Sony Vaio X505

[philbarnes]

When this came out I must admit that I lusted after it but was too stingy/sensible/broke to actually fork out two grand:



But they now seem to go for about £750 on ebay - what do people think? Worth it or is it too slow these days? What other light and small stuff can I get for £750?

Sony VAIO X505 Specs
Processor: 1.1-GHz Intel Ultra Low Voltage Pentium M
512MB DDR SDRAM
20GB hard drive
64MB Intel 855GME graphics
802.11 a/b/g wireless (using card that's supplied)
2 USB 2.0 ports
1 FireWire port
10.4-inch display
10.2 x .38-.83 x 8.2 inches (width x height x depth)
1.8-pound system wegiht, 2.6-pound travel weight
Windows XP Professional



Go on, shoot down my dreams in flames...

[Howard]

Vaio TX1XP / TX2XP / TX2HP

[eek]

The TX are nice machines don't weigh much more and have a dvd drive.

The G series is out at the end of this month. It makes the X505 look like a Sumo wrestler.

[philbarnes]

G-series looks good and it's only £700 new!

Cheers for the tip off

[w00t]

omg, that thing looks sexy.. 700 on ebay you say?

[cdpuk]

It always seems you're paying for the name Sony on the laptop - making them more expensive than most but I have to say that laptop looks pretty nice.

-Chris

[idlewild]

Theres plenty of small cool laptops for sale on ebay, though to get a good price you really do have to stay away from sony.

Though I must admit the X505 is the one, if anything, to make me spend that little bit more money.

[philbarnes]

I've been reading up on it and people complain about a few things:

1) Lack of built in wireless card, it has to be plugged in the side.
2) Keyboard in the wrong place to be used on your lap

But the massively good things are:

3) The smallest laptop around
4) Still an OK speed to use for office apps and internet browsing
5) Turns heads. Still.

[father smurf]

couldnt you have posted a smaller picture?

[philbarnes]

yup. sorry - broadband laissez faire to blame.

apologies again.

[philbarnes]

OK guys,

I'm off to Japan in March so I might be able to pick one of these up!

Info here:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11...vaio_g_series/

Vaio Japan site:

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Store/G/

But should I?

[philbarnes]

Specifically, there seem to be lots of options:

1) Battery length - get the heavier, longer one or the lighter, shorter one?

2) Processor? get the faster/slower one?

3) Hard driver size?

4) Bother with a optical drive?

I reckon I would only use this away from power points a little bit, so I could cope with the smaller battery. I could also probably cope with the slower processor, as it's not like I'm going to play games on it. Hard drive is a little trickier - I'd be using it for storing my photos on the move so perhaps a fairly large hard drive and I think the curse of ultraportables i a lack of optical drive - but do i get the cdrw version or the dvdr version?

Opinions?

[philbarnes]

More info on dimensions:

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/G2/gallery.html

277mm x 215mm x 23.5 (or 25.5 if you have an optical drive)

Not too bad

[philbarnes]

The x505 in mm is:

259mm by 9.65 to 21mm by 208mm

[philbarnes]

I think my heart is still with the X505 you know.

[jimbouk]

I 'invested' in a Samsung Q30 about 14 months ago now and it's been one of the most used and useful things I've bought. It came with a large capacity battery as well as a standard one, and being the same size as a pad of paper it's been up and down to uni with me just about every day.

Battery life is the key of a laptop that isn't just a desktop replacement. Factor in an extra battery if you go for the x505.

The Q40 is the replacement of mine, but it'll set you back £1200 or so, ruddy UK prices.

How about something smaller? Asus R2H?