An Excellent Notebook. A must buy. Review on Sony PCG-F580 VAIO Notebook

Hi All!

When I kept writing all my reviews, I felt it strange that there are not many reviews for excellent Notebooks. Here I am, writing a review about a laptop I am writing this review in(!!).

<i>I bought my Sony Vaio laptop about 14 months back in <b> http://www.ubid.com</b>. It has been an excellent companion ever since. I have recommended this laptop to many of my friends and four of them have bought the same so far. ubid.com is an excellent site to buy refurbished and factory items at an excellent price. You just gotta bid for it. This is ebay with a different perspective. Most of them come directly from the ubid.

</i>

<b> Story of Vaio</b>

When Sony wanted to design the VAIO logo, they thought a great deal. The V and the A in the logo are connected together to represent a sine wave, the basic analog signal. The I and the O can also be interpreted as ''1'' and ''0,'' which are used to represent digital signals in binary code. The result is a brand that truly embodies Sony Style. But the most important result is the creation of a powerful new concept in personal computing - a dynamic product that is specifically engineered to change the way you use computers, both at home and at the office. A computer that has the ability to change your life and the way you live it. This is a snippet about VAIO history, which started in 1996

Let us go into the real features.

<b>VAIO PCG-FX310</b>

<b>MAX Battery</b>

Lithium-Ion battery with 3.5 hour life-span.

<b>MAX Mobility</b>

7 pounds. So light!!

<b>All-in-One Design</b>

The convenience of having everything in one integrated package with an integrated V.90 56K modem and simultaneous access to the hard drive, floppy drive and CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive. There is no need to sacrifice anything or externally attach another device.

<b>PROCESSOR</b>

Pentium III 900 MHz

Cache Memory

256KB on-die level 2

Bus Architecture

AGP

<b>LCD</b>

14.1'' XGA (1024 x 768) active matrix TFT screen

<b>GRAPHICS</b>

ATI RAGE MOBILITY graphics chip

8MB SDRAM

<b>DIGITAL AUDIO</b>

Windows sound system compatible

with 3D Surround

<b>STANDARD RAM</b>

256MB SDRAM, I added another one to 384 MB now. It is so easy to do so.

<b>HARD DRIVE</b>

20.0 GB

<b>CDRW/DVD-ROM DRIVE</b>

CDRW/DVD-ROM drive with DVD movie playback capability

<b>FLOPPY DISK DRIVE</b>

Internal Removable 1.44 MB 3.5''

Floppy disk drive bay also supports second Lithium-Ion battery when floppy drive is removed

<b>ETHERNET</b>

10Base-T/100Base-TX integrated Ethernet

<b>MODEM</b>

Integrated V.90 56K Modem

<b>KEYBOARD</b>

86 key QWERTY layout

19mm key pitch

3mm stroke

<b>POINTING DEVICE</b>

Electro-Static touch pad

It has some wonderful features. As I am a keyboard freak, this comes very handy to me.

<b>SPEAKERS</b>

Built-in stereo speakers

Some of the models may have some issues. I never had any with mine

<b>BATTERY</b>

Lithium-Ion battery

Supports dual battery operation

<b>PC CARD SLOTS</b>

Supports one or two type II cards or one type III PC card

CardBus support

<b>OTHER INTERFACES</b>

Serial

Parallel printer

VGA monitor

NTSC video out

USB (2)

RJ-11 phone jack

Mic-in

Headphone

Port replicator

RJ-45 Ethernet

<b>POWER REQUIREMENTS</b>

58.5 watts maximum (19.5V DC / AC100-240V)

<b>POWER MANAGEMENT</b>

Energy Star compliant

Advanced power management - ACPI compatible

<b>SIZE (H x W x D)</b>

1.9'' X 12.8'' X 10.5''

<b>WEIGHT</b>

7.1 lbs. (with floppy drive in floppy drive bay)

<b>SUPPLIED ACCESSORIES</b>

Lithium-Ion battery

AC adapter

Weight saver

Power cord

Video cable

Floppy disk drive

<b>PRE-INSTALLED SOFTWARE</b>

<b>Operating System</b>

Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

<b>Software Applications</b>

Apple QuickTime 2002 New User Edition

Intuit® Quicken® 2002

Trend Micro PC-Cillin

Microsoft Word

Sony DigitalPrint

Sony DVgate

Sony MovieShaker™

Sony Smart Capture

Sony SonicStage

WinDVD 2000

SPDE ScreenBlast ACID

SPDE ScreenBlast Sound Forge

VAIO Support Agent

<b>Standard Notice</b>

Manufacturer refurbished and fully loaded

<b>Warranty</b>

90 days parts and labor from Sony

<b>Package Contents</b>

CPU, powercord, battery

<b><i>Personal Opinions</i></b>

This Laptop is one of the best in the world. Sony's electronic features are excellent. Go to https://vaio.sony.co.jp to read about vaio history

I bought this(my first laptop) and loved it ever since. I had a Sony Vaio Desktop for 2 years before selling it to my friend.

This has become so much of a companion for me.

Only con I would say is that it may be a little too difficult to replace the mother board, as it is sony specific, if you plan on doing so. I never had any issues and am planning on using the original config only

Hope this was helpful. I would suggest everyone to buy a Sony Vaio, even if it is a little more than other laptops as it is really, really worth it.

Have a nice day & Take care!!

inquizitor