Sony VAIO SA3 Series VPCSA31FX/SI 13.3-Inch Laptop (Platinum Silver)

To the previous user: I’m sure you reviewed the wrong item because I own this baby and it rocks! Lets get to the nitty gritty shall we?

Pros: Very professional, sleek and sexy design. Look closer…this ain’t cheap plastic. Light doesn’t even begin to describe the weight (without the optional extended battery sheet of course). Comes with 4GB of memory on-board and it can take another module. Fast boot, backlit keyboard, low light camera, ATI Radeon 6630M 1GB integrated graphics (switchable with Intel graphics for Stamina/Speed functionality) and that’s not all. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Rage and even older titles like Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 run smoothly on low to mid settings. (You want higher…grab an alienware or something). Did I mention DVD burner? ^^

Cons: For such a beautiful piece of machinery, Windows Home Premium seems a bit inappropriate but yeah, the upgrade option is always there. Initial run for me was sluggish. I immediately downloaded all the drivers off of the website (note carefully when you download, these need to be installed in a certain order…just be sure to read), created the recovery discs and redid the system then updated. Dual booting with Ubuntu 11.10 atm. Be sure to grab the latest ATI drivers for the system…it helps. Another con, after updating the BIOS I noticed that when using:
a) internal battery by itself, once it is fully charged the battery disappears. If I unplug it returns….odd
b) when using the internal with the battery sheet, the internal sometimes disappears whether the laptop is plugged in or not (says battery 1 is not present). I believe this has to do with the BIOS update because the system did not initially display this odd behaviour before the flash. Hopefully it should be fixed in a future update. Hint, don’t flash the BIOS with the current update unless you are having an issue (that BIOS revision is R2084H4…wait for something higher)

Usage: Work, college, gaming (and you know we’re talking current titles), movies, graphic designs, surfing the net, etc. I’m still playing around and fiddling, but I honestly respect and admire what I see in terms of quality and workmanship. The price is a bit steep and a lot of users may be deterred by that, but if you got the money to spend and you would like a pretty all round, excellent light weight 13.3 inch that can rock your socks off…then this is the laptop for you (at least until new stuff hits the shelves in 2012). Thank you Sony and Amazon

So glad I bought this laptop. It’s really fast and has a nice looking design. I have yet to find any flaws in it and would highly recommend it to anyone in search of a sleek, capable, and fast laptop.

I bought this Sony VPC-SA3AFX at the Microsoft store here in Silicon Valley. They had a very good deal during the past Christmas and could not pass up – 25% off of the already reduced price. It comes with Win7 Home Premium but I got it upgraded to Win7 Ultimate (hey it’s free due to the 25% off). The notebook is very light (the one reason I was interested), with good 13.3in LED-backlit LCD screen resolution of 1600 x 900 and AMD Radeon graphics, 1pc USB3.0 and 2pcs USB2.0, 1pc HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet port, DVD burner, 1pc SD card slot, 1pc Memory Stick PRO Duo card slot, wireless 802.11b/g/n, Centrino bluetooth 3.0, fingerprint scan, Intel Core 2nd gen i5 2430M-CPU at 2.4GHz (turbo at 3.0GHz), 4GB 1333MHz DDR3, 500GB HDD, HD camera, VGA port.

Very good features for the price. Keyboard is nice, too. The only negative thing is the two-button page up/down, Home and End functions. I guess this is due to the small form factor of this machine.

I have had my Vaio VPCSA for a month now. So far, I find this to be an excellent product and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a higher-end laptop. This package included the extended battery, which I use frequently. It does add weight but it is nice to not have to worry about being close to an outlet on-the-go. The computer looks professional, sophisticated and modern. It runs smoothly and fast (fast startup time) and stays cool. It does have a fan, and some reviewers say it is too loud. It is louder than a MacBookPro, but it is not annoying or obtrusive in any way. I wouldn’t even call it “loud” actually. I was debating (for a long time) whether to get a Mac or this. I borrowed a Mac for 2 weeks prior to buying this because I wanted to be sure. I am really glad I went with the Vaio and with Windows. Things I like about this Vaio:
Keyboard feels great
Size, weight
Appearance
Back-lit keyboard
Fast processing/startup
Windows
Durability

Drawbacks:
Trackpad–It is kind of “jumpy” and not as intuitive as the Mac trackpad. I actually don’t use it that much because I prefer a mouse.
Screen–On some programs, the screen resolution doesn’t look as sharp as it should. Not sure if it is the Vaio or my program.

—from my 3 year old Toshiba Netbook.
The Intel 5 processor is quite fast. Screen has great resolution. Laptop has illuminated key-board and capital letter light.
I’m disappointed slightly w/its portability—seems heavier than what was advertised. My biggest problem is with the battery life which I expected to be 6-8 hours and is probably closer to 5.
This was the third computer I tried. I thought about buying a very light Acer, the expensive slim one w/o a drive, but realized I really wanted an all-in-one machine. A Toshiba Satellite I considered was sooo heavy to carry that I returned it.
As far as the Sony Vaio, I believe there is a more powerful battery I can get for it or add, so I intend to check that out.
Oh no! Yesterday I went to Best Buy and the Geeks told me they know nothing about an additional battery pack. However they did reconfigure my settings to get the max. battery life. They also said the additional battery may be a product that only Sony sells.
All in all, I am satisfied with this laptop.

Best Buy knows nothing about the “extra battery” pack. They told me to contact Sony. However the Geeks helped by lowering some of my settings so the battery lasts longer.