Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony VAIO FW31E 16.4-inch Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2Ghz, 4GB RAM, 400GB HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470, Vista Home Premium)

After seeing a few mixed reviews on Amazon I felt I had to add a review of my own. Generally when you're spending in a certain price range you're generally going to get a similar spec.. yes Sony's are at the top end compared to others but there's a reason... the majority of other brands are very plastic wth poor build quality and materials, plus the keyboard ergonomics are poor. This piece of kit is brilliant, solid, with a very slick keyboard, amazing screen and superb speakers - I would recommend it 100%. I've never considered Sony for some unknown reason but I'm glad I did and will probably be a loyal customer for many years to come.

After having a bad experience with several Dell laptops I have found a real dream of a laptop in this Sony Model. It is good looking, fast and easy to use and my worries around the reported issues with the Vista software seems to be unfounded. The functionality is great and outstrips that of my Dell which was twice the price. The quality of picture is superb and probably its best feature, even on battery power and the battery seems to have a good life too.
I would highly recommend this laptop, in fact my husband has just decided to by the same model.

Having heard so much about Sony VAIOs, I decided to purchase this model. The laptop started off great, but after six months of moderate use (internet surfing and word processing) it suffered from the following problems:

- Stuck keys, meaning you have to press down really hard for the character to register on-screen. Not good when you're trying to type something quickly.

- The laptop would no longer charge to the battery's full capacity. It would charge the battery up to 80% and then cease charging.

- The casing near the mouse pad would make worrying creaking sounds whenever the slightest bit of pressure (i.e. my wrists!) was applied. Also, the casing around the LCD screen started to creak as well.

- The mouse pad itself would work intermittently. Sometimes you would run your fingertip across it and nothing would register on-screen or the cursor would move very very slowly as if its jammed. Very annoying.

I will admit that the laptop looks really sexy and the screen quality is amazing. However, I am in agreement with some of the other reviewers that the build quality is not good. I am returning mine and switching to another brand.

We have only had the Sony Laptop for a short while, but in that time we have had to contact Sony support several times as we have had a few problems with it. I am still not sure if it was the best laptop for us, only time will tell. (I can forsee telephoning Sony support again)

Amazon has been sending me these emails post-purchase, including this invitation to review the product. Well, the product never arrived so how can I review it? Granted, the seller was a third party and not Amazon, but he is a partner of Amazon's and Amazon should at least tell me why this seller has been so naughty! It has been a complete waste of time dealing with Amazon recently. I am not happy