Sony Vaio VGN-FJ3S

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Fast
Look & Feel	Excellent
Comfort & Portability	Excellent
Robustness & Durability	Excellent
Value For Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Nice size, good looks, adequate spec
Disadvantages:	Screen, technology has moved on

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I got this laptop to replace my old VAIO, the PCG-GRT916Z. After my old experiences I wanted something a little smaller and with a better battery life. I have now had it just over a year so thought I'd tell you what I think...

This one grabbed me because of the colour. At the time I bought it most laptops were black or grey. No of course you can get them in every shade of the rainbow, so it won't stand out quite as much. But after a year of use I haven't found the white to get dirty at all or show any wear like my old grey one.

The other feature that caught my attention was the built in web-cam. This looks quite cool in the lid with its mirrored finish. As it turns out I haven't used it very often, but its handy knowing its there! There is also a built in microphone next to the camera, so any Skype users will be right at home with this model.

Also on the lid there is the fancy looking VAIO logo on the outside. This mirrored lettering looks great in my opinion. On the other side is the screen, of course! Its is a widescreen display (again rather special back in the day, but no more common) meaning its a little better suited to films. The only downside that I've found is that when you set a photo as your desktop image it becomes stretched horizontally, which looks rather stupid if you chose to keep it there! Hardly a major downside though!

What I have found to be a major downside though is with the screen itself. It apparantly features "an exceptional XBRITE LCD panel" which allows you to "enjoy beautifully clear images from any viewing angle". I disagree. While moving from left to right isn't too bad, moving up and down from the centre point results in the image dimming and any blacks becomming awful. The is especially apparant when watching films etc, where dark scenes can become almost unwatchable. Comparing it with other laptop screens on the market today, I think it is very poor.

The keyboard is good. The keys are responsive and nicely sized. In the top corner there is the silver power button, and two round shortcut buttons labelled S1 and S2. You are able to assign certain shortcuts to these buttons, in my case I have choosen volume mute and screen brightness adjust. While mentioning volume I am reminded of another annoyance I have - there is no manual or seperate volume control. To adjust the level you either have to use the speaker icon in Windows taskbar, or press and hold the 'fn' button and press either F3 or F4. This might not sound a problem but I have found it irritating. Also, after upgrading certain aspects of Windows, the 'fn' stops working due to a driver problem or something. This means that the only way to adjust the volume is with the taskbar icon. If you imagine you are in the middle of watching a film etc, then you may start to imagine how annoying this can be.

I'll stop rambling. The mouse is good, although my left hand button has obviously broken inside or something and now makes a horrible clicking noise when pressed. Luckily most of the time I use an external wireless one!

On the front of the machine there is a switch for turning on/off the wirelss card, and a memory card reader. I have found this very handy since I have a Sony digital camera, so transferring photos between the two is so simple and easy.

Other connectors include 3 USB ports, a firewire port, AV out, microphone in, headphone socket, ethernet and modem and monitor out. This laptop doesn't have a line out/in port for audio though, which is something I would like to change since it prevents you recording external audio sources onto the hard drive.

I have been getting around 3 hours battery life from a full charge. Taking steps like dimming the screen and switching off the wireless card helps to keep the time up but its not really a problem.

The internal stuff - its got 1GB of ram, which I think is fine. While there are laptops with more these days I believe most users will find this adequate. Its also got a 100GB hard drive. I have filled this many time over now, so have had to invest in an external hard drive. But I guess this is to be expected with a laptop.

Its also got a dvd/cd burner which runs at nice fast speeds. I can't burn the new dual layer dvds though which is a shame.

The weight of the unit is pretty good, its not heavy at all. Lifting it with one hand is easy, it doesn't cause sore knees, and carrying it around in a bag doesn't hurt your shoulder. Its a nice thickness too.

I think thats all! I can't think of any more points that stand out. I do think its a good computer and I have been happy with it. But I'm not going to recommend it to people. This is simple because I think that something better can be found for the same price. And that screen just annoys me so much. I suppose if you can find a good second hand bargain it wouldn't be so bad. I guess this is always the case with the computer market though, things just move on so fast!