Sony VAIO VGN-A160 Review

The User Reviews

Average User Rating: 4.4

1. Beware of Sony Computers

   

   By: Kate McCormack
   July 20, 2008 @ 9:43 PM

   My VGN-NR110E had a faulty hard drive 28 days after I purchased it and their customer service is the worst I have ever received from any company.

   Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No

2. Sony Vaio

   

   By: John
   June 13, 2008 @ 10:55 PM

   I bought a Sony Vaio in Nov of 07. Within less than two weeks the hard drive popped. Warrantied it. Second, popped about three weeks later. Fast forward to June 08. Hard drive number three popped. Was working in the monring, went to work, cam home, black screen of death. I have to select a rating and cannot do negative or zero. What crap?

   Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No

3. Owner/School Evaluation, Former UL Product Testing Engineer

   

   By: James Masen
   January 15, 2008 @ 12:16 PM

   Overall a solid product but comes with 1 major design flaw and 2 appearance flaws. 1 .Consistent failure of the power supply cable which breaks in two about every 9 months (4 xs in 3 years). This is due to the unnecessary extended length straight power supply plug of loose connection tolerances with consistent downward angle of stress placed upon connector. (Confirmed by a dozen other units purchased as well for our institute with same mo.) Visually, keyboard letters become invisible within 9 to 16 months and all keyboard area paint wears off making for a very poor presentation. Additionally, about 20% of units experienced keyboard failure. On a plus note, great operation and outstanding screen brightness. Will not purchase Sony units in future. Most other manufactures provide repair/parts a manual with purchase, Sony does not.

   Rating: 6 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No

4. Buyer beware...

   

   By: Anthony
   May 23, 2005 @ 3:30 AM

   I bought a Sony VAIO laptop for £1,350 in 2003 having chosen the machine mainly for its large, high-resolution screen (16inch, 1600 x 1200) and in the belief that Sony laptops were some of the most reliable on the market. However, when the computer was just over 14 months old (not quite three months out of warranty), the keyboard failed completely, and I had to purchase an external USB keyboard to be able to continue using it. I wrote to Sony, arguing that such a major fault was unacceptable, and asked them to repair the product at their own expense. Their response was to offer me a derisory 10% discount on the cost of repairs.

   Then, about a month later, the screen flickered briefly and died completely! I was left with an expensive laptop that was effectively reduced to a desktop machine that could only be used with an external keyboard and an external monitor.

   So, here was a laptop that had been used carefully for about five hours a day, in a benign environment, had never suffered any kind of physical damage, and had only been taken out of the house on a handful of occasions, and yet had developed two major faults in the space of just sixteen months! Sony’s response to my complaints was simply to argue that their machines “are some of the most reliable available on the market”.

   Not one, but two major faults in just over a year. Reliable? Judge for yourself. My advice: think very carefully before purchasing a Sony VAIO laptop – unless, that is, you intend using it as a desktop machine.

   Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No

5. Style, price and weight. Wow.

   

   By: Bob
   August 21, 2004 @ 11:35 AM

   The review is pretty fair. The screen is amazing, the keyboard perfect for bigger fingers and the unit runs pretty cool. It’s fast enough for pretty much anything and the battery life is between 2 to 3 hours depending on what you’re doing.
   It does kind of have a scroll-wheel. If you run your finger down the right edge of the mouse rectangle the window will scroll. This saves so much pain it’s not true.
   I’m not so upset by the huge amount of pre-installed software. At least it saved me a bunch of downloads and it only took 1/2 hour or so to uninstall all the things I didn’t want.

   Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No