Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-NR160E/S 15.4-inch Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5250, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) Silver

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is an excellent computer. I never booted Windows Vista, instead, the first thing I did was throw in the Ubuntu Linux disk, so I have no idea what kind of bloatware was originally on the computer. Everything worked out of the box with Linux, except for the Fn key, which I never use. There is a fix for it that I will try out, just in case.

Yes, it is expandable to 4GB of RAM. The display is beautiful. The keyboard is very comfortable to type on. It is blazing fast. Ripping CDs takes no time whatsoever. For a laptop, the sound is very good. I get great wireless signal strength.

I was at first regretting not purchasing the wenge brown computer, but at the time the silver one with the same specs was much cheaper. For the money I saved, the color is perfect.

For the typical web surfing, light photo editing, and music listening that I do, I do not need anymore computer than this. I have no complaints.

I bought this laptop on Black Friday at Best Buy and only paid $399...for four hundred dollars you absolutely cannot beat it. The computer is very nice to look at, the screen is beautiful, the keys are comfortable, and the sound is great. The only problem I have with the computer has nothing to do with the actual computer at all - I hate Windows Vista. Since I bought the computer I have been spending all my free time trying to downgrade from Windows Vista to Windows XP with no avail. Sony won't open up this model for a downgrade until at least the first quarter of 2008 and even then you will have to pay for this to be done. Vista isn't compatible with all routers, so since my roommate already had an Airport Extreme router (and isn't open to switching to a new router), I have no internet access. If you are buying this computer make sure you check the compatibility with your router first or be prepared to buy a new one along with the computer as it is a huge hassle to try to make them compatible. This is not the fault of the computer though, just a general warning to anyone buying a new Windows operating computer (all new PCs come with Vista).

Other things:

-The computer is a little heavier than I would have liked, but that's honestly not that big of a problem (haven't weighed it but I'd say in the range of 6-8 lbs).
-It is clear that this isn't the best Vaio that money can buy. Sometimes the responses are a little slow, and when I was transfering music from my old computer to this one on CDs the CD driver was humming a little louder than I would have liked. Generally it is quite quiet though.
-It comes with a bunch of programs that I immediately removed because they aren't necessary and just take up space. (ex. Napster)

Besides Vista being a pain though, these aren't huge issues and for the price you absolutely cannot beat it. If you are looking for a computer to do general computing (AIM, Internet, listen to music, store photos, etc) then this is the computer for you. Remember though, check the compatibility with your router!

No webcam which isn't a huge deal, the 1gb of memory can be upgraded, but what the hell is Sony think they are doing spamming Vaio users with Vista bloatware. This notebook lags so badly, and by no fault of it's own it's just all the bloatware that Sony loads on these computers to annoy and slap users who paid their hard earned money for a good notebook. To save everyone time go to yahoo or any search engine and type in "remove crap ware tool" and download it. Rather then spend hours removing all the needless nonsence that is bloatware off this notbook, this program will scan your computer and bring up an amazing list that you can select what programs you want removed, saves time, lots of time considering how much spam is on this machine.

Happy hunting!

The biggest problem is that it comes with Vista and hundreths of preinstalled software that turn the machine slow. The Recovery CDs are not included, you got to make them from the OS. After you create then, and reinstall partioning the Hard Disk, uninstall all the preinstalled software and tune up Windows Vista for performance (i mean, no AERO Themes), the machine works great and fast (even with Vista).

I strongly recommend this machine, but only if you would do the "hard work" described.

Glenn Skow's post is correct. This problems goes a looong way back and they haven't(refuse to) corrected it yet. This problem exist with Vaio P4 or other models of VAIO.

Yeah, it's the soldering problem with the SODIMM memory banks which gets broken w/ mobo over time. When that happens, you won't be able to use the laptop. Sony continues to ignore the problems and pass it on to your pocketbook.

Pros:
I ordered without hesitation my first vaio laptop about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and I gotta tell you that i'm very satisfied with it. It has a unique and durable sony textured-minimalist desigh with an incredibly soft and comfortable keyboard. It runs vista faster that I expected (because of the bad reviews I read before). It runs very quiet.

Cons:
It's a bit heavy than most dell laptops, and It has only one direct access button, which can be customized for several aplications by pressing it several times (handy though).
It doesn't come with any restoring cd's, they take 20 GB for that (including PRELOADED JUNKWARE), and If u're buying a 160GB like I did, you're ONLY getting 140GB of storage, pretty disappointing.

You must understand, before buying, that this is a "cheap" model compared to the Vaio TZ series, and It can be used only for music storage, internet surfing, Ms Office applications and for some other stuff like Windows live messenger. However, for US$ 815 it's a sony :D AND IT TOTALLY WORTH IT

Ive had many laptops. My favorite was my mac book, to bad for the hard drive randomly dieing. This computer is close to a mac book.

Looks great! Thin and textured. Light weight. Screen is bright and beautiful.

Windows vista is really cool. Ive heard so many bad things about vista, I like it better than Windows XP. After a service pack and a couple of years, vista will be a good operating system. Windows XP was looked down upon from the start.

It kinda gets hot! That worries me. Wouldn't put it on my lap.

Upgraded the memory, it had two 512 memory cards installed, so when you buy a 1 gig card, one 512 goes buy buy.

Keyboard is awesome! Keys are spread out and aren't to close together, wished there was a scroll wheel built in though.

My family and I have been DIE hard sony consumers, buying all our tv's, stereos, vcr, dvd, etc. Even found a sony phone and bought that. My last vaio is over 5 yrs old and still runs. However this computer is the final statement in a long but ultimately bbbbbbbbbb (oh sorry, that is the B key coming loose and me re-securing it, happens about every 5 min) is the ending of a long but failed legacy. Sony has definitely lost their touch. I can't speak for all their products, but this computer and a wireless router I bought a few years ago are both AWFUL. This computer is not built to handle vista w/ 500MB of RAM. I upgraded to 2GB and it still can't really handle it all that well. But more importantly, my mother board crashed, the left speaker failed, my CD/DVD combo drive simply won't work anymore, the left mouse clicker is dead, keys come loose all the time, the backlight just turned off once, and now my battery just fails, half to 3/4 full and the computer just shuts off, doesn't save your session and standby when there's no battery life, just shuts down. I think most likely, this computer was rushed to be an affordable option that ran Vista, but the components are just AWFUL and this computer is just not built well in the midst of that haste. Seriously, stay away, this computer will frustrate you, erase data, crash, fail, and just break your heart, it looks so cool, but it is AWFUL!

I bought this at Best buy about a year and a half ago. At first, it was good; everything worked, it was sturdy, etc. Since then, however, it has pretty much fallen apart.

Pros:
good screen
decent choice for everyday use

Cons:
x3100 is useless
cpu is slow compared to some of the other stuff out there
After owning it for about year and an half, many things have broken. This is just built terribly:
*DVD+RW stopped working after a few months (can't even boot from it)
*The battery lasts for about 30 minutes, and falsely reports how much charge is remaining, causing it to die when it says 70% remaining
*mouse buttons are useless
*Power adapter rarely works correctly, and when it does, overheats to about, I don't know, maybe 170ish fahrenheit

The computer is very slow with 1GB of RAM and running Vista. It's loaded with all kinds of junk software (AOL,Norton,tons of Sony stuff). I'm sweating writing this because the computer gets so hot, even when not running much.

I had this for 3 months when it died with an "Operating system not found" error. I spent several hours/days dealing with Sony tech support trying a variety of things, and finally after they could not fix it they sent someone out to fix it since it was under warranty. They swapped out my hard drive and I lost everything.

If it weren't for the warranty and the fact Sony came to me to fix it for free, I think I would swear off Sony products, and I was a Sony die-hard. I had a Vaio before this and liked it, but this is a piece of junk that I would avoid. I won't be buying another VAIO!!