Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-TX770P/B 11.1" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 773, 1024 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD+R Dbl Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive)

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

 

 

I completely agree with the review by [Laptop Professional "Anonymous Owner"]. Potential customers, you should read reviews by owners who have owned the product for some time, especially for laptop.

I bought a Sony VGN-T250 laptop one and half years ago. It is a previous model of this product line. It was one of the most expensive models and I only used it lightly during the one and half year.

Now, the fan had exactly the same problem as posted by by [Laptop Professional "Anonymous Owner"], --- it became noisy for two weeks and then died. Sony insisted to charge >$250 to replace it because the warranty was just for one year.

If you check Internet, you will find low quality fan is wide spread problem in Sony laptops.

Be aware: Sony sells such low quality product at high price and then makes another round of profit by repairing it. I used to consider Sony a high quality brand and now they have destroyed their own reputation.

I think there should be a class action lawsuit again Sony on the fan problem.

Nice, fast, lightweight and dependable laptop but if you have poor or degrading eyesight you should think a little bigger. I just purchased this for my boss and after getting scolded for failing to mention the very tiny type, I had to exchange it for a slightly large(only 2 lbs heavier) 13in. laptop and now he's happy. This is a nice unit if your eye's are healthy but if not, reading anything for very long will strain your eye's. Think about the longterm use of this product before convenience.

The laptop has been overheating so much, the power cord caught fire. They "fixed" it, only to happen again (minus the fire), "fixed" again, and guess what? Yep, I am in the fourth cycle right now. Every time it takes hours on the phone -- an hour minimum wait on hold, then the "mainframe" is always down when you talk to "customer relation", and then you hear them type one letter at a time, SLOWLY, SLOWLY. It's maddening how incompetent their service organization is. Then it takes 2 weeks to fix (you have to send it to San Diego), and I lost data 3 times already. Now, whatever you tell the agent will not be read by the next one, so the repair people will just operate on their own. Last time they decided to replace the CD/DVD drive, which was possibly the only part that was actually working, and the new one they put in didn't work. So what I got from repair was worse than what I sent in.

It's really a shame. Sony used to be a bit expensive but a reliable choice. It's not anymore. They're just expensive but very low quality and worse than bad service. Sometimes a lemon goes through the door. It happens. I can live with that. But when it does, companies should stand behind their products. They should be proud of them. Every interaction I had with Sony had the feel of a small incompetent company that doesn't give a damn about their customers. None of the people I talked to had any interest in solving my problem, they just wanted to pass the buck to the next guy (which they did often).

I used a previous model VGN-TX750P a year ago (for a year)and loved it, so when I switched job and had to give back my laptop, I bought a VGN-TX770P. So far it runs great.

The biggest advantage is it is light and small. I am a business manager and have a lot of meetings. The laptop is so small that can fit into my fashional hand bag. That is the main reason I chose this model, since I don't want to carry a school bag all the time just for a laptop.

For the laptop that I can find for this small size and weight, Sony Vaio is the only one that has built in DVD drive, which I found is definitely a must feature for a laptop. For business needs or for entertainment (traveling), DVD drive is really necessary.

Performance wise it is not bad. I wish its memory can extend to 2GB or more so I can run Vista one day, but 1 GB so far is OK for XP and my other applications (Office 2007, for example).

LCD is so clear and the image quality is superb. I use this machine as my DVD player on the air plane for entertainment.

Because it is wide screen, I don't feel the screen is too small.

The keyboard is very comfortable. I had tried Toshiba 8" tabletPC. Their keyboard doesn't have the writst resting support, so it is really uncomfortable to use the keyboard. But for Vaio, it is very easy to type.

Battery life is pretty good too.

Here are some cons:
1. Power cord is a little short compared to other laptops. I had to always sit right next to a power socket in a conference room.
2. when connect to external high definition LCD, the quality of the external LCD degrades. Image on the external LCD is fuzzy. I think it has something to do with the current video card support or driver, but I cannot resolve it after I did intensive research online.
3. Sony preloaded a lot of craps with the machine. The wireless connection wasn't working because of some wireless management tool it preinstalled. I had to uninstall those programs in order to get the wireless to work. Later the machine became so slow because of other craps it was preloaded. I had to have a clean OS installation and reformatted my hard drive (because Sony somehow preserved some hard drive space for no use) Now the machine is running really fast. So if you have IT support, ask them to reinstall your system before you start using it.

Be careful when reading online reviews. Many people have an axe to grind and are not objective in their reviews. There are a couple great examples of that above.

I will tell you what I have found in 9 months with this computer. It works well, runs kind of hot and the fan is moderately loud (what do you expect with a half inch thick laptop), and otherwise works and looks like the day I bought it. I use it heavily, ie. several hours a day every day, and it has held up very well. I plan on replacing it with another one when it's another year old or so.

This unit is too fragile for use as a traveling laptop. My screen cracked when I moved the unit on my desk (a $699 repair). The attitude at Sony was "you shouldn't move it by the screen".... The Sony repair service experience is a horror. I'm going back to my older & sturdier Fujitsu P series.

I am a road warrior and have found this to be the best Laptop on the market for it's size. Not everyone needs a laptop this small, but for it's size it is incredibly feature packed and robust.
I have had problems - My SD card reader doesn't work any more and I can't get the case open to check the connection or replace the part (Sony repair is out of the question - I can't survive long enough without the machine).
Other than that it has been superb. Anyone that picks a laptop up by the display deserves for the display to crack. Don;t do it!
Compared to an IBM/Lenovo this machine is a Porsche, they are comparable to Kia.
Don't buy this machine if a heavier, thicker, armored brick will do the job, and if you are planning in abusing it. I LOVE mine.

I loved this laptop when I bought it. Super sleek, really light , great 80GB HDD , built in DVD RW , ran reasonably fast (for a small processor) and very nice to look at - Many colleagues stopped by to admire it

It gave me very good performance and great battery life for the last 10 months. But now the problem is showing up that other reviewers mention. The laptop fan has died (I think) its shutting down by itself often and has lost critical data thrice this week. By touch it seems the processor is runing very hot and automatic power management (ACPI) is slowing it down so much that apps crawl or is shutting the system off completely at random times

I am dreading sending it to Sony given the reviews below.

So ultimately for such an expensive machine, relaibility has been poor - its nearly unusable now that the slowness and shutdowns have begun. My fingers are crossed to see what happens next.

I've owned several Toshibas, Dells, IBM, etc but this one has been the fastest to go completely on the blink

This is my sixth Sony Vaio. I've loved every single one of them and my wife loves her's too. Highly functional and stylish. I've got 20 years of IT experience and put my Vaios up against any other laptop on the market.

The laptop was a graduation present for a nephew, he's quite happy with it and rates it a 5