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Sony VAIO V505BX Review

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  1. nedlyj •  September 16, 2003
    Rating: 2.5/5

    I tried the VAIO V505BX and knew within an hour taht it wasn’t going to work out. While the size is very portable, it was difficult to use (too small to fit easily on your lap, and the keyboard was very hard to use comfortably). I was also very disappointed with the quality of the screen and the poor viewing angles – especially vertical. The review hits all the points very well.

    Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  2. Bill C •  October 30, 2003
    Rating: 1/5

    The laptop did not come with a disk for operating system or utilities. If you have a virus or other problem requiring you to reload operating system and utilities you are on your own.

    Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  3. Elizabeth Schrey •  December 17, 2003
    Rating: 0.5/5

    I purchased the unit new in September. After two months of use the unit would not turn on. Service said the motherboard was cracked. When it was sent in for service they found internal screws broken or loose and warranty was denied. BestBuy had to remove the back to access the hard drive, which they could have broken the screws. I am negotiating with them now to get it resolved; this seems to be a manufacturing defect and will be a test to see how BestBuy and Sony want to resolve it. I will let you know how they take care of the issue.

    Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  4. Roger •  February 1, 2004
    Rating: 3.5/5

    I’ve had this machine for 4 months now, and use it daily. I chose it for its smaller size (I bike a lot) and integrated components (WiFi, CDRW-DVD, FireWire, Ethernet). I use it for general business needs and for configuring/troubleshooting networking hardware & software.

    The good:

    – Battery life is good, expecially after tweaking the power-saving profiles.

    – Touchpad works well after disabling the tapping features

    – Vibrant screen

    Issure I’ve found include:

    – Poor placement of internal antenna cuts into wireless performance

    – Right shift key is half the normal size.

    – Lots of needless software preinstalled

    – No recovery disks provided (you must make your own!)

    – Integrated video has only 16Mb of memory, not enough for most games

    Bottom line in buying a laptop is to evaluate your needs before you buy. This machine is ultra-portable and does a majority of what I need. Granted it’s not good for gaming, but laptops with these capabilities are at least 3Lbs heavier and not what I want to lug around.

    Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  5. Neill •  February 6, 2004
    Rating: 2.5/5

    The main problem I’ve come up against after owning this laptop for a month is the touchpad does not work correctly. It jumps all over the screen, is totally unresponsive, and sometimes goes schizo and starts opening and closing programs on its own. It’s like there is some sort of electrical interference. I’m shipping it to Sony’s service center today to try and get that resolved.

    The second problem I and everyone I have talked to who own this or another v505 series laptop is the integrated wireless is flakey. Sometimes you boot into windows only to find the wireless lan has not initialized properly and you can’t connect. You have to reboot, sometimes two or three more times until it decides to work properly. It’s really a pain and should not be the case.

    The other problems people have already listed: keyboard rather small, screen viewing angles (although it looks great from the head on angle), underpowered speakers, and no recovery disk (they put it all on a special partition and want you to burn 7 CDs to make them).

    That said, I really like the look and feel of this laptop. I only hope they fix my touchpad and the wireless lan not initializing correctly. I searched google and it turns out a lot of people are having this touchpad problem. I’m thinking I should have gone with the gateway 200xl or a dell. But I really like the look of this sony. I”ll let you know how their support & service work out when I get my laptop back with the touchpad hopefully replaced.

    Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  6. Mauri •  April 2, 2004
    Rating: 2.5/5

    I was about to buy this computer falling to its lot due to the size, but I awoke up after I saw the screen poor performance in a shop in Osaka.

    The keyboard really under performs, the the screen killed any ilusions of greatness in small things..

    After having a picturebook with such a small gem of a screen I would not have this one even if they pay me to lug it around.

    Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  7. Steve Sung •  July 20, 2004
    Rating: 1.5/5

    Ever since i have had this laptop, i have had many problems with it. First off, is the infamous TouchPad! What a pile of s***! They need to sort this out! It just decides to do what it wants when it wants. You are on a website with all the information you have been looking for…and suddenly it has gone! Out the blue. The TouchPad just decides to close it! And the Matshita UDJA745 CDRW/DVD drive is the worst thing i have seen. It idoes not read and then becomes totally unresponsive. It wil read certain data disks and not others but work in other computers fine. It will sometimes not ejectg or just not work at all. To burn…it takes a lot of hassle and have to turn the recording speed down to minimum for it to nearly work. This is terrible. Sony deny any of this saying that it is not their problem and that it was in perfect working order at release date. The speakers are very poor (extremely quiet) and the keyboard is very misplaced. The monito is very good on a straight angle however…but when it becomes angled…you may as well just be blind. Sony need to sort this problem…and they need to sort it now! This laptop is a piece of dog dirt. DO NOT GET IT!

    Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  8. bob c •  July 28, 2004
    Rating: 2.5/5

    I purchased the v505bx for it’s size so that my wife would not have to lug something heavy to school.

    After a short time she began to experience the same issue as the 2 other reviews where the mouse pad acts erratically. My problem appears to be with the flimsy deck where you rest your hands while you type.

    I determined that if I press down lightly to the right of the mouse pad it actually reacts as a mouse click and opens programs or deletes lines while typing. This has made its use as a portable virtually useless. I am in the process of attempting to get it resolved through sony support.

    Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  9. fineone •  October 6, 2004
    Rating: 5/5

    about the recovery cds… you should undrestand that they have putted the recovery into the hidden partition so that customers wouldn’t be complaining about cds that is not working… all you have to do is to use the notebook correctly and adjust the tapping capabilities of the touchpad… thats all i can say… thank you!!

    Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

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