Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-FS640/W Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 730 (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Dbl Layer DVD+/-RW Drive)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The lcd screen is the best. The system gets heated up a little bit but I guess I can deal with it. The battery life is around 2.5 hours as mentioned. But this is the lower limit, I am running this with the power savings option. The system does not come with recovery or operating system cd, which is really bad. The sound quality is ok, not great but not bad either. For around $1250 after $250 rebates, I guess this is really a good choice. Its better than the 13.3" S series notbook, because the S series notebooks gets heated up soo much that you cannot handle them. This FS series is much better than them.

I was convinced this would be a great notebook. Very good features for the price. The screen is really quite amazing. However, from the start, the computer feels a bit on the cheap side. The battery jiggles a little in its housing, giving the whole computer a somewhat ramshackle feel... as if it is about to break... and lo, it did... multiple times so far. Sony really needs to work on the build quality.

I was happy for the first two weeks, then my problems began.

1. 2 weeks into owning it, the computer wouldn't turn on without a reset of holding the power button for 30 seconds.

2. 4 weeks in, the DVD-RW drive started to work intermittently, then not at all.

3. 8 weeks in, the power gave out completely. The machine won't turn on.

Sony's in-home service has been OK (will have my 3rd visit this week), but waiting 2-4 days for service has been incredibly inconvenient.

The two things that really impressed me about this computer were it's display and DVD burner. Sony's XBRITE screens are the best I've seen on any laptop. I love watching movies and playing my games on this unit, because everything is so crisp and bright. The DVD burner pretty much does it all. Both formats (+ and -) are supported and it even can burn dual-layer media, a feature not included on most laptops I've seen. There is 128 MB of video memory, although it is shared instead of dedicated. It has an 80GB hard drive; plenty of space for most users. I believe 10GB is inaccessible because Sony partitions that for recovery. Battery life is not impressive considering this unit has Centrino technology. You'll get maybe 2 1/2 hours maximum.

I have had no problems whatsoever with this laptop. The wireless works just fine without disconnecting periodically. The battery life is good , i use the power saving display mode and i can easily do 3- 3 1/2 hours with the wireless turned off.

The screen is brilliant and its great fun to work with pictures . I use this for home and office use and i'm really glad that i invested in this piece of hardware. The price was a steal given the fact that this came with an 80GB Hard Drive and a DVD writer.

The laptop looks great, Sony has done a great job with the design of the current series of laptops. It's a bit on the heavy side though, but as far as i am concerned that isn't much of a concern.

I have the FS635 which basically means I have the 60 Gb HDD and the CD-RW/DVD not DVD-RW...no big deal, as a student, I don't have much use for them. I got it because Costco Canada was offerend the whole system for a discounted price.

I'm very pleased with the system, the initial onset of euphoric amazement draws itself from the vivid beauty of the screen when Sony's screensaver plays...this Xbrite-ECO screen is truly wonderfuly, bright, sharp, and easy on the eyes...glare doesn't bother me at all...I haven't even noticed any until I overtly think about it.

The system speed is fine, I have 512 mb X 1 stick of ram, upgrading to 1 Gb would make it more smooth. Graphics are quite decent for a built in video card. Keyboard has little bounce, trackpad is good, external USB mouse an obvious upgrade.

Battery life for my system is 2.5-2.75 hours with full brightness, wi-fi on, browsing net and word processing, (standard battery), I'd take it to be greater than 3 hrs with brightness low and wifi off (as I'd use it in class).

The system does lag quite a bit while burning CD-R's...but I wouldn't expect anyone to be doing much during that time period in any case.

Placement of USB ports is quite nice, for right-handed persons. Speakers are adequeate, decent sound, not too loud, but reproduction is amiable for laptop speakers. The Wi-Fi reception is just phenomenal on this system, solid connectivity, picks up my wireless from 3 storey's up at nearly full strength !!!

It should also be noted that the system is a true beauty to look at. Aesthetic appeal is most definitely a part of an expensive system.

Value-wise, there are better systems out there...but I would recommend this system for anyone who gets it on sale, or willing to shell out a couple hundred extra dollars.

This laptop is stylish, lightweight, and the screen display is especially great. However, those are about the only good things I can say about it. I owned my laptop for about a month before it stopped working.

The power would cut out after it was on for more than a few minutes. Sony phone support insisted that I reformat the drive before they would believe that it was a hardware problem. Their onsite service sounded like a great idea until the repair person showed up at my door. The first person had to replace my entire motherboard but broke the keyboard while putting the machine back together. The second repair person flaked on the appointment to fix the broken keyboard. More than 2 months since the problem started, I am still waiting for Sony to send a third repair person out to fix the hardware issue. Sony support has made it seem as though it is my fault that the laptop is not working; have been less than polite; have kept me on hold for hours; and have run me around in bureaucratic circles trying to get a brand new computer fixed.

In summary, considering the faulty hardware and terrible service Sony has to offer, I would recommend that you buy an Apple PowerBook or an IBM ThinkPad for the same price.

I received my laptop in excellent condition and I found it to work in every way, as advertised. What a find! Sony did it right!!!

I bought this on refurbished, but it has not died on me yet. I am quite satisfied, though it has been slowing starting up. Truly a stable and wonderful machine. No glitches on delivery as well.

This laptop model crashed two times within a year. The first was the hard disk and now the motherboard. I have a friend bought a newer model and the battery life decreases big time with in 2 months of usage.

Sony does not provide me with satisfactory service, even it is covered with a guarantee. They wont agree to do the service unless I call the support million times.

Nice laptop but not reliable at all and bad maintenance support...

Hope Sony will improve its industry, as it used to be...

This laptop is very user friendly, and has a lot of unique capabilities. The screen is thin, and wide for a fantastic crisp looking screen display; however, the price is the biggest downfall of this product. In fact I got my laptop for free!! Just paste this site in your address bar, and have fun with it! [...]