Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

This Personal Computers Personal Computer item from Sony was reviewed on 24-Oct-2008.

Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) Reference Personal Computer. Classifications : Laptop Computers Computers & Add-Ons Categories Electronics Amazon.com: 24-Month No-Interest Financing on Qual Promotions Special Features Electronics Features Electronics Sony by Brand Gifts Specialt . Click the following link to view the cover of Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium).

Related topics: Thin-and-light entertainment notebook with 15.4-inch LCD, embedded A/V controls and a built-in camera with microphone. 2.10 GHz "Penryn" Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, 250 GB hard drive, 2 GB RAM (4 GB max), dual-layer DVD drive (8x DVD+/-R). Quad-mode Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g), 10/100 Ethernet, Bluetooth with stereo music streaming. Connectivity: 3 USB, 1 FireWire, 1 VGA, 1 S-Video, ExpressCard 34, multi-format Memory Stick and Secure Digital slots. Pre-installed with Windows Vista Premium; Intel GMA X3100 video card with up to 358 MB total memory. Laptop Computers. Computers & Add-Ons. Categories. Electronics. Promotions. Special Features. Electronics. Sony. by Brand. Gifts.

1) Personal Computers Personal Computer Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) by Sony. Spent my savings on this computer for college. Computer locked up after attempting to install a purchased version of Microsoft Office Student to replace the trial version. After over an hour with Sony Vaio tech support, could not remove the trial version. As per their instructions I had to run a systme recovery and reformat the hard drive and then reload microsoft vista updates - took over 2 hours. Then tried to uninstall the trial version of Microsoft Office Student - again unsuccessfull. Sony Vaio tech support recommended that I repeat the system recovery and reformat the hard drive a second time. I refused,googled the problem and found the solution - go to the Microsoft Office site, download a trial version of Office and once downloaded select the uninstall option. This worked, installed the purchased version of Office Student, all worked well till my DVD drive 3 weeks later could not be recognized. After about 2 hours with Sony Vaio tech support they could not get it to work and now will send a technician to my home to attempt to fix the problem. Dell would replace the unit! Do not buy this computer!!!¤

2) Personal Computers Personal Computer Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) by Sony. The laptop looks great and the construction material is solid with good quality. Standard USB ports but with nice SD slot handy. Camera quality is sufficient for my use and keyboard is quiet with low stroke. The whole computer looks neat and clean. With upgraded router, we are able to use the maximum speed for wireless connection (N), which is great! However, it came with a lot of commercial software that we have to uninstall them one by one... but i guess that is a common frustration when buying consumer laptop. The audio quality is average... I only wish it would come with non-glossy LCD screen.¤

3) Personal Computers Personal Computer Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) by Sony. If you want a high quality product... look no more! This is the laptop that eveyone must have. Blazing-fast performance, excellent color definition and incredible technology.¤

4) Personal Computers Personal Computer Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) by Sony. I knew I had made a mistake when I got this laptop and saw the glossy screen. The screen is so glossy it acts as a mirror where you often find yourself staring at yourself. The viewing angle is also the poorest I have seen on any LCD on any computer ever. When I attempt to watch a movie in bed with my girlfriend, only one of us can see the movie without the colors being inverted. We constantly fight over the placement of the screen and eventually both end up being un-happy. The viewing angle is so bad that by shifting your head, I am not exaggerating, one or two inches in any direction you can significantly change the contrast of the colors on the screen.

If it were not for the horrendous screen this laptop would have been a pretty good purchase. My next complaint would have been placing the USB plugs at the lower right hand side of the keyboard...the area you place your mouse (the USB cables end up clashing with your mouse and your hand).¤

5) Personal Computers Personal Computer Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) by Sony. To be clear, I bought the VGN-FZ460E from Amazon.com, which comes with a Blu-Ray drive and 2GB RAM.

First of all, this laptop is great. It´s the second one I have ever purchased, and a much needed upgrade from my 6 year old HP. The wireless is fantastic, being built-in to the laptop, and nearly everything else was more or less plug-and-play. 3 SIDE USB ports make plugging in a drive or a peripheral utterly painless. Performance is excellent - I can run a disk defragger without noticing while I watch a movie, or surf the web (or write a review on Amazon.com). The appearance is exactly what I wanted - a laptop that I could take into a classroom or the office, yet could run games, movies, etc if it needed to (yet to test out the NVIDIA graphics card). What really surprised me was how quiet it runs...if not for the power light, I wouldn´t even know it was running. It makes absolutely no noise...!

Things to keep in mind: it´s rather large...not quite the 17" size, but certainly a worthly desktop replacement. It´s not very light, and does not seem to take battery life into much consideration, although if you put it on low power and turn off the wireless, you can get up to 3 hours of battery life writing a paper, or something else that doesn´t require a lot of juice.

My main issues with it, and why it doesn´t earn 5 stars, are not at all hardware-related -- rather, it´s the software that has been quite an annoyance. Before I rant about it, I must say that Vista looks incredible - the fading in and out of the windows, and the overall "soft" feel of it reminds me of my last swedish massage...very nice. However, comma, two things really irked me while doing the initial set up: 1) Vista´s compatibility problems, and 2) Bloatware.

1) Vista - I ordered AT&T DSL concurrently (new place) and apparently they haven´t gotten around to making their installation software Vista-compatible...this was 6 hours on the phone over three days, five hours of which were on hold with customer service reps...not sure if this was Microsoft or AT&T´s fault, but it was certainly not at all what I expected of an OS that had been out for over a year. I have never needed to deride a company´s level of service until that(those) day(s). Next, Vista is not yet compatible with Flash player - the one that plays all those video-like commercials without Media player running. IE crashed every other day until I turned it off. Reinstalling did not help.

2) Sony has installed about two screenlengths worth of (almost all useless) software that I have yet to use after two weeks. Much of it is free trial software along with the Vaio suite of software, which I have yet to use. I deleted most of the trial ware, until I hit upon Network Magic. I´m sure this program works wonders for some people out there, but after uninstalling it, it refuses to disappear, re-uninstall, or reinstall - it continues to haunt my computer. On one occasion, it even prevented installation of another program I downloaded off the web (can´t remember the program). None of this would have been an issue had the software not pre-existed on my otherwise-great-to-use-Vaio to begin with.

One more point - no OS disks, and this is almost inexplicable - I had to call Sony customer service in order for them to email me instructions on how to make a set of recovery disks. Without looking on the weblogs, I wouldn´t have even known that this computer had a backup partition on it. Sony´s website was no help.

So, bottom line, this is an exceptional piece of equipment, with some not-so-exceptional software built into it. I was able to get quite a deal on Amazon, where I was only paying $100 extra for the Blu-Ray drive compared to other brands and models out there (the price has since changed). This, coupled with Sony´s reputation for excellence, drove me to buy a Vaio, even though I tend to be a more value-oriented customer.¤

6) Personal Computers Personal Computer Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) by Sony. The 15.4" VAIO(R) FZ notebook features A2DP Bluetooth technology for CD-quality audio streaming on your PC to other devices and embedded A/V controls for one-touch access to music, movies and pictures without ever booting-up the operating system. Watch and record content to CD or DVD and enjoy the XBRITE-ECO LCD technology that delivers razor-sharp details and bold colors while conserving battery life. A built-in 1.3 megapixel camera and microphone is seamlessly integrated into the lightweight and durable silver magnesium alloy chassis, so you can video chat with friends, family and co-workers. The VAIO(R) FZ notebook is powered by Intel´s incredible new hafnium-based processor technology. Faster and more efficient than ever, the next-generation super-powerful Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.10GHz, 3MB L2 Cache) technology turns up the speed on multi-tasking while curbing energy consumption. Genuine Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium is easy-to-use and delivers new security and entertainment features. At this affordable price that offers the latest technology take one home today. 15.4 WXGA (1280 x 800) XBRITE-ECO Display Built-in Webcamera and Microphone Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with Intel Clear Video Technology with up to 358MB shared Video Memory DVD+-R/RW Drive with Double Layer Intel PRO/Wireless 4965 802.11A/B/G/N Integrated A2DP Bluetooth 10/100 Base-T Ethernet Built-in Memory Stick(R) Duo with MagicGate(TM) Card Reader Built-in Secure Digital (SD) memory card slot ExpressCard 34 Slot 3 USB 2.0, Headphone out; Microphone-in, VGA, S-Video, IEEE 1394, RJ-11 (Modem), RJ-45 Approximate Unit Dimensions - 14 (W) x 10.02 (D) x 1.4(H) Approximate Unit Weight - 6.1lbs¤

7) Personal Computers Personal Computer Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) by Sony. Thin and light and packed full of powerful entertainment features, the Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B offers a widescreen LCD with battery-saving XBRITE-ECO technology and embedded A/V controls. A built-in 1.3-megapixel web camera (with integrated microphone) is seamlessly integrated into the lightweight and durable silver magnesium chassis, so you can video chat with friends, family and co-workers. The instant AV Mode feature enables you to start watching a DVD or listening to music with the push of a single button--without having to boot up the system--and the convenient, built-in multimedia control buttons also let you control all playback functions. You can also listen to your music and movies wirelessly with the embedded Bluetooth A2-DP profile for stereo audio streaming.

It´s powered by the 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, which offers a super-fast 800 MHz front-side bus speed and extra-large 3 MB L2 cache. Part of Intel´s 45-nanometer (nm) Penryn series, this processor boosts speed, reduces power requirements, and saves on battery life. The Core 2 Duo processor provides an optimized, multithreaded architecture for improved gaming and multitasking performance. It also includes Intel´s 4965 AGN wireless LAN, which will connect to draft 802.11n routers and offers compatibility with 802.11a/b/g networks as well. Other features include a 250 GB hard drive, 2 GB of installed RAM (4 GB maximum), multi-format/dual-layer DVD±RW drive (which also burns CDs), ExpressCard 34 slot, and both Memory Stick and SD memory cart slots.

It comes preinstalled with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, which includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center. In addition to easily playing your DVD movies and managing your digital audio library, you´ll be able to record and watch your favorite TV shows (even HDTV). Vista also integrates new search tools throughout the operating system, includes new parental control features, and offers new tools that can warn you of impending hardware failures.

The Basics

• Processor: Experience improved energy efficiency, expanded wireless connectivity, and amazing battery life with the 45nm Penryn series Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, which has a 2.10 GHz processor speed, super-fast 800 MHz front-side bus (FSB), and a super-sized 3 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system´s performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better overall performance.) The new hafnium-infused circuitry--which reduces electrical current leakage in transistors--conserves even more energy, giving you more time away from the wall outlet. And you´ll be able to encode video on-the-go and watch HD movies with Intel HD Boost.

  The Intel Core 2 Duo processor has two computational execution cores in a single processor, providing greater system response when running multi-threaded applications simultaneously with no significant increase in power consumption. It´s optimized for multitasking and is ready to support the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. It can simultaneously run multiple demanding applications--such as graphics-intensive games or serious number-crunching business productivity applications--while downloading music or running virus-scanning security programs in the background. Some of the advanced Intel innovations of the Core 2 Duo processor include:

  • Smart Memory Access: Improves system performance by hiding memory latency, thus optimizing the use of available computer data bandwidth to provide data to the processor when and where it is needed.
  • Advanced Digital Media Boost: Effectively doubles the execution speed for instructions used widely in multimedia and graphics applications.
  • Dynamic Power Coordination: Coordinates Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology and idle power-management state (C-states) transitions independently per core to help save power.
  • Deeper Sleep with Dynamic Cache Sizing: Saves power by flushing cache data to system memory during periods of inactivity to lower CPU voltage.

• Hard Drive: The extra-large 250 GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 RPM) provides more than enough capacity for storing a large audio and video library, as well as extra space required for video editing. This SATA hard drive also quickens the pace with a higher speed transfer of data--akin to FireWire and USB 2.0.

• Memory: The 2 GB of installed RAM (2 x 1024 MB DDR2) will satisfy many users, but this notebook´s two DIMM slots have a maximum 4 GB RAM capacity--perfect for high-end video editing and 3-D gaming. It also offers a top-of-class 667 MHz speed. To receive the faster data transfer benefits of the dual-channel DDR2 RAM, any RAM additions require memory modules of same capacity and clockspeed.

• DVD/CD Drive: The dual-layer DVD drive is compatible with a wide range of formats, including both DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, CD-RW discs, and dual-layer (DL) DVD+/-R discs, which can hold up to 8.5 GB of data--great for backing up your MP3 collection or your most important documents. It features the following speeds: 4x for DVD+R DL, 4x for DVD-R DL, 8x for both single layer DVD+R/-R, 8x for single layer DVD+RW, 6x for single layer DVD-RW, 5x for DVD-RAM, and 24x for CD-R/RW. It reads DVD-ROM discs at 8x and CD-ROMs at 24x.

• Keyboard & Mouse: This notebook has a standard 86-key keyboard (2mm stroke and 19.05mm pitch) and electro-static two-button touchpad.

Video is powered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, which uses shared video memory (up to 358 MB allocated from the system memory) and provides Windows Vista Aero interface support and enhanced 3-D graphics performance--delivering over 2x scores on 3-DMark 06. Intel Clear Video Technology provides outstanding video playback with sharper image quality, increased clarity, and customizable color controls. It also enables enhanced visual quality of interlaced content on progressive displays.

Networking, Connectivity & Expansion
Be ready for the next platform in wireless connectivity with the integrated quad-mode Intel Wireless 4965AGN Wi-Fi chip. Based on the draft 802.11n Wi-Fi specification, it offers up to five times the performance and twice the wireless range as existing 802.11g wireless. It´s also backward compatible with 802.11b/g networks (commonly found in home routers and wi-fi hotspots) as well as 802.11a networks (which has a higher throughput, but more limited range--great for closed office environments). With the Bluetooth connectivity, you can communicate and synchronize with Bluetooth-enabled peripherals such as PDAs and cell phones, and it also includes the A2-DP profile for stereo music streaming to optional Bluetooth-enabled headphones and speakers.

This notebook also includes a next-generation ExpressCard 34 card slot (no PCMCIA slot), which lets you take advantage of thinner, faster, and lighter expansion cards for even more advanced wireless, networking, storage, and security features. Here´s the full list of connectivity options:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players
• 1 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) port for connecting digital video camcorders and other peripherals
• Video output: 1 VGA, 1 S-Video
• 1 ExpressCard/34 slot
• Memory Stick/Memory Stick DUO slot (with MagicGate functionality)
• Secure Digital memory card slot (compatible with MMC cards)
• 1 headphone jack, 1 microphone jack

Operating System
Windows Vista Home Premium is the operating system for users with advanced computer needs, and it includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center for watching DVD movies and accessing your digital audio library. You can also use Windows Media Center to record and watch your favorite TV shows (even HDTV) and to access new kinds of online entertainment content. Computers that include Windows Vista Home Premium and an auxiliary Windows SideShow display will also allow you to access key data even when your computer is off. It is also easier than ever to share files between other PCs in your household and to manage your laptop computer settings to more securely connect via Wi-Fi.

Every edition of Windows Vista provides the essential tools and technologies to help protect you whether you are browsing the Internet, connecting to a wireless network, or just reading e-mail. All editions of Windows Vista include new tools that can warn you of impending hardware failures long before you have lost any important personal data. And, all Windows Vista editions include parental control features that allow you to manage and monitor your family´s use of games, the Internet, instant messaging, and other activities.

Preloaded Software
Includes Sony Click to Disc (for easy DVD creation), Microsoft Works SE 9.0, Microsoft Office 2007 (60-day trial), Symantec Norton 360 All-In-One Security (with 60 days of Live Update).

Dimensions & Weight
This notebook measures 14 x 10.02 x 1.4 inches (WxDxH) and weighs 5.9 pounds.

Power
It´s powered by the VGP-BPS8 rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which has a battery life of between 2.5 and 5.5 hours (depending on usage).

What´s in the Box
This package contains the VGN-FZ410E/B 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.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 21-Nov-2008, 027242733688, RUB-A0B-XAB-3AB-EOB-4SB-VOB-K6B-DEB-BUB-J4B-5OB-IUB-5SB-8GB-H4B-PMB-XSB-7QB-8

Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410E/B 15.4-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium), Personal Computer, Image © Sony

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