For those looking for a budget 17" laptop for play or work, look no further. This is perhaps the best laptop that balance performance, cost, battery life and reliability. Purchased this laptop 2 days ago from Frys, couldn't be happier. This is a list of my observations:
Pro:
1. Wonderful 17.3" Sony screen one of the best in the industry. Very bright. Lots of space to work. My work machine has a 24" full HD screen and I don't miss it.
2. Super fast second generation Core i5 2.4GHz 2430M 2.4GHz with turbo boost to 3GHz, not the much slower Core i3 and one step above the Core i5 2.3GHz 2410M you see on most lower cost sandy bridge i5 laptops
3. Very rigit chasis no flex at all for a 17" laptop, built quality is valut like should provide many years of reliable protection. It is the BMW/Benz of laptops.
4. Extremely low power consumption the 4000MAH battery will easily last 4-5 hours on light use web surfing or working on office apps. I am very impressed.
5. Lightweight for a 17.3" laptop it is quite easy to carry it around, especially since the long battery life means you can usually leave the power adapter at home.
6. There are TWO battery upgrade options a 5300MAH battery (VGP-BPS26) which is the same size and weight as the included battery, but will last 7 hours instead of 5 hours, and a 9 cell, slightly heavier battery which is 7950MAH (VGP-BPL26) and 10 hours battery run-time.
7. Blu-Ray drive for watching HD movies. Never get a DVD for a 17" laptop. It is just not appropriate. Believe me you will want to watch Blu Ray on this machine.
8. 4xUSB ports, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, SD/MS slots, Wireless on-off switch
9. Wondeful multi-touch touchpad with pinch to zoom and other gestures
10. Completely resist finger prints the only place you are going to leave finger prints on this laptop would be on the screen. Sony has always been pretty good in this regard.
Cons:
1. Screen resolution is 1600x900 and no option to upgrade it, but it is probably one of the best 1600x900 screens out there. The slightly lower resolution is quite acceptable actually.
2. Included battery is 4000MAH, not the 5300MAH version which is the same size and weight
3. No backlit keyboard
4. Numeric pad makes the keyboard slightly off center
5. No bluetooth and no Intel Wireless Display
6. No USB 3.0 port
7. Speakers a bit weak, crackle a bit at full volume.
Immediately upon getting this laptop, I ordered another 4GB Samsung RAM that is identical to the one that is in the laptop, and also purchased an Intel Advanced Wireless 6230 mini-PCI WiFi card to replace the original Atheros WiFi card. The WiFi card upgrade allows me to have bluetooth and also Intel Wireless Display capabilities. The 8GB RAM makes this machine run so fast that most programs simply pop open immediately.
Just found out that upgrading to 8GB is a MUST!! It improved Windows experience score from 4.4 to 5.9, and significantly sped up the graphics! 3DMark06 went from 3200 to 4600 by simply upgrading the RAM, looks like the Intel HD 3000 is seriously starved for memory bandwidth. It is now a competent laptop even for casual 3D games!
The Windows 7 Experience score (8GB Ram):
Overall: 5.9
Processor: 7.0
Memory: 7.4
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming graphics: 6.2
Primary hard disk: 5.9
Very impressive score for a budget 17" laptop!
Next purchase will probably be either the 5300MAH (VGP-BPS26) or 7950MAH (VGP-BPL26) battery can't decide which one though. The 5300MAH is small and light, same size as the original battery. The 7950MAH will last 10 hours and lift the laptop a bit for better cooling and typing angles.
Can't be happier with the purchase and looking forward to improve it even further!
---------EDIT 10/8/2011--------
Made up my mind and ordered a 7950MAH battery (VGP-BPL26)might as well go for broke and get 10 hours battery life. This means that I will never have to bring the adapter out again, as it is truly an all day computing battery life. Can't wait to get the battery!
---------EDIT 10/16/2011--------
After using it for more than ten days, I can say that this is truly an excellent laptop with no major faults. The 7950MAH battery arrived and indeed provide more than 10 hours of battery life with light use. It lift the back of the laptop slightly for a better viewing and typing angle. Very glad to have the large battery instead of the standard version!
---------EDIT 11/9/2011---------
Having lots of fun with this powerhouse machine running multiple VM on it (8G RAM really helps), the OSX Mac VM is running at twice the speed of my other 2.66GHz Core2Duo Sony. Still very happy with the purchase. Have discovered a minor flaw the green power button is a bit lose and positioned too close to the right speaker sometimes it will rattle when you play loud music. Seems like it is just my unit and others are ok. Maybe some play-doh could fix this....
---------EDIT 11/24/2011--------
To get some extra battery life out of any laptop, try downloading Battery Care from batterycare.net, and you should see anywhere between 10-20% increase in battery life. You should check the "Disable Aero theme in battery mode" and "Pause Windows services in battery mode" to get the savings. If you don't mind having the sidebar disabled, check "Disable the Sidebar / Gadgets in battery mode" to get even more battery life. I have been using it on all my laptops and they work great.
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