Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-Z550N/B 13.1" Laptop (2.40 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 Processor, 3 GB of RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Business) Black

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am extrememly happy with this new Sony laptop which had all the bells and whistles I was looking for. The only con is only two USB ports which are on opposites side of the the laptop--a design improvement Sony should make would be a third one with power) along side one of the other ones.

However, what I most want to review is Amazon's handling of a minor problem I had. While the details of a minor problem with the initial computer was worked out, Amazon immediately sent me, without charge, another identical computer. I have since returned the "extra" computer, but Amazon's swift action at no cost to me has made me a happy and loyal customer.

I have owned a thinkpad X41 for 5 years. I loved it because it was small, light, and relatively powerful. After all that time of constant usage and unintended abuse, I went into the market for a replacement. That was/is a sturdy laptop that just refused to die.

I looked at the Lenovo X200 and X300 at the store. The x200 is small and fast, but my eyes really needed a bigger screen than a 12". Especially if you do graphics and design work. Plus it still lacked a dvd drive. The X300 is just over priced and still looks like my 5 year old laptop just wider. When I went to the store and saw all three I immediatly went online and bought the Sony VAIO VGN-Z570N.

It is a great laptop! The battery litereally lasts 5 hours - on Vista! Imagine downgrading to XP (included) or using linux. I also got the deal where you get a free bag and battery if you buy by the end of December (check out pc nation). The keyboard is smooth and responsive. I love the toggle switch between performance (when using photoshop) and stamina (when just surfing the net). The screen is pretty wide and the resolution is incredible. It boots really fast (I am windows user). It has an HDMI slot and now I am watching movies on my HD screen dowloaded on this laptop. I do wish the screen was taller but that's not such a big deal. I highly recommend this laptop for people looking for performance, portability, and style!

Initial experience was mixed. The set up files for Microsoft One Care were corrupted (and on the restore partion also). I tried Norton 360 trial for security. Wireless sped seems to be slower than previous Centrino N setups. Sony support went on the system and nearly trashed it. I suspect the excellent but very tight security of Norton, may have added to my problems. After initial frustration, I tied to restore it to factory settings and used a disc for Microsoft One care. With his new instalation, what a difference. This is now the computer I was looking for. While the WiFi is still at 65 Mpbs, video from other computers comes in smooth I am using a D-Link dir 655 N router). The Sprint wireless works very well. The unit has builtin GPS and works easlilly with Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009. Battery life is good, with wireless on I would estimate 3-4 hours of usefull battery life (with the standard battery).I have been using now for 4 days since my reinstall and a so far no further glitches. The unit is a pleasure to use.

I have been through my share of laptops in the past year. I am the I.T Manager for my company so I have a bit of experience in this department. Typically I go with DELL on just about everything, but honestly I believe they have captured most of the market and by doing so they have really started slacking on their products which led me to SONY. I'm not even going to touch a HP, Gateway or Toshiba and I had previously owned a SONY a few years ago and had relatively little to no problems so i figured i would try again.

So far I have been more than impressed! Out of the box this little guy fired right up without any problems. After about 45 minutes of removing the pre installed Sony software (not sure why it took some people hours?) and a few Windows updates this machine was flying.

The display is incredible, much better than any laptop display i have ever seen, this is partially due to the higher end Nvidia video card and the onboard 3GB of RAM.

The hard drive is more than enough for me at 320GB.

The unit only weighs 3.3lbs, to me this is nothing coming from a 14.1" DELL Precision M2400 which weighed about 2x that!

Some of my gripes:

Internal Broadband card is set to Sprint! (come on, who uses Sprint anymore?)

BIOS is very very limited, I'm a bit spoiled with all the options you can set in a DELL's BIOS

It's still a bit hard to find accessories for this laptop since it's so new. I'm trying really hard to find a extra power adapter since the one i bought at the Sony store is a "travel" adapter and it's basically a brick.

All in all I'm VERY happy with my purchase, I will be travelling to Germany in a couple weeks so i guess that will be the ultimate test.

Keep in mind, there is a big brother to this laptop that was not in stock at the time when i bought my laptop but i think it is called the VGN-Z590N which comes with a more powerful graphics card, a BluRay player and 4GB of RAM, had I seen that one i would have bought it but either way, I'm happy with what I got and would HIGHLY recommend it.

Review after using this since September. My model is slightly different and I use high resolution version.

There are some positives and negative.

Positives

Light but powerful

This PC is very light, but it does not sacrifice its processing power. Intel's latest 45nm P9500 works great. Even somewhat heavy graphic applications or encoding-decoding of files can work fast. Heat is also well controlled probably due to the benefit of the P9500 and the combination of internal system design and the air flow structure inside, which is typically the strong part of Sony that is very good at designing smaller consumer electronics. I never felt the annoying heat from the system on the keyboard and/or the areas around the mouse touch panel.

Long Life and Graphics

The switch above the keyboard that lets you choose between the nVidia chipset ("Speed") and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD ("Stamina"). On a stamina mode, my experience is that the regular battery can keep the system running for around 6 hours, which is remarkable compared with its light weight. I set the brightness lower in addition to the stamina setting. Graphics resolutions and other features are automatically set at lower level on stamina mode. Performance, particularly with games and 3D applications, is better with the nVidia chipset, while the integrated graphics card favors battery life. A reboot is no longer required after a switch, either, due to the Intel Centrino 2's support for switchable graphics.

I use 1600x900 resolution for the display, which is beautiful due to its LED backlit and very high resolution compared with other laptops. Its benefit is that you can have more workspace when using multiple applications at the same time, for example, a few excel sheets and excel VBA at the same time.

Negatives

Software for 3G connection, using the embedded Sprint modem does have some issues with compatibility in some cases. In my case, some Excel Add-In that uses an internet network connection crushes Excel itself every time I use it. Vaio Support desk which is as you image very slow to response due to inappropriate advice and long waiting time spent 6-8 hours in total and finally gave up to solve the issue and admitted that the original SmartWi software that manages network connection cannot be removed from the system when you use the Sprint modem is making trouble with other Excel Add-in. I suspect that the usage through Sprint is monitored by the software and both Sony and Sprint have some agreement on the revenue sharing of wireless data fees. Anyway, this is not at all positive for users and I had to buy other modems for use mobile data connections. Sony needs to focus on hardware only or otherwise improve its software quality. The frustrating experience with the support desk tends to remain in the memory of users for very long period of time.

Otherwise, I feel the keyboard quality needs to be a bit improved to the extent that some key generates creaking noise sometimes. And the mouse pad area is just a bit too close to the keyboard and I sometimes touch it and make an error in typing.

Net-net, this is the best ultramobile notebook that has strong processing power, real mobility, and beautiful design that I ever seen. It outperforms many competitions like Mac Air and X series from Lenovo. This is expensive notebook but if you need the best one right now, this is it. SmartWi is annoying in some cases but the support desk should have learned something from the trouble that I had already.

I fell in love with this computer -- mine is the Z570N/B -- as soon as I laid eyes on it. Turning it on and having a look only made it more appealing. The LCD quality is outstanding (a definite deal maker for me, because I needed a portable for photo editing); the keyboard is the best I've ever used on a laptop, very comfortable, spacious and not spongy at all; sound quality is better than expected for a portable. I also liked the design, very sleek and classy, with very good materials, and the overall impression of quality build. Other plusses were the HDMI and firewire ports, and the built-in Bluetooth and wireless (almost a given nowadays, but you never know).

So, yes, I took this little machine home with me. I am still impressed with its speed (great processor and lots of RAM) in any operation, and again, the quality of its 13.1" screen. So far it seems like the perfect laptop for my needs. I've yet to test other capabilities, like wireless and DVD burning.

As for Windows Vista Business, well, I knew what I was getting into when I bought this machine. I knew, for instance, that I hated Vista and wanted nothing to do with it. I also knew that I was eligible for the downgrade DVD because it's Vista Business, and that Sony didn't ship it with this product. I'll burn the Restore DVDs just in case... I'm waiting for Sony to send me the XP Pro downgrade DVD, which I've already ordered, and am hoping the company comes through in its promise to deliver. Otherwise, I'll have to download the XP drivers one by one and do a fresh XP install. I don't love this idea, but I love Vista even less. And I'm definitely NOT going to let the OS spoil a fantastic machine for me.

* November 2008 update. Sony shipped the XP downgrade DVDs within two days of my request (you have to fill out an online form at the Sony support site, with a valid USA address) but unfortunately I wasn't here to receive it. Now I am, and have downgraded that despicable Vista to XP SP3. Guess what? It worked with zero hassle, completing the process in less than 2 hours. All you have to do is insert and remove DVDs when requested. I now have this laptop running on XP and everything is working just fine (the Sony DVDs DO include all the drivers). If it was already very fast on Vista, imagine on XP... I use it on Speed mode -- so as to enjoy all the benefits of the NVidia video card -- and wireless, and as I write battery life has been almost 2.5 hours, with a bit more to go.

I am very happy to say that Sony came through promptly and efficiently, and that I now have this laptop just the way I wanted it. Best of all, Windows One Care and most of the Windows and Vaio junk do NOT get loaded on the computer when you downgrade. I am using Norton Antivirus 2009 and Zone Alarm Pro firewall (which I downloaded at a discount by renewing a subscription I already had), so you can count on spending a little extra to make the computer as safe as possible from all the threats out there.

One word of advice: as soon as I got this laptop, I partitioned the hard drive under Vista and placed lots of files in other partitions. My reasoning was that, since the downgrade would only erase the C: drive and everything in it, the files in the other partitions would be safe. However, the downgrade will only be carried out if it can access and erase all the Vista partitions. This meant I had to copy all my files into an external hard drive before doing the downgrade. Once the Vaio was running on XP, I re-partitioned the hard drive and copied all the files back. This was unexpected, but then I figured that Microsoft being what Microsoft is, of course Vista partitions wouldn't work on XP... Just a minor setback, and one that doesn't detract at all from the 5-star experience the Sony Vaio Z570N/B is being for me.

* May 2010. The computer died after one and a half years. No warning. It just refused to power on from one day to the next. I talked to my tech, who suggested it could be some issue with the AC. I had the AC tested and it was fine, so I sent the Vaio in to be repaired. After a few days the tech told me the chipset had fried and needed to be replaced. I wasn't too happy about it -- and the price for the repair -- but thought it'd be worth it, considering how much I like this machine. So I approved the estimate and waited. After a few more days, the really bad news was delivered: the chipset had fried because there was a short-circuit somewhere within the machine. Three chipsets had fried immediately on turning the machine on. They'd tried to locate the short, but no luck. Now the motherboard has to be replaced, which will take weeks because the component has to be imported. The price isn't exactly thrilling either.

I have never mistreated the Vaio in any way. I haven't dropped liquids on it, immersed it in my bathtub. Whenever possible I will use a surge protector or APC Backup to connect it to the power outlet. I can find no explanation or reason for this kind of failure in such an expensive and new machine, and in my view it is inadmissible. There were no telltale signs of impending doom, no progressive little thing going more and more wrong. I'm having it fixed, but my trust on this machine is gone, never to be reestablished. I feel duped.

I bought my VAIO VGN Z 570N more than 2 month ago and have not been disappointed. It looks sharp and also performs extremely well. It came with a downgrade CD to Windows XP and a coupon from Sony for a free docking station (check http://www.rebate-zone.com/CurrentRebates.asp). I also love the keyboard as my finger fly over it even faster due to the fact that the keys are a not directly touching each other. High end machine for high end performance. Just read a review the other day that stated that this machines leaves the Apple Air in the dust when it comes to perfromance and is only slightly heavier at just 3.5 pounds!

Everyone else has complimented the same things I want to compliment. The LED backlit display, the DVD burner, the wireless, speed, weight, etc...
This thing does everything they describe. It is fast, lightweight, powerful, smooth, good-looking, and did I mention, light?
What I really am enjoying is the switchable graphics and the long battery life. This baby EASILY runs for the advertised 6 hours in stamina mode. I have done this on numerous occasions just to make sure it works... It does!
One thing that I have not seen mentioned, is that this things power cord plugs into the hinge. Now that doesn't sound like a big deal, unless you have replaced a power jack, or worse yet a Mobo on your laptop because the cord gets tugs and breaks the jack or mobo. VERY smart design idea!! One of the main reasons besides the LED backlit screen, and spaced out keyboard, I bought this model.
I also knew what I was getting into with that pig Vista. But Sony, true to the advertising sent me a disk within 2 days of me filling out their quick online registration.
I downgraded with ZERO issues! (As mentioned by others, I made my Vista restore disks before downgrading) Everything worked just like it did before the downgrade. And now it was even FASTER on XP. I have since removed some of the Sony "bloatware" and really have it customized and zooming!
The only real downside I can find is that the keyboard would have been the BEST EVER if it was backlit... And it is just a bit pricey.
Hope you enjoy yours as much as I have mine! Worth every penny!!

I researched and read endless reviews on many laptops before making my decision and overall I am very satisified with my purchase of the sony Z530N. It does everything I need and more. Apple although popular because of all the advertising is not that reliable. The hardware has many issues from bad screens, system shutdowns, battery life, etc. Apple is great at promoting thier product however, they need to invest more time in quality control. I am happy to be a PC and look forward to future sony purchases.

I received this lap top in couple of days after the release. So far I dont have any issues and everything is very cool with this cute lop top. Creating and restoring the PC is like cake walk.

Only problem is the sony tech support. They dont have much knowledge. As I myself a techi, I hope I dont need their support. I give five star as this for the PC and not for the service. Otherwise I would have given only three or four stars.