Sony Vaio VGN-AR51 > Reviews (5)

The VGN AR51 is a great laptop out of the box. It looks good, the 17" screen is excellent, and it's a very fast machine.

However after only 18 months of use my laptop is completely redundant.
8 months into using the laptop the left hinge seized and broke, aparrantly a common promblem on this (and other Sony) models.

Sony refused to fix the problem under warranty and I spoke with some very rude and agressive 'support' staff. Very annoying considering how much I had spent on the laptop and the fact it probably cost more to ship the laptop to the warranty center and back than it would have done to fix the problem.

Having written several emails, and making calls to the customer support lines to complain about the treatement I received I eventually gave up as no response was ever given.

The £200 charge to fix one hinge was about a quarter the cost of the laptop originally so I was not prepared to pay it.

Now 18 months later, the speakers do not work at all, the spacebar does not work, I cannot move the machine for fear of breaking the remaining hinge and just recently the hard drive gave up the ghost.

Comparing this to my previous laptop; a HP pavillion which after 7 years is still going strong with my gran, I am massively dissappointed.
I cannot recommend strongly enough that people stay away from Sony laptop's.