Sony Vaio VGN-A197VP

This laptop is my workhorse. It does everything i need and goes everywhere (well not everywhere - theres limits you know).

Bad Points (I get through them first) -

1. Its heavy (nearly 4kg). Not alot more to say really.

2. This to me is the more important issue. The software for running bluetooth is very limited and the customer service refuse to be of much help. In fact there final piece of advice was to get rid of it and use the windows driver instead. Helpful!

3. It's pricey, as Sony products tend to be, but they are well built, which means I don't have to contact the irritating customer service (Is there actually a good customer service out there?)

4. Customer Service - The bane of anyone thats ever had the unfortunate to grrrr.....arghh.....rarrrrr.....

hhmp ... Sorry about that. Thats it really apart from that its a joy.

Good Points -

1.7Ghz centrino processor which i have to admit i was slightly cautious about (arn't we suppose to be getting faster processors) but after having my concerns removed by a guy that knows more about processors than i, it turns out to compare you should double it, which works out that it compares to 3.4GHz procesor. Still with me. Its all about architecture and how you measure procesors and benchmarks and well just trust me on this one.

512M of memory always needed, the more memory the better thats what i always say - clearly i don't get out enough.

DVD RW+- Drive, in other words you can burn DVD's, cause i always need to back up my project work and it ain't small files.

Ooohh and the graphic display is to die for. Its got this special screen which makes it much easier to view and since i spend half my life staring at the blessed little thing is litrally an eye saver. The graphic card does the job - I really don't use it for games - really i don't - but for those that care it has a 9700 mobile radeon. oh and did i mention that its widescreen, which is really handy for having more than one thing open at a time(e.g comparing spreadsheetsor developing programs).

For a laptop the sounds surprizingly good - hardly tinny at all for such small speakers thats quite impressive.

Connectivity - (the bits that means you can connect to the internet and other computers - just in case anyone doesn't know what i'm driveling on about) - is fantastic apart my previous gripe. It includes Wireless Connectivity the g one, a normal Lan network card, Bluetooth and a modem. Can't say fairer than that .
Its got three USB ports and a firewire port.

It has a very reasonable amount of software included-

Obviously Windows XP (mines professional - the edition i mean)
and Microsoft works (Which i could go on a long tirade about but won't)

Most importantly rather than all the assorted odds and sods that you usually get with any pc. It has adobe products namely photoshop elements, premier standard. It also has Norton Internet security for a short period. These are good pieces of software.

Other Bits - Its got all the normal connections that you would expect and has a slot for expansion with a pcmcia card. and MOST importantly its got a little light sensor that adjust the brightness of your screen. How cool is that.

Right i'm nearly done. Its a joy to work with, and i really have no serious complaints about the laptop. I work with it all the time and had no problems with even with me forgetting to back up or defrag the harddrive, run virus checks etc etc etc.