Memory Stick media slot, compatible with Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo with MagicGate functionality </ul> It also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems).
<b>Preloaded System and Software</b>
This system comes with the Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 operating system with Advanced Security Technologies, which helps to reduce unwanted downloads and pop-ups while surfing the Web. It also comes loaded with a bevy of Sony multimedia software: Click to DVD (DVD creation), SonicStage (digital music), Vaio Media (network file sharing), DVgate Plus (digital video), Vaio Zone with WinDVD (for watching DVD movies), and Image Converter (for PSP transfer). Other preloaded software includes Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition, Quicken 2005 New User Edition, Microsoft Works 8.0 (with word processing, spreadsheet, and calendar), Norton Internet Security (with 90-day subscription), Roxio DigitalMedia SE, and TrendMicro Anti-Spyware (30-day trial).
<b>Dimensions and Weight</b>
This notebook measures 14.33 x 10.41 x 1.41 inches (WxDxH) and weighs 6 pounds.
<b>Power</b>
It is powered by the VGP-BPS2A standard lithium-ion rechargeable battery, which produces a battery life of 3 to 3.5 hours. The optional VGP-BPL2 large-capacity battery enables battery life up to 5.5 hours.
<b>What's in the Box</b>
This package contains the VGN-FS980 notebook PC, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions. It is backed by a one-year limited hardware warranty, and Sony offers 1-year of toll-free telephone technical assistance.
Customer Reviews:
Good Value, Good Price.......2007-04-05
This is the second VAIO I bought, and their preformance is Good. Great sound and video. Supports all my applications and it's ok for a home/office use.
Stylish slim laptop with good performance at a price that won't byte!.......2006-11-22
This laptop is for my wife. We were first looking for an ultra-portable Vista capable laptop, but soon figured that the standard size laptop keyboard and screen would work better if the laptop was light enough. At 6lbs it is not heavy for my wife to carry, especially with a the right padded laptop case.
This is an great laptop for the price, with stylish looks, an excellent screen, great 15.4" widescreen form factor and a very neat and functional keyboard layout. In fact it looks like its twice as expensive as it costs. At the sub $1,000 street price, it is really close to the sweetspot of form and functionality at this price point. You get James Bond Casino Royale looks at a bargain price.
It is also uncluttered and friendly for the style junkie. It is indended for the light to moderate user. If your requirements are for heavy duty gaming or software development, this is not the laptop for you.
It comes with all the basic necessities of today : Wi-Fi, dual layer DVD burner with good software, fire wire port, PCMCIA slot, high speed USB slots and Memory Stick reader.
For this price there are no fancy extras like built-in finger print reader, bluetooth, or webcam. But these extras can be tagged on pretty cheaply if you like, right?
The peformance is pretty good. The 1.73GHz Centrino processor, while no match for today's Duo Core 2.0+ GHz processors, is no slouch either. The boot time is pretty darn quick, and with the 1GB memory you can open many applications, including Adobe Acrobat, MS IE, and MS Office without seeing a hint of a performance hit.
Battery life is actually not bad at all. It seems to manage about 2.5 hours browsing time with Wi-Fi, and about 3.0 hours doing other basic tasks like word processing without Wi-Fi.
The 4,200 RPM hard drive speed is slightly below average by today's 5,400 RPM standards. This does NOT pose a problem if your use of this laptop is for what my wife uses it for: Email, web-surfing, document editing, watching and burning DVDs.
Sony has a nice feature called Vaio update, to keep your built in software up to date. I used this facility to download updates to the software, including updating the bios. It does NOT come with a restore DVD, but you can create one easily with the built in Sony application - needless to say the first thing we did with the laptop was to create the restore DVD. About 12GB of the 80GB hard drive is reserved for the restore partition.
There is a bunch of bloatware consisting of the usual suspects: AOL, Norton Antivirus, etc. These can be easily uninstalled and you can insert your favourite anti-virus/spyware/spam software.
Finally there's a lot to be said of the legendary Sony quality.
Just bought it........2006-09-23
I just got this laptop at Fry's for 799, a better deal then amazon, and I'm considering returning it.
It's a fantastic laptop, the screen is very vivid and bright, and the laptop it's self is very sexy all around. I suppose for the price I got it at it's a pretty good deal, but I do have some complaints about it.
First a little back ground about my laptop experience:
I orginally bought an EXTREMELY nice HP laptop (at nearly $3,000) that broke down on me roughly 8 months after I bought it. It broke hard too, first the charger was having issues so I bought another (at 150 dollars) then the charging port went out, then the battery stopped taking charges. This all happened within a month of eachother and HP said they couldn't cover any of it under warranty (I guess there was a warranty slip I was supposed to send in that I never got). I dispised that junker anyways. The DVD drive's button was in the worst spot, so anytime I sat the laptop down on my lap, the drive opened, meaning I have to close it, meaning it will run whatever disk I have in there. It wasn't too bad until the 90th time it happened.
I went a long time without a laptop, using my work computer for email, myspace, amazon and stuff like that, but now I realize I'm traveling alot and I need something more mobile.
I bought this laptop with the hopes of using an Aircard (for internet access eveywhere I go), the ability to watch DVDs, and the price was good too. The Aircard works fine, I get great internet speeds and the computer does have the ablity to watch DVD's just fine. It comes with XP Home, and is Vista capable, so it works fine with all stuff too. It dosn't come with M$ Office (except the trial) and comes preloaded with some AOL stuff (typical of any laptop really). The size of the screen and keyboard are very nice, though in a typical laptop sort of way.
The biggest draw backs I've seen so far have been the battery life. Realistically the battery lasts me about an hour and a half of surfing the internet on my Aircard. Not impressive enough for me, nor does it work for watching a movie on a long flight. There are expandable batteries avaliable for this device (which I'll be picking up if I keep it) for over 100 bucks. Even with that though, I wonder if I'll be able to watch a full 2.5 hour movie.
Also the screen is almost too bright. White webpages appear way too bright or too dark, I can't find a nice balance of brightness.
Another huge complaint I have is there's no adjustable volume control besides the "Fn" keyboard button and the corrisponding buttons. This sucks when trying to adjust the volume of a DVD when watching it in a dark room. This device also has one of those on screen volume level things, so it interupts any game you're playing or DVD you're watching; and because the graphics card sucks, it can really get annoying to find a good sound level.
That's all I've noticed so far that erks me at the moment. I wish this laptop had a more lit up keyboard, it's really hard to see at night.
I believe I'm going to have some issues with this device down the road as well. It's only got two USB drives (both on the right side) which sucks for me being a left handed person and using a mouse. Two works for many people who just use a mouse and possibly an iPod or something, but consider what you'll have hooked to the device down the road. I've got a couple devices I like to have hooked up, for instance my Mp3 player, a mouse, an infared remote control (for movies), a digital cameria, an expandable memmory stick, and my cell phone. Because this Vaio only has two ports, I'm contantly unplugging and plugging in devices. That gets really annoying when you're trying to transfer data from your cameria to a memmory stick and use a mouse.
The partition on this hard drive is f***ing huge. You only get 68.5 gigs of useable drive space (after I cleaned up alot of stuff). Meaning that with Windows and the backup stuff, you're at most going to have 70 gigs of storage space.
The sound on this guy really isn't too impressive either, it works, but not something you'd want for gamming or seriously rocking out to some tunes to.
Really, that's about it. Like many Japanese/Chinese/Korean born electronics they often go for a slick style that pulls back on functionality. I'm really at a toss up of weather I'd like to return this and buy a dell. Still, I give it 4 stars because it's a good general laptop, I think I just might shop around for better though.
Sony vs Dell.......2006-09-20
I have had my Dell Inspiron notebook for 3 years and had my share of problems. I've gone through, 1 hard drive, 3 batteries and 1 CDRW/DVD drive. Not to mention having to send my AC adapter in for the recall.
My Dell gets very, very hot (almost too hot to touch) so I thought it was high time to get a new one. I've heard so much about the Sony Vaio and decided to buy the FS980.
I have a web based business, so I'm on the computer a lot. The need of a port replicator is very high as I plug into 3 printers, a flat screen, keyboard, mouse, etc.
I ordered the "Sony VAIO Port Replicator for FS Series (VGP-PRFS1)" from Sony and waited 2 week for its arrival. Once it arrived, I couldn't wait to setup on new laptop. Well, unfortunately, although the replicator says it's for the FS series, IT'S NOT FOR THIS FS SERIES.
The replicator has prongs that plug into the bottom of the laptop and there is nothing to plus into in the FS980. Luckily, Amazon accepts returns, but I'm out $10 for shipping it back.
I called Sony and was told they do not make a port replicator for this particular notebook and was told since they haven't by now, they more than likely will never.
Best Buys has this port replicator listed on their site as one of the accessories available for the Vaio FS980.
I ended up buying a top of the line "generic" replicator by Kensington which supports flat screens up to 19" (cost $180). It is a hassle as I have to open my laptop lid to power it on every morning and there is a delay in the response of the screen.
If you plan on using this laptop only as a laptop, then it's great, but if you need a port replicator, then you're out of luck. Had I known this when I purchased the notebook, I would have chosen another.
only thing that matters is the probablility of picking a non-disfunctional laptop.......2006-09-12
After reading all these reviews about Sony versus (mostly) Dell laptops, here is my final questions (and conclusion).
What is the chance that if I choose a Sony or Dell among it's family of laptops that I'd get one which actually performs as it's suppose to? Sounds like the Dell folks tend to get functioning laptops at a great frequency than Sony folks. So perhaps Sony indeed makes superior laptops, but a much higher percentage of them are in some way defective, so most customers never really get the full Sony experience.
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