Sony NEC Optiarc BD-M100A

Advantages: Portable, CD-RW/DVD Combo, everything I needed!
Disadvantages: None, yet!

...I am a software developer and I have a desktop computer at home. Due to daily train travel and my starting a University course in my spare time I decided that I also needed a laptop. My budget was £1500 including VAT. After looking at various makes including Dell, NEC, Toshiba, Tiny IBM and Compaq I settled on the Sony Vaio PCG-FX503 (£1300 including VAT). Standard spec: Intel P-III 1.00 GHz Processor 256 MB SDRAM 20 GB Hard Drive CD-RW/DVD Combo 14.1" Screen Windows XP Home There are other models in the FX500 series based on AMD Athlon or AMD Duron chips but these suffer with less battery life (2¼ hours compared with 3½ hours of the FX503). The FX503 is the only model in the range to use the Intel processor. Why the Sony? Why did I discount the other makes (in reverse order!)? - IBM & Compaq - price, price, price and price. Too... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: overall great machine
Disadvantages: Vista

...Sony VAIO FZ31Z - Core 2 Duo T8300 2.4 GHz - 15.4" TFT Great laptop, very quick, good memory. Display very clear. Easy to use. good for gaming, and general home use, internet, word docs etc. Intructions very clear and easy to follow. Great batter life and standby. Also comes with blu ray, giving execeptional quality pictures and sound! Built in web camer very handy too... again very easy to use as are all of the bells and whistles on this model! A massive thumbs up! Sony VAIO FZ31Z - Core 2 Duo T8300 / 2.4 GHz - Centrino Duo - RAM 4 GB - HDD 300 GB - BD-RE - GF 8600M GS - WLAN : Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft) - Vista Home Premium - 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) X-black - camera 9/10... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Reads practically everything. Writes to TWO formats (+RW and -RW)
Disadvantages: None so far, but disk costs make it more important not to waste any

...Betamax and VHS tapes, at least these things are all the same shape, so that, given a sufficiently versatile machine, it should be possible to read/play them all, even if you can only record one of them. NEC ND-1300A And this is where I FINALLY get to the point. I’ve just bought a NEC ND-1300a DVD Re-Writer to put in my latest reincarnation of my PC. Not only can it read all the existing formats of DVD, but unlike the vast majority of its peers, it can actually write to TWO of them, not the more normal one. There is one other maker producing a similar machine at time of writing, Sony, but this is in such heavy demand that it is on very long delivery and/or higher priced. At £220 for the retail version, complete with recording software bundle, the NEC doesn’t actually, when bought from www.dabs.com, cost much more than a single format... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful