Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-S660/B 13.3" Ultra-Portable Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 750, 1 GB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-R Dbl Layer Drive)

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

 

 

I must say that this is the only laptop currently on the market that I find acceptable for my needs. It's small, light (compare it to a Macbook that has the same screen size but a pound heavier!), it has a decent video card (I would not mind better, it has 64 Mb dedicated, plus another 64 sharing, but most laptops this size don't have even that!), it has a wifi card that is extremely well supported - I installed Linux on this laptop - works beautifully, I can not only connect to wifi networks, I can also monitor traffic in promiscuous mode AT THE SAME TIME as being connected to the net, I can even make it an access point. The screen is excellent quality, harddisk, optical drive - no complains, got enough for all I need so far. Like the design of it, very stylish. Looks extremely good with the Linux desktop manager Enlightenment - non-intrusive but beautiful eye candy. Check it out at http://elivecd.org - you can try it out without installing first, to see how good it is.
I was looking for a rather long time for a laptop like this, and now I'm very happy after a month of using it.

What I would change: I would put the SD card reader instead of memory stick one, and perhaps put one 1 gb stick of RAM instead of two 512 mb - for easier upgrade.

Very recommended if you need a complete but not over-the-top mobile solution.

Pro: made in Japan, no dead pixels, compact, eye candy, all drivers and user manuals available on support site, outer metal case, DVD write.
Con: no recovery CD/DVD, worthless add-on applications, Norton Ghost not working on SATA h/d, expensive, tight keyboard, two fingers for PageUp/PageDown keys, useless slot for memory stick, BIOS with very basic menu.
Creating a recovery dvd costs about thirty minutes. Fan stays on at varying speeds to maintain temperature below 50 deg C. Battery lasts about 2.5 hours with wireless connection on.

The VAIO arrived, looked nice and ran nice for 10 days. Then, the screen went dark. It didn't totally go black -- you could still see the outline of the objects you had on screen -- but too dark for you to be able to see anything. Turns out the inverter board blew out, which is what gives power to the backlight to make your screen bright.
Now, I never dropped or mishandled the computer. And for pete's sake, it was only 10 days siince I'd bought it. Ridiculous. Someone who's worked in tech support told me VAIOs are known to have a lot of hardware malfunction and tend to be "delicate." I'd return it if I could, but I bought it here on Amazon. Luckily, there was the 1 year warranty.
My recommendation is, if you want to try out a VAIO, buy it from a SonyStyle store, so at least you can return it if you decide you don't like it. But the best way to go is to get a different brand notebook altogether and not dealing with the hassle of an unreliable machine.

I recently purchased this Sony to replace my Dell and the weight of it works great since I am able to transport it well here in NYC. The 100 gig and processor are great for the price of mainstream laptops. Downfalls of this laptop include the default battery life that doesn't last as long as it should considering the technology we have.