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Best Sellers | | Home Sony VAIO VGN-AW170Y/Q 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB Hard Drive, Blu-ray Drive, Vista Ultimate) Black | |
|  | |  | | | Sony VAIO VGN-AW170Y/Q 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB Hard Drive, Blu-ray Drive, Vista Ultimate) Black | | | | | | | |
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| | Features | Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8GHz), 3MB L2 cacheGenuine Microsoft Windows Vista Home Ultimate 64bit18.4-Inch widescreen display with XBRITE-Full HD technology (1920x1080 16:9 aspect ration, Full HD panel)Blu-ray Disc optical drive and 4GB of RAM 500GB Serial ATA HDD and built-in 1.3MP cameraATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner (NTSC, ATSC and CableCard Support)
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| | Description | The VAIO AW notebook is a multimedia powerhouse boasting an industry-first 18.4-Inch extra-widescreen display with XBRITE-ECO LCD technology. Designed to maximize LCD space while minimizing chassis size, this user-friendly notebook packs a powerful punch with Blu-ray Disc playback, external NVIDIA graphics and next-gen Intel Centrino 2 processor technology. Whether you are a gamer, photographer or movie enthusiast, this cutting-edge notebook lets you enjoy all your media in a 16:9 aspect ratio that offers a wider viewing area and workspace. And with Dolby Home Theater surround sound and 5 built-in speakers, including a subwoofer, you will enjoy an immersive audio experience that puts this machine a step ahead of the pack. | |
| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 20.04 inches | | Product Width: | 6.57 inches | | Product Height: | 14.09 inches | | Product Weight: | 13.45 pounds | | Package Length: | 20.3 inches | | Package Width: | 14.3 inches | | Package Height: | 6.8 inches | | Package Weight: | 14.2 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 18 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 18 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 35 found the following review helpful:
 A Good Value! Oct 23, 2008
By Vincent Whitmore
Pros:
Screen- 18.4", Full HD, 1920 by 1080 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio. Biggest screen I have ever had (or seen) on a laptop.
Photographer's Laptop- Built in compact flash port, runs Adobe Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop CS4 quite quickly, screen makes photos look really good and makes editing easy, included Roxio CD/DVD burning software that makes it easy to to put finished photos on a disk
Powerful system for the price- 4 Gigs of Ram, 320 GB Hard Drive. I have looked at systems with faster Dual Core processors and higher rpm hard drives- at twice the price of this system. Watching TV with an external tuner while running several resource-demanding applications such as Photoshop CS4 on two monitors can slow things down a bit, but that would be a demand on any system.
Full numeric keypad- Something I've always missed in a laptop and now I have it. No more cramping hands on those 'almost useful' regular keyboard adaptations or hauling around an external USB numeric keypad. This is a BIG feature for me.
Built in speakers with subwoofer are remarkably good.
Vista Home Premium- I guess I should turn in my geek card for saying this but I really like Vista- have since it came out. I'm not sure what all the hating it is about as I have found it stable, handy and full of great features. This computer is a replacement for my previous Vista computer that was stolen, and running XP for a few weeks on an backup laptop made me appreciate Vista even more.
Built in web cam and microphone- I've been Skyping on this new computer with family and love it. No extra stuff to carry about and I can video conference. I'm liking it. A lot!
Fingerprint sensor- I didn't think I would use this feature and when I discovered that I could swipe my finger rather than type in a password I use it all the time. I keep my laptop password protected but can be logged in in no time. Another cool feature.
All of this for less than two grand. THAT's a deal!
Cons:
Only 3 USB ports. What was Sony thinking? When there's a USB-compatible everything available now? While not a huge tragedy with all the USB hubs out there, I still think this is a design flaw. But it's the worst I could find in this great computer.
Other thoughts:
Docking. I don't have a real docking station but I plug this computer into a 24" Dell HD monitor with an HDMI cable and the display is GREAT. Even with a Blue-Ray disk. I tossed in a old Compaq USB keyboard and I run a two monitor system with the laptop. Very handy.
Recommended Accessory: The Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000
Love this Bluetooth mouse. I'm a left-handed person and a five button, ambidextrous, wireless, rechargeable mouse is cool.
In closing: I'm very happy with this laptop. Good price, good deal.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Amazing desktop replacement Nov 21, 2008
By K. D. Wells
Fully loaded. Crystal clear huge 18.4 inch 1920 X 1080 HD LCD backed by NVIDIA's GForce 9600M GT card w/512 ram, Blue Ray DVD ROM, full size keyboard with numeric pad and 64 bit Vista Home Premium OS. Quick to set up, not too much bloatware. Runs graphic intensive programs quite well however a cooling tray such as NZXT's Cryo LX would be beneficial. Not a laptop, somewhat heavy, not something to easily tote from place to place unless you have a rolling case for it. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a desktop replacement with the advantage of being mobile.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Had it for 2 months and had to return it. Jun 09, 2009
By D. Bechtol
I bought this laptop on a sale from Costco online. This laptop has some great features, but it also has some really big downsides.
As an up front warning, I hope you never ever have to deal with Sony's Support center. If you can buy a service contract where you don't have to deal with Sony, do it.
So why did I return it? I have two major reasons.
1. The USB bus inside the PC is underpowered for everything they have running off of it. The fingerprint scanner, USB ports, Bluetooth and camera all apparently run off the same bus.
What does this mean? It means that frequently when the computer comes out of hybernate, sleep, or even screen saver mode, the fingerprint scanner, USB, and bluetooth do NOT work. In my case, I had a USB keyboard, bluetooth mouse and I used the fingerprint scanner to log back in, so I pretty much had to start over using the laptop keyboard and glidepad. If you get in to this state, the computer has trouble shutting down and if you restart it, it will freeze up at a black screen and never finish loading Windows.
They have a registry patch for this issue on their driver site, but it does not work. I applied it and then looked over the changed registry settings just to be sure they had actually changed because I was still having the issue. I even reloaded the laptop from the recovery disks and then applied the patch and it still didn't help. Even turning off hibernate and sleep modes completely does not help, it will do it coming out of the screen saver.
The solution is to unplug the power cord, unplug the battery and then plug everything back in and start it up.
Go here if you are interested in the issue:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=341828
2. Sony's lack of support department stinks. I have been doing technical support in a call center for over 13 years. If I treated my customers the way they treated me, I would either be in my supervisor's office or fired.
I contacted them through email. Apparently they only read the first sentence or two each time I contacted them.
I told them up front that I applied their patch and it didn't help the issue. I had run several scans of my computer to be sure there wasn't some kind of file issue, cleaned up the hard drive with disk cleanup and ccleaner, run every update imaginable, ran a full defrag (even though it was scheduled to run automatically) and it still had the issue. I uninstalled almost every Vaio program to see if it was some rogue program from Sony. I even ran checkdisk and system file checker to be sure there weren't file issues in Windows.
When they replied the first time, they told me to run disk cleanup and defrag. I replied asking for a supervisor or 2nd level tech. I told them that I had already done what they asked but it was rediculous to think disk clean up or defrag would help this issue.
The second Sony reply asked me to apply the patch I had already applied before I sent the first email. If the 2nd tech had read the original email at the bottom, or the first line of the first techs email, they would have known I had already done that. The first techs email started with "I'm sorry the registry patch did not work for you..."
At this point I was disgusted and told them through email that I had returned the laptop to Costco. I begged them to read people's emails in the future and not treat their customers like they treated me. In response I got an email asking me to call them to resolve the issue with the laptop....even though I told them in the first few sentences that I had already returned it.
On the plus side, for what it is, this laptop is very nice. It runs World of Warcraft nicely, I never had issues with surfing the internet, streaming music online and gaming at the same time. I would recommend the 7200 rpm hard drives if you game at all and be sure the laptop has dedicated memory on the video card. This one has 512MB of dedicated video memory which works well with a game like WoW. The dual core processor and 4GB of RAM are helpful. The screen is very bright and has beautiful color.
If you don't mind having to pull out the power plug and battery every day or so OR you don't hook up any USB or bluetooth devices and don't use the fingerprint scanner, you might have a nice laptop. If you don't have to EVER contact Sony, you may like this laptop. Otherwise, do what I did and get an Hewlett Packard HDX 18t instead.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Spectacular Beast!!!! LOVE IT!! Feb 07, 2009
By Pamela Van Beekum
"PVB"
I am beyond pleased even after paying the rather large amount for the top of the line of this AW series - AW-170YQ.
And it is definitely a beast in weight... I had mistakenly always bought the very light laptops and since I work as a Web developer and photographer I was always trying to make things work without enough disk space or horse power and then there is the lack of screen real estate. This just satisfies it all... I was always worried I wanted something light to carry but in the end I don't carry it around all that much - travel with it and take it to clients at times.
The greatest beauty I find is that I now use this as my desktop computer and while I still keep my desktop CPU for back up space and a secondary computer in case this should fail, etc. It is a joy to ALWAYS have all my files all the time. In the past I had always hustle to transfer over to my laptop all the files I might need... now that is never a concern -- saving a lot of time and possible disasters if forgetting a file.
The screen is amazing, keyboard is excellent as well as the mousepad although I love the Sony bluetooth mouse - works perfectly.
I have now had it for about 3 months and I love it everyday.
Only problem I have had is when I put it to sleep and close the lid it seems to wake up again with the lid closed - but I am sure there is a simple reason why this is occurring and can be fixed.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 replacment batteries are $390 Aug 24, 2009
By Cool dude
Hi,
my aw120j battery runs out in one and half hour. When I try to buy a backup battery, I found out that they are out of stock and are proprietary - so it will cost me more - about $390 to buy the larger capacity (with 50% more juice). I can buy a computer with that exorbitant $390!!
This computer is too large to lug around and I wish the keys are white. There are too many Vista software running which churns the hard drive, so I turned of superfetch, windows defender, and other services not needed. Google for superfetch and you find techgeek - he has the list of recommended services to turn off.
See all 18 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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