Sony Vaio VGN-C2S/G

...am slightly biased towards the Sony brand. Having purchased their products in the past, I have found them not to be particularly competitive with regards to price, but certainly well built and durable.

I purchased my Sony for a little over £950 on-line and so far I believe that I have had good value for money. To start with I will list the specifications for all who are interested, those who are not please skip to the part below for ...
...and stable. I use my Sony for my work and regularly have Excel spread sheets, Outlook, Internet, and two or three programmes running simultaneously. I have yet to have any programme freeze or lock up on me, and the laptop does cope extremely well under high demand. If required the memory can upgraded to 4Gb. The only thing I would say is, although this machine is termed "A Laptop", I wouldn't recommend actually placing it there for any ... more

I would like to share my experiences of what I now lovingly call my best friend. Firstly I will admit that I am slightly biased towards the Sony brand. Having purchased their products in the past, I have found them not to be particularly competitive with regards to price, but certainly well built and durable.

I purchased my Sony for a little over £950 on-line and so far I believe that I have had good value for money. To start with I will list the specifications for all who are interested, those who are not please skip to the part below for a more practical review.

Dimensions: W33, D23.6, H3.7 (cm)
Weight: 2.3Kg
O/S: Windows Vista Home Premium
CPU: Intel Core Duo 1.66Ghz
FSB: 677Mhz
Cashe: 2Mb L2
RAM: 2Gb DDRII @ 533Mhz
HDD: 120GB SATA-150 @ 5400 rpm
Optical: 6xDVD +/- RW, 8xDVD +/-R / 24xCD R/RW Combo.
Display: 13.3" TFT Active Matrix 1200x800 Wide-screen
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 7400
Sound: Audio in/out Stereo sound card & speakers
Modem: 56Kbps fax / data
Network: LAN / Wireless / Bluetooth
I/O: 2x Hi-speed USB, 1xFirewire, 1xVGA out 15-pin D-Sub, 1xS-video out
Additional: Memory stick / DUO reader.

OK now for what it actually does in reality.

Firstly the laptop comes supplied with the new MS operating system "Vista Home". This is a matter of personal preference, yes it does look impressive on screen. Personally I prefer the old XP, but then we all have to move with the times I suppose.

The combination of processor, memory, and fast hard drive do make this machine remarkably fast and stable. I use my Sony for my work and regularly have Excel spread sheets, Outlook, Internet, and two or three programmes running simultaneously. I have yet to have any programme freeze or lock up on me, and the laptop does cope extremely well under high demand. If required the memory can upgraded to 4Gb. The only thing I would say is, although this machine is termed "A Laptop", I wouldn't recommend actually placing it there for any length of time as it does get extremely warm when put through its paces.

The TFT panel produces an exceptionally clear display, although not a big as others it is perfectly good. I have found that when using my laptop outdoors or in bright direct light, the display is very good and does not have the washed out appearance I have experienced with other brands. An additional feature is the wide-screen display, ideal if you wish to take advantage of the on-board DVD for watching movies.

A feature I tend to use a lot is the card reader. As I tend to use a digital camera a lot for work, I can very quickly and easily transfer all the photo's to my laptop for e-mailing without the need to carry or mess around with data cables.

As with most laptops these days it comes as standard with WiFi capabilities so there is no need to have data cards protruding from the sides in order to gain access to the internet. There is also the standard LAN port for easy connection to your router.
Also supplied is a Bluetooth Aerial. I must admit I do find this very useful for synchronising the calender on my phone with my laptop, Previously to do this i had to either use a USB dongle which would always come out half way through transfer, or carry a data lead around. My Sony does away with all that hassle amicably.

The usual features of stereo sound are included along with the ability to connect an external headset if required.

The DVD drive is particularly good, I do use this quite regularly for backing up files. Compared to my desktop, I have found the speed for writing data to DVD surprisingly quick, and as yet have not had any kind of write errors associated with this. Also in contrast to my desktop PC, I have found that watching DVD movies is very good and judder free.

Overall my experience of this product, especially for business use has been very very good. It has never crashed or froze on me once. My impression to date is that this is a well designed machine built to stand the test of time. It has plenty of storage space (120Gb) and does everything I ask of it (except make the tea).

The thing I would advise depending on how long you are away from a power point is getting a spare battery ASAP. Sony do say that the battery should last up to 2.7hours. I presume these figures relate to the fuel consumption figures given by car manufacturers. You can achieve it if you take everything out of the car and get a jockey to drive it.
In the real world, the battery tends to last around 1,1/2 - 1.3/4 hours before needing to be re-charged. This unfortunately will set you back around £30-45, but worth it if you use your laptop away from your desk.

This laptop is not by any means top-end, neither is it budget range. It is however a very good balance between the two, providing reliability and durability at a reasonable price. I would whole heartedly recommended this product to anyone. 

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