| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Sony VAIO VGN-A290 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 735 (Centrino), 1 GB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW Double Layer Drive) |  | |
Sony VAIO VGN-A290 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 735 (Centrino), 1 GB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW Double Layer Drive)
The VAIO A290 is the desktop replacement notebook that can perform like an entertainment center. When connected to the AV dock, the A290 has the power of a TV tuner, video recorder and digital amplifier. Fully equipped with a DVD+R Double Layer with DVD+RW/CD-RW Drive, a 17" wide XBRITE LCD screen and powerful Intel Centrino Mobile Technology, this sleek and powerful tool will be all you need wherever you go.
Manufacturer: Sony
Price Range: $1,999.99 - $2,799.99
 Sony VAIO VGN-A290 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 735 (Centrino), 1 GB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW Double Layer Drive)
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| User Reviews |  | Runs continuously...
rating: 4
Owned the A290 since 2004. Almost 4yrs old but she's been good to me. She's a big girl but I have no regrets. When I'm at the airport, everyone's looking at her big beautiful self-adjusting screen. A little thick but worth it to me.
Had an issue with the iTunes software and had to re-image. Not sure about
that whole incident; may have been my fault but she's okay now. The CD/DVD RW had acted up for a couple of months but then started being good again. No issues since then.
Battery life sucks. Bring the plug/adapter. Seeing the wires on the docking station when I walk into my office has gotten old. Looks and sounds great with any type of media. Movies/TV, music, PC games (not many games but enough).
Recently bought an FZ premium notebook with the intentions of giving away the A290. No way. Seeing her side by side with a leaner/younger machine, I've decided to keep her. Vista doesn't run everything I need it to run anyway. Dynamic link library conflicts.
I'm mostly ppt, jpeg/avi, wav data. She still surfs the internet like a Hawaiian - hardline or wireless. Really like the memory stick slot as I have several other SONY products. Inputs/outputs are readily available.
She is a solid (NO FAT) performer. She doesn't have Blue Ray but I'm keeping her. Probably surprise her with another GB of memory for her B'day.
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Hard drive problem?
rating: 5
I bought one of these on Ebay when it first came out. My first hard drive lasted about a month. My second one lasted about 2 months. My third hard drive lasted about 2 months also. The computer was always taken very good care of and always covered up when not being used, so I have no idea what went wrong. I will say that Sony customer service repaired it promptly and even after the warranty was expired. It now appears to be working fine. I thought about selling it before another hard drive goes out, but I like this way too much to get rid of it. The picture quality is extraordinary. I'm keeping it until I find something better and I haven't seen it yet.
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High Performance Machine and much more...
rating: 5
I bought this item from eBay for about $2300. I don't think I can find a better performance for this price. If you are planning to buy an expensive item from eBay, check if seller has sold same item before, and read the feedbacks.
Graphics Performance is outstanding: I was not expecting to be able to play a game like Need for Speed Underground 2. I assure you, the game is running like it is on fire. I increased graphic quality, there is no delay or lacking in the game. You can have all road+car reflections, glows, tints, motion blur, fog, incredibly high world details (even check the store shopwindows). The only problem is when you increase the anti allising a lot, screen goes to dark. Graphics card + Processor + RAM expose a great graphic performance.
MATLAB performance: I am working with MATLAB for my research. Matrix calculations are very fast in MATLAB. I am working on 15000x1000 dimension matrices. Process time for my classification program in this computer is: 2.5 seconds. I ran same program in my other Compaq laptop that has 1.4Ghz Intel Pentium IV Mobile processor (with 512K L2 cache memory) + 768mb RAM. Other laptop's process time was 17.5 seconds (7times slower than A290).
Internet performance: Internet speed is mostly based on your internet provider, however, a high performance computer allows you to surf internet a lot faster. Wireless capability is very efficient (it does not take a matter of time to search and connect to wireless networks).
Windows performance: It takes about 65 seconds to open and appear windows desktop (this can differ according to number of installed programs in your computer).Program windows are popping up without any delay. Windows did not freeze yet, and it seems the computer is good enough to handle memmory usage and allowance for Windows.
Long time performance: After hours of study (or after a Need for Speed game) processor heat increases,which cause a slight decrease in the performance. Its fan good enough to cool down the processor in a small amount of time (after I quit from 2-3 hour game, it takes 2 seconds to lower the fan speed). Even the highest fan speed does not make annoying noise (very quite).
Durability: Definetely a Sony high quality item.
Battery life: It is not good as other computers, because of 17inch screen. However, you almost have 2:30 hours of battery life.
Size: Size is almost optimum for a 17inch laptop. Dell 17inch laptop looks a lot like a dumb next to this Sony. Screen and image quality is also outstanding. Weight is unexpectadly low.
Negatives: There is no Bluetooth (you have to buy an additional USB bluetooth adapter). You can't upgrade the RAM memory randomly. You can only have a total memory of 256mb, 512mb, 1GB or 2GB. You just have 2 slots. You don't have the choice to plug 512mb on one slot and 1GB on the other (LAPTOP will not start if you do that).
Extra features: AV dock amplifier allows you to enjoy the sound with two SONY speakers (extremely pure sound quality but don't expect a lot of bass). AV dock also enables to connect your laptop with TV, DVD player, antenna. You can even connect your DV camera (old cassette camera) and convert the movie to a digital mpeg movie. You can also plug a Sony microdrive (even PRO Duo s) directly into the slot on laptop (that's a faster way of copying files instead of connecting your digital camera).
I definetely recommend this computer to a friend.
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Excellent, but already at under $ 2,500 at Ebay..
rating: 5
I bought this Vaio on Ebay for $ 2,425 New in Box, unopened. I use it for high-end 3D surfacing, for Photoshop and Premiere, and for Corel Painter. It is excellent. The ATi graphics had to be set to full screen 3D to work properly in 3D, but it beats much higher end notebooks hands down.
I bought an extra Logitech MX1000 wireless Laser mouse with it, for unprecedented precision in my work.
I am loving it.
When buying on Ebay, I always look for the amount of feedback (preferably high) and never under 98.9% positive. For these sort of higher priced items it gives an extra security.
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Great Laptop
rating: 5
This Sony VAIO VGN-A290 Notebook PC is a great desktop replacing laptop. It has an Intel Inside Centrino Processor 1.7GHz. It might be a desktop replacement but you can still take it to the cafe and to the airport in a breeze. 1 GB RAM is very good to have since I do a lot of music and graphic software programs which take up a lot of RAM on the computer. 100GB is enough for me to download thousands of hours of music without making my computer even slow down. The wireless internet on this notebook PC is still vary fast. I usually get 11 Mbps at the airport which is pretty good. I can burn my DVDs on the DVD+/-RW Double Layer Drive easily without any mistakes. I used to have a Toshiba Satellite 1955-S803 notebook PC which costed around $2,500.00 with an Intel Inside Pentium 4 2.49GHz Processor, 512 DDR SDRAM, 60GB Hardrive, WiFi Technology, DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive, Wireless Keyboard that couldn't top this one. I love this machine and you should experience it yourself.
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Sony VAIO VGN-A290 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 735 (Centrino), 1 GB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW Double Layer Drive)
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