Sony VAIO VGN-S460/B 13.3" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 740, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HArd Drive, DVD+R Dbl Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive)

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 8.8 x 1.4 inches ; 4.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7.6 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00092DUKQ
• Item model number: VGN-S460/B
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 15, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The VAIO S Notebook is highly-mobile with a slim, lightweight design, integrated wireless LAN3, cutting-edge notebook technologies, and a durable magnesium casing. The impressive 13.3" widescreen display with Sony's original XBRITE LCD technology delivers brilliant colors, sharp contrasts and crisp images, giving new life to your movies and digital photos. The Smart Display Sensor enables worry-free set-up of compatible displays and projectors, starting your presentations off with an effortless air of professionalism. And, with the advanced DVD+R Double Layer/DVD±RW drive and a suite of Sony's original multimedia software, you have the tools you need for work and entertainment on-the-go.

Features

• Remarkably slim and lightweight tool for the mobile use: The VAIO S Series Notebook PC employs cutting-edge notebook technologies and a highly mobile design. It offers integrated Wireless LAN3, an exceptional 13.3" widescreen Display with XBRITE LCD technology, and a generous keyboard in a 4.3 lb. Form Factor. The VAIO S Notebook is the portrait of sleek, contemporary style.

Key Technologies

• Exceptional Display technologie: The VAIO S Notebook features a 13.3" widescreen Display with Sony's original XBRITE LCD technology for higher Brightness levels than standard displays. The resu: deeper blacks, brighter whites, true-to-life color and razor-sharp detail. Smart Display Sensor makes connecting to a compatible external projector or Display easy and worry-free. It automatically senses and selects the appropriate input for your external device and adjusts optimized Resolution.
• Utilize cutting-edge notebook technologies: The VAIO S Notebook has a 5400 rpm Serial ATA hard drive, advanced DDR memory, 533 MHz Front Side Bus, Intel Pentium M processor and 915 chipset work together to provide impressive Application performance and processor speed. The nVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 graphics chip with Turbo Cache technology delivers turbo-charged graphics performance, excptional DVD viewing and optimized use of the latest multimedia applications.
• Enjoy mobile multimedia entertainmen: The VAIO S Notebook allows you to create dynamic presentations, view movies with stunning clarity and create and manage your multimedia files with ease. With DVD+R Double Layer/ DVD±RW drive and Click to DVD software you can easily create high-quality, customized DVDs. Manage your music files and make audio CDs using SonicStage software. And PictureGear Studio software simplifies Digital photo management and sharing.

Product Description

Includes: AC adapter, lithium-ion battery, Microsoft Windows XP Home with Service Pack 2, WinDVD, Intuit Quicken 2005 New User Edition, Works 8.0, Office 2003 Student/Teacher (60-day trial), Sonic Record Now! 7, Norton Internet Security (90-day subscription), & more. Sony VGN-S460/B VAIO(R) S Series Notebook PC - Featuring cutting-edge technology, this notebook provides a powerful mobile computing solution. It features the latest in RAM technology, with 512MB of PC3200 DDR2 SDRAM. It has a Double Layer DVD writer, which lets you backup gigabytes of data, burn your very own DVD movies, & much more! The NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 is also included for superior graphics, and support for some of the latest video games. 13.3 WXGA LCD with XBRITE(TM) Technology Native Resolution - 1280x800 Built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi Wireless Networking 80GB 5400RPM SATA HDD NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 graphics with TurboCache and up to 128MB of memory (32MB dedicated + 96MB taken from system memory) Double Layer DVD Writer - (write speeds) up to 2.4x Double Layer DVD+R, 4x DVD+R, 2.4x DVD+RW, 4x DVD-R, 2x DVD-RW, 24x CD-R, & 10x CD-RW Double Layer DVD Writer - (read speeds) up to 8x DVD-ROM & 24x CD-ROM Integrated 56k Fax Modem Memory Stick Media Slot - supports optional Memory Stick(R) & Memory Stick(R) PRO PCMCIA PC Card Slot - Type I/II with CardBus support Ports - 10/100 Ethernet, 1 4-pin FireWire, 2 USB 2.0, VGA Out, Microphone, & Headphone

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hot (literally) Laptop, January 14, 2006

By 

Reviews - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VAIO VGN-S460/B 13.3" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 740, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HArd Drive, DVD+R Dbl Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

I've had this for about four or five monts. Let's start with the pros...

1) The screen is BEAUTIFUL. Everything is crisp and clear and realllly bright. Pop in a dvd and you'll see what i'm talking about.
2) I heart the graphics card. It can handle all the games I've installed so far. And how often do you find a card this nice in such a lightweight computer?
3) Uber-Light. People say that there's no difference between this and a 5-lb computer, but trust me, there is. It feels like an actual notebook when you carry it around.

The in-betweens...

1) Battery life - Actually I can't complain. I usually get about 2.5 hrs on this, but that is when I'm using full brightness, running Photoshop, listening to music, and doing a virus scan. So, i guess this isnt bad at all for a 4lb. computer.
2)Card Reader - I like it, and it works since I have a Sony camera, but I'd like to see a 6-in-1. But then again, I'm not surprised that SOny has a reader that only supports Sony cards.
3) Hard Drive - 80GB. I want more, but I'm being picky. This is more than enough for most people.

And the cons...

My only complaint is the heat. It's pretty hot, and I'm not exaggerating. After 1/2 hour on my lap, i have to find a desk, because my legs are burning. I mean, this thing is literally hot to the touch. I didn't think it would be such a problem when I first bought it, but now its just annoying me that I have to put a book under it so my legs don't burn.

Overall: Definitely earns the Vaio logo in terms of power and functionality, but the heat it produces would definitely make me consider other laptops...

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Experience, July 29, 2005

By 

Wally F. Jaimes "fjaimes" (Huntsville, AL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sony VAIO VGN-S460/B 13.3" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 740, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HArd Drive, DVD+R Dbl Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

I got my Vaio S460 10 days ago, I've been playing around with it a lot and am very satisfied with it. About the heat issue, I kind of expected it to be hot after reading some reviews in this site, but to my surprise I found out that it is not that hot. Ok, it gets warm, but not being able to place it on your lap is an exaggeration. I have spent many hours with this laptop on my lap without any discomfort. I've read that most heat is produced by the video card GPU, and there is an option available for reducing heat production and fan noise by decreasing the GPU speed, but I bought this laptop because of the dedicated video card so I don't see myself using that option.

About the fan issue, it is not even an issue; it is not at all noisy. It gets on and off repeatedly but is not by any means annoying. The DVD drive does get noisy when reading some data DVDs but then again, it is not annoying.

The keyboard is just perfect sized, you wont have any trouble using it, the computer is really fast and the screen is awesome, very bright, I usually use it in brightness 6 when on AC power and in 3 when on battery to extend battery life. The laptop size is very convenient; I just get it in my backpack and I'm gone. It weights less than the books I used to carry around and it looks really sleek and fancy. I'm getting around 3 hours 30 min of battery life, maybe not the best around, but it is ok for my needs. The only thing that bothered me was to create my own recovery kit, sony should include recovery discs with the laptop.

So, it is a very fast, sleek and eye catching little machine, and I would definitely buy it again if I had to buy another laptop.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sent it back. Read why...., August 14, 2005

By 

anonymous (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VAIO VGN-S460/B 13.3" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 740, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HArd Drive, DVD+R Dbl Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive) (Personal Computers)

Unlike this particular model, I got the customizable VGN-S480 with 1GB stick of RAM, the Pentium M 770 processor (2.13 GHz) as well as the nVIDIA GeoForce graphics card and an 80GB hard drive.

It's true that it does get pretty warm, probably more so than those with the 740, 750 or 760 processors. So much so that it started to bother me after placing my right hand on it after a half an hour or so. Very disconcerting, especially when you have your right hand placed next to the machine because it's too hot to keep it on the rest panel, only to have the heat-sink (on the right hand side of the machine) blow hot air over your hand as it rests on the table. It reminds me of an engine exhaust.

Another thing I didn't like about it is there is no Home, Page Up, Page Down or End keys on the right side of the keyboard. I use those keys a lot!! You have to use the cumbersome right, left, up and down arrow keys to navigate if you're in a place where you can't use an external mouse.

The last straw was when I put the desktop in classic Windows mode (instead of the default XP mode with silver tray and Sony desktop background) only to find dark shadow streaks appear over the Start button on the bottom left, and over the Clock over the bottom right. It's almost as if the LCD was pinched in the lower corners during the manufacturing process. When I spoke to a tech over the phone, he said all the S-Series do this and to avoid looking at it, I should go and switch back into XP mode using the silver colored service tray (instead of XP blue or the Win2000-looking, classic grey) and it would mask this defect.

Needless to say, it went back to Sony after I heard this.

I'm not giving up on Sony, yet. I've had a PCG-F580 for the last six years and it's a great little workhorse that I can no longer upgrade.

I think I'll try their A-Series next. Yeah I know it's twice the size of the S480, but I don't care...