thank you. My goal is to protect consumers from the problems that I and others have faced.


http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5449/?o=0
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?sonymem1