V Series desktops feature a compact, sleek design built to impress in any room of the house. The wireless keyboard and mouse not only eliminate the unsightly clutter of wires, but... more
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(+) Space-conscious design, easy plug-and-play setup, inbuilt webcam and microphone (-) Tends to consume a lot of batteries with the keyboard and mouse.
A review by TClifton on Sony VAIO V3S - P4 3.4 GHz TFT November 26th, 2006
Author's product rating:
Speed
Fast
Design
Excellent
Manufacturer Support
Good
Ease of use
Very easy
Value For Money
Satisfactory
Advantages:
Great design and pretty fast .
Disadvantages:
A bit pricey
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I bought one of these computers a year ago while looking through the electronic stores in Tottenham court road. I had not intended on buying a pc but couldn't resist this as my old pc needed replacing anyway.
This is a great pc and has loads of features. One of the most obvious is that it looks stunning. It is a pc built into the back of a monitor, and the monitor is a good 20", bigger than your standard screen that displays brilliant colour and brightness. It comes in a brilliant reflective black with a silver base. Around the sides of the computer there are several USb slots which hide behind a cover nicely, and at the back there are the rest of your normal ports (more USb's, Ethernet...) plus an antenna slot as this computor can be used as a tv as well. The speakers are nicely placed under the monitor and produce a reasonably good sound.
Vaio Centre
Despite the fact that this pc just comes with Windows XP Home Edition it has many of the functions of a Media Centre PC because of it's 'Vaio Centre'. This acts in a similar way to Media Centre, whereby you have a specific control for it which alternates between PC and the Vaio centre. Once in this mode you can access CD's, DVD's, pictures, TV (recorded and live) and any other videos stored on your computer.
Specification
The PC also comes with some pretty good hardware. It uses an Intel Pentium 4 processor with a speed of 3.2GHz. This uses hyper-threading technology that makes the processor more efficient and improves performance. It has 512 MB of RAM and 2 hardrives: One is 27.9 GB, with the XP and other included software preinstalled on it, the other is 220GB. So far I still have much of it free so this is a decent amount of space. The graphics card for this PC is very good, a GeForce GO FX5700. This is plenty good enough for any game around today and should be good enough for the majority of games for the next few years. It also has a DVD-RW.
Extra Features
The pc comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard, which does not need a receiver taking up one of the USB ports-the receiver is built into the PC. The computer also comes bundled with tvtv, a small freeview box and aerial that connect to the pc via USB. This is very useful as tv can be watched on the pc itself, however it makes the tv part of VAIO quite ineffective as it is easier to use the tvtv software which has more channels anyway. You also get various media editing software in the form of programs like Sonicstage, Record Now and Adobe Elements.
Disadvantages
This is a brilliant pc but it comes at a price. I was lucky enough to pick mine up for £1199, but that was only because it was the stores demonstration model as the rest had sold out. This is fairly expensive but the normal retail value is about £1399.99. Around a third of this price is the screen which costs around £500.
My Verdict
This is still a very good PC but too pricey. However with new quad-core processors and graphics cards being released at the moment prices may well fall.
Advantages: The screen is un-rivaled, It's the most beautiful computer in the world Disadvantages: It's costly! Cannot be upgraded
...nor is any of the sony software there.
Oh one last thing..Vaio Media Center..you use the remote control (class huh) to pick songs, video's, picture slideshows, watch tv. anything!
UPDATE: A year ago, I installed Vista - what a mistake that was. The brightness controls don't work, the graphics card doesn't have any supported driver (have to use some overclocking one) and none of the sony software works either.
After going through their online support ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: BLISTERINGLY FAST..WOW!!!!! Disadvantages: too expensive.... but its worth it
this a seriously WOW!!! pc.. i cant believe how fast it flies compared to my last pc. sony's done it again.
takes hardly 30-45 seconds for windows to load and once its up and running.. the speeds are simply blistering...
have had this pc for the past 2 months now and never has it ever troubled me even once. running 4 or 5 programs at a time is a piece of cake for this mean machine...
coming to the technical aspects its simple got it all..
according ... ...processor and 512mb ddr ram takes care of everything.. not to mention the graphics thats are mind boggling..
the best part is that its got a card reader so i can put in my mmc memory chip from my phone or memory card from my digital camera and no hassel.. it just reads them all.. and really quick that too.
only thing i wasnt quite happy with was the only 1 year warrenty and then cost.. rather expensive.. and yes another thing.. the ram is only ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Advantages: Its and upgraded computer Disadvantages: its black
this computer is so cool i love it... buy now buy now!!!
i like it so much that i would recomend it to others and i cant beleive that they put it out on the market it is so good..... dont ha with ur computer was hot like mine!!! dontcha baby this computer is so cool i love it... buy now buy now!!!
i like it so much that i would recomend it to others and i cant beleive that they put it out on the market it is so good..... dont ha with ur computer ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful
Monitor Type: Flat panel display - TFT active matrix
Max Resolution: 1280 x 768
Graphics controller
Graphics Processor / Vendor: NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700
Installed Size: 128 MB
Multimedia functionality
TV Tuner Type: Analogue TV
Audio output
Type: Sound card - integrated
Sound Output Mode: Stereo
Speaker(s): 2 x right / left channel
Manufacturer's product description
V Series desktops feature a compact, sleek design built to impress in any room of the house. The wireless keyboard and mouse not only eliminate the unsightly clutter of wires, but allow you to use your VGC-V3S as a TV, VCR or DVD player from the comfort of your couch. Combined with great computing performance, the VGC-V3S is the height of versatility and style.
Input device
Type: Mouse, keyboard
Keyboard
Connectivity: Wireless
Mouse
Connectivity: Wireless
Telecom
Modem: Fax / Modem
Max Transfer Rate: 56 Kbps
Protocols & Specifications: ITU V.90, ITU V.92
Networking
Networking: Network adapter - integrated
Wireless LAN Supported: Yes
Data Link Protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
Compliant Standards: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
Power
Device Type: Power supply
Installed Qty: 1
Operating system / software
OS Provided: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Software: Sony System Recovery, Adobe Reader 6.0, Sony PictureGear Studio 2.0, Adobe Acrobat Elements 6.0, InterVideo WinDVD 5, Norton Password Manager 2004, Microsoft Works 8.0, Norton Internet Security 2005, Sony SonicStage 3.0, Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0, Sony Click to DVD 2.4, Sony DVgate Plus 2.1, Sony SonicStage Mastering Studio 1.4, Sonic RecordNow! 7.3, VAIO Media 4.1, VAIO Zone 1.4
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