Having a little trouble with lefts and rights??

"...big silver corner flap on the <<right side>> of the laptop. The flap also covers the laptop's HDMI port, and it's clearly more about maintaining the symmetry of the notebook's design than keeping these ports safe. On the <<left side>> of the machine, next to the multi-format DVD writer - no Blu-ray drive for the Brits - sits and unprotected VGA connector....The Vaio's <<left-side port array>> includes two USB 2.0 ports..."

So the left side holds the DVD drive and the port array??

</pedant>

It's a Sony and it's a Vaio. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole thanks to Sony's extremely crap after sales service.

Very lovely ultra portable. Unfortunately I just bought a new ThinkPad, so I can't commit. But still this is rather nice. I've tried the keyboard built into their other machines like the X505 and it is rather lovely. Not quite on par with TPs, but still above the rest.

What is it with laptops and their four-pin Firewire, which AIUI does not carry power. Surely for mobile use, you want to be able to supply power to your plugged-in portable devices without being tethered to mains outlets?

"Hey Fred, look at my nice new VAIO!"

"Oooh lovely..."

[opens lid, see Vista logo]

Hope the thing's got an accelerometer to help it survive being dropped.

@ Andrew Moore - I'm not sure about that. Three months ago the screen of my Sony Vaio laptop started acting up, I called their call centre on a Tuesday, laptop was picked up Wednesday by courier, and returned to me Thursday with screen replaced, interior cleaned and the anti slip pads replaced, as well as a 'Hope you were pleased with the service' letter signed on behalf of one of the Sony Europe VPs. 48 hours from reporting problem to laptop being back in my hands, and this was all with a standard consumer warranty. Might have been a one off, but definitely best service I have ever had.

"during our time with the machine, Windows Vista reported a forecast runtime of just under four hours"

...Thorough testing. We've heard of it.

Seriously, you had the laptop, why no benchmarks? Also, is that chip a 64b or are you limited to 32b forever like the new macs? Hmm... Puff piece. If you go to Sony's website, you can pick up a 007 version... Just sayin.

It does look nice and i have never had an issue with Vaio's but my new computer is going to be brought from the Apple Store, i could get a kick ass MacBook Pro for around the same amount!!!!

Picked up a TZ in the departures on the way home from Japan last November. Bought an extended 2 year warranty from the Sony UK shop, but when I tried to register it online they said they only support European products. Girl on the phone even suggested I go back to Japan to get an extended warranty from there?!

(Anyone know how the hell I can extend this warranty from here?)

"considerably richer that yaou..."

Surely these pieces could be run through a spell-checker before posting... two spelling mistakes in the last two words.

RE: re: sony after-sales

I had the same sort of problem with a Sharp mini-disk player/recorder back in '98. Bought it in the US, brought it back to Oz, laser diode packed it in less than two months later. Tried to have it replaced only to be told that "Sharp Australia does not sell this model in Australia and therefore does not support its warranty". Luckily I had a "Best Buy" international warranty and found a store willing to fix the damn thing.

Oh, and if someone from Sharp is reading this - know that thanks to this pathetic response from the customer support team of a supposedly international company, I have never bought a Sharp product ever again.

No DVD-writer in that overpriced heap of expensive show off for Starbucks lovers.

Well Neoc is half right, it should be than, not that.

"It's a Sony and it's a Vaio."

Can you imagine if Microsoft made the hardware thou? (They made a big enough hash of the software), if they did the hardware too, it would overheat, you wouldn't be able to hear yourself think whilst using it, it would fail every other month, but that's OK, as they give you a 3yr warranty..

Ok prices are insane. Three YEARS ago I bought basically the same thing (Vaio TX-650) which is almost the same shell, carbon fibre, 2gb ram, 100gb dvd-rw etc etc and has about 8 hours of reall world battery life... the uk price was over 2 grand, but bought it in the states for $1200 (about 700 squid)....best buy i ever made....

paris, coz even she knows not to buy tech in the UK...

Did you buy the Japan domestic model or the international model? If you brought the domestic model, no chance to extend the warranty overseas - the clue is in the name.

If you have the international model, it should be no problem.

I agree with Joe K - I have had several vaio's over the years and absolutely no problem with the support. I had one of the TZ's (I brought mine in HK) which was being recalled due to the potential power problem. The courier picked it up on Thursday night, it was returned on Monday morning, having gone to France, been checked, cleaned and with a usb memory stick and an apology letter for the inconvenience. Nothing wrong with that service!

I would be very concerned by that wafer thin screen. My TX1 has a very similar similar screen (identical possibly) and that has been nothing but trouble. To make matters worse Sony's customer care has been absolutely hopeless - complete bunch of muppets. I would be very wary about buying another VAIO - great while it works - not so great when it breaks - and it will break.

@Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware:

"Re. spelling.

Someone put this guy in touch with Harry Enfield, please.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Enfield"

I must be feeling thick today... even Wikipedia spells it as "richer than you" and thus (since you invoked 'the wiki') my objection still stands. ^_^

Question... Is there a version of Goodwin's Law that encompasses wikipedia instead of Hitler/Nazis? I think there should be.