Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VPC-W121AX/W 10.1-Inch White Netbook - Up to 7 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Sony has made a big mistake in how they have represented this net book or mini Vaio. Sony evidently can't produce a netbook style computer with competitive battery life and ship it with the monster high capacity battery that is competitive and lasts 7 hours but ruins the sleek look of the computer. Even on Sony's Web site as well as Amazon's they present this laptop in every photo with a sleek profile and a small battery that they claim lasts 7 hours.

Big untruth. Or shall we cut to the chase and say that it is a lie and deceptive. The computer arrives with the large capacity battery which is the only one that can last 7 hours and the reason it is not pictured is because this darling mini vaio looks like it has a tumor growing from it. The profile is NOTHING like pictured in all the images on both the Sony and Amazon's site.

I do love the computer itself - it is amazing and unlike some netbooks it will run more than just surfing programs and has an awesome 250gb.

This put me in a conundrum as I love the pc but hate the battery and certainly didn't want to buy another $89 battery with only 2.5 hours capacity.

Amazon in all their greatness made this good for me and are sending me the real standard battery at no cost while allowing me to keep the tumor battery for the times I need the longer battery life. It doesn't make me real happy to only have a 2.5 battery life but for those times I want the sleekness it will be perfect.

Without Amazon and their high integrity, I would have sent this back and been pretty disappointed at my time being wasted.

Thank you Amazon. And Sony - this is really a regrettable sales practice - and actually not legal.

I am very satisfied with my W Series netbook. I was aware of the criticisms posted by some other reviewers. The netbook works fine for me. The profile photo on Amazon clearly shows the battery unlike some other sites. It doesn't bother me at all. It tilts the netbook at a nice angle, and it keeps the netbook cooler. The fan is not that loud. The display is great! The high resolution images are superb. If you are far-sighted, you might want something else. I like the clarity of the images. The right shift key is small, but I have adjusted. The keyboard feels nice and I can type fairly rapidly. I bought it for reading email, surfing the web, and working on basic Office documents. It does all of these things well. There are cheaper products, but I like the Sony quality and reliability. I recommend this netbook.

I have been using one of these (brown finish) for about 6 weeks, and I must say that it is a mixed-bag, ultimately disappointing for the premium price level. The physical appearance is quite nice, consistent with other VAIO designs, and the screen resolution is excellent. The extended-life battery helps to tilt the keyboard when sitting on a desk, so the bulge doesn't bother me; but the small chicklet keys and layout will bother many potential users, particularly since there are plenty of netbooks with side-to-side keyboards and larger, easier to stroke keys. The small "shift" key is particularly annoying - I frequently hit the adjacent "up" key, positioning text where I don't want it to be. The memory-stick slot can be dedicated to ReadyBoost use while keeping the SD slot open; but there are only 2 USB connectors - many less expensive units have three. Upgrading the memory to 2 GB ($40 extra, advisable for a netbook running Windows 7) is a chore, requiring the keyboard to be removed for access to the slot. I broke a small plastic retainer when doing this, so the right side of the keyboard would not stay flat when re-positioned until I fixed the break with Gorilla Glue - and probably voided the warranty in the process. Another early problem: unless a separate "lock" tab for the battery is engaged, moving the unit or maximally tilting the screen back can move the contacts just enough to shut down the unit, requiring a cold re-boot (and losing any unsaved data). It does perform well once configured with 2 GB of memory and a 2 GB ReadyBoost drive.

If you are a Sony addict like me, this one is a better buy than the originally released W111AX models; but if I had looked at these units more critically, I would probably have purchased one of the less expensive, full-width keyboard models by Toshiba, HP, or other manufacturers.

Ok i was reading through all the reviews here before i went and bought a netbook and I have to say i was scared by the reviews on here. The fat battery thing in particular. Well I got one anyway and I had to say that i am NOT disappointed in any way so far. Yes it does indeed have a very strange battery design, possibly even ugly....BUT it has an amazing battery life and other than that it's awesome! This little guy is weightless and works like a charm. It can do everything my mac powerbook can do and it's a lot smaller and lighter. It did have a small issue in that windows 7 starter wouldn't let me make my own wallpaper at first and that's BAD! But before you get mad like I did, let me inform you that you can you know *nudge* *nudge* fix it, so that you can make your own wallpaper no sweat. So once that problem was overcome I so far haven't had any issues using it to everything i usually do on a laptop. Watch movies, download files, itunes, etc. I don't recommend anything like dvd creation or things like that, but that's obvious anyway....

I just got the brown version (with Windows 7 Starter) of this netbook a day ago and here are my initial impressions. I got this netbook as a secondary computer for when I travel. The looks of the Sony netbook is brilliant. Looks of the netbook are quite important to me so it's a major reason why I bought this netbook. The netbook is small and it blends so well with the surroundings of my apartment. The AC Adapter is small so that's good. The netbook is reported to have a weight of 2.6 lbs. I suppose that's right. I have not yet weighed mine. But the 6-cell battery is actually slightly heavier than the netbook itself. It slighly sticks down so that it elevetates the netbook from the back. So its not exactly a flat netbook. Given my relatively limited requirements (email, web surfing, watching video, limited gaming, word processing and spreadsheet) the performance of the netbook is satisfactory. The resolution (no pixel issues) and sound of the netbook is great. Watching videos from Youtube is great. However, I reckon if Sony upgraded the RAM to 2GB from 1GB it would enhance the performance of the netbook a tad. But looking at other comparable netbooks, the 1GB seems the standard. Overall, I'm happy with this netbook. This is my second VAIO (my first one was a R505-GL). I would, without a doubt, be happy to buy another VAIO model in the future.

I was looking for many branches until I decided to buy the Sony Vaio Netbook.

As Advantages I can mention the fashionable design with excellent image (the higher Video resolution of the market for those kind of machines), Long life battery, 250GB Hard Drive (the biggest of the market at this price).
It's absolutely recommended to upgrade the RAM Memory from 1 to 2GB by buying a 2GB 256Mx64PC2-5300 DDR2 200-Pin SODIMM Memory, and a Memory stick in order to be able to use the ReadyBoost Memory (option anly allowed though Windows 7). Taking this actions you are able to have up to 3GB RAM memory, which allowed you to work with two or three heavy applications at the same time without delays.

Regarding the RAM memory upgrade I must say that it's not easy to do it by yourself, but after watching at a video in youtube for this specific model, this activity becomes relatively easy.

As disadvantages I have to definitely mention the small keyboard. It's in some way uncomfortable to type on those small keys.

So, as conclusion, I continuos thinking the Vaio 121 is one of the best netbooks option in the market for the price you can find in Amazon.

I wanted to like this computer, but I couldn't. To start off, the keyboard design is bad for a number of reasons. Very small keys make typing a chore. The right Shift key is ridiculously small because Sony thought it necessary to have a second Function key on the right side of the keyboard. The Tab key is also too small.

The fan almost never stops running. Other netbooks are almost silent, so I see no reason to put up with a noisy fan.

The screen is bright, which is nice, but I didn't care for the high resolution screen. Everything on the screen seems too small.

Beautiful design on the exterior. It's too bad that the experience of actually using the computer was so unpleasant.

I compared it side-by-side with a Dell Mini 10; it's not perfect, but the experience of using the Dell is much more than enjoyable than the Sony.

The Vaio W could have been a whole lot more but isn't.

If you are an extremely light user then this netbook/mini-notebook is for you.
However, if you are doing anything resembling multitasking (surfing the web, downloading something and possibly watching a video on YouTube) then this computer hangs, stutters and suffers program crashes, also Explorer crashes.

As has been stated in another review once the fan kicks in it is constant, continuous and loud which makes for a very annoying experience if you are in a quiet environment.

I'm also surprised that no one has commented on the following: Windows 7 Starter edition actually punishes you for having the base version of Windows 7. You have no way of changing the desktop background. If you want to do that you have to download and install a non-Microsoft external application! Go figure.

For something in the $500 price range I find the above shortcomings inexcusable. Perhaps this is another demonstration of Sony Vaio's Achilles heel: Form over function.

I wouldn't buy this if I had the chance all over again.

I was told at the Sonystyle store that a smaller battery was available, so I went ahead and bought the W121AX/T. When it came it also included an accessory catalog which listed the smaller battery at $89.00. I called Sony and, after some "pass me around conversations", I got a person that said she could sell me the battery. It was $450 which was $8 more than I paid for the netbook with monster battery.

I am very happy with the computing experience I am obtaining from on this notebook. I think the quality and style justifies its premium price.

I partly decided to buy this notebook because I have had very good experiences owning two other Sony Vaio notebooks. (I have also owned Toshiba, Dell and HP notebooks). I like the fact that the function keys and software operate on the VPC-W121AX/T the same way they do on my VGN-SZ670NC. I also spent a lot of time playing with netbooks in shops. In my opinion this Sony has the best styling and build quality.

The keyboard is easy to use. My hands and brain have quickly accommodated to it and I can type fast on it without errors. In bed (where this notebook is now replacing my ipod touch for late night internet browsing), it is sometimes convenient to be able to browse using only one hand. The extra Fn key on the right hand side means I can easily do PgUp, PgDn, Home, End using my right hand alone. The track pad has just the right sensitivity, and I find that I can be very accurate with it.

This notebook is great to use while watching tv, while in bed, or travelling. Some reviewers complain about the battery size, but I find it advantageous to have the battery lift the keyboard at an angle. The way the computer looks with the battery is not unattractive and the notebook and battery still fit within the matching Sony slip case.

The 1366 x 768 display means that videos and photos appear crisper than on other netbooks. However, the default text size is smaller. If it is too small for your eyes to read easily, then you can use an option in Windows 7 to increase the text size by 125%. If you do this then the text size appears similar to what you get with other notebooks.

The fan never shuts off. When I am using the notebook on my lap or table then the fan is sufficiently far from my ears that it does not irritate. But when I am lying in bed, with the computer resting on my chest and close to my face, the fan noise is a minor annoyance. The built-in speakers are sufficiently strong for me to watch films on my own, but not enough to fill a room with sound. The sound produced through the headphone jack is very good.

Windows 7 Starter pretty much the same as the Home Premium that I have on my other computers. The features it omits are not really essential. Nonetheless, I upgraded to Home Premium so that my notebook looks exactly the same as my others Windows 7 computers. Also, I have upgraded the memory to 2Gb (which took about 5 minutes). Neither of these upgrades was really necessary. If they had not been possible I would still be pleased.

My W121AX/T is not going to replace my Vaio SZ when I want to do type an entire research paper or do advanced computing (the SZ has a duo 2.4GHz processor). It is a bit slower than my SZ in browsing web pages. However, it fills a gap. It is more (much) powerful than an ipod touch and more portable than my SZ. The AC power adaptor is lightweight and tiny (about 1 x 0.75 x 2.5 inches). When I am not using it for travelling it will be great on my bedside table (for listening to internet radio or watching late night films). Highly recommended.