Sony Vaio VGN-S3XP laptop
- Reviewer
- Stephen Patrick
- Review Date
- 8 March 2005
- Manufacturer
- Sony
- Price as reviewed
- £1800
- Latest price
- compare
Reader review
User: Chris, London, UK
Date Posted: 13 July 2006
Review: I bought my Sony Vaio s3-xp refurbished and it must have been broken for about a year then I bought it. The technology in this laptop is a year old but still is a class leader, I mean how many 1.95 kg laptops with a 13.3" widescreen that has 2 GHz and 1Gb of ram were there a year ago? The laptop uses nVIDIA graphics unlike the previous ATI 9200 that was a favourite of Sony. This laptop is amazing for watching movies and I have found that if you turn the brightness down to 4 out of 8 you can get up to four hours of battery life. I contacted Sony about the built in central heating and they said as long as I download the latest software updates then this should become less of a problem which it has. Seeing as Bluetooth was something I never wanted on my laptop I now use it constantly, this is yet another reason why I am glad I bought this laptop instead of a Sony BX.
Rating:
3 people have rated this review helpful
Reader review
User: AC, Millwall
Date Posted: 7 December 2005
Review: This Notebook saves on heating bills, Sony should compensate all owners!
Rating:
3 people have rated this review helpful
Reader review
User: Amit, Japan
Date Posted: 10 August 2005
Review: Hi...what should I say to all the review statements made above. I guess everybody is right. Even I have been using Sony-S for quite sometime and have faced issues like excessive heat. But that is because of the high speed 2.5inch 5400RPM drive inside with very less space for heat dissipation. The other issue is with software of hardware issues. The Support department are like puppets; they answer what is in their books and don’t seem to satisfy your query in any respect. But it’s only the LCD that has been able to keep me going even now with Sony. Movie watching...and 16/9 display are marvelous. Nobody can beat SONY! If you are expecting performance of a Sony, then you better choose some other model.
Rating:
2 people have rated this review helpful
Reader review
User: Wolfstetter, Berlin, Germany
Date Posted: 22 July 2005
Review: I have used it for a few months and conclude: it gets far too hot; therefore you cannot use it for a long time. I have contacted Sony to fix the problem and apparently it is the hard disk that creates all the heat. They replaced the hard disk, but that did not change anything, and they had it for 4 weeks in their repair shop, and in the end they created a lot of confusion but did not solve the problem. Don't buy this machine. But if you don't wish to follow my advice, then buy mine off me instead!
Rating:
2 people have rated this review helpful
Reader review
User: Chaac, London
Date Posted: 2 June 2005
Review: The Sony Vaio VGN-S3XP is an exciting laptop to look at but in use, things change quite quickly. For starters I was looking forward to sitting by the Thames and using my laptop exercising the wiFi capability. Imagine my surprise when I find out that the screen is quite unreadable while outdoors. The battery life is rubbish. It lasts approx 1.5 to 2 hours with low, low wifi usage. I agree with the comments made previously. On the positive side; indoors and connected to the mains, this laptop is fantastic. The screen is clear and the machine is reasonable fast. I like the Sony Vaio update service. I wouldn’t recommend this laptop if you need to be mobile.
Rating:
3 people have rated this review helpful
Reader review
User: Authority, Norway
Date Posted: 13 May 2005
Review: When I browsed for laptop's to buy, the battery life for me was a major factor. The design and specs of the Sony Vaio s3xp impressed me and I found the 5 hour battery-life quoted on the SonyStyle-Europe, Sony's official commercial web-site sufficient to meet my needs. When I got my unit though, I was disappointed by the low battery life (2.25 hours) and contacted Sony about this. The next chapter is a thing of horror: Sony changed their specs on their web-page to 3.5 hour battery life. In contacting them they even came up with a 3 hour battery spec on their Vaio-link web site and claimed 2.25 hours to be 'within limits'. They seem unwilling to correct their fault. I feel conned by Sony! Beware because their specs lie!
Rating:
2 people have rated this review helpful
Reader review
User: Olle, Sweden
Date Posted: 8 May 2005
Review: My new Sony Vaio S3XP has been a true disappointment. It is a laptop that you cannot have in your laptop - it simply gets too hot. The fan is extremely noisy. The battery is poorly fitted with a wide gap that gives rise to a rattling noise as soon as you move the computer. In addition to this I have had numerous severe problems with the wireless LAN that in periods is very slow and sometimes freezes completely. Sony support have not been terribly helpful and claim that the computer is "according to specs", i.e. it should be hot like anything, it should rattle and WLAN is not something they care about testing.
Rating:
3 people have rated this review helpful
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Sony VAIO VGN-S3XP PC Notebook
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