Item : B001F50K1I Customer Reviews FW270J vs MacBook Pro & General Review by .. Marion John () Pros: -16:4 Screen is beautiful. Pretty fast. Quiet. 4 GB mem. 320 HDD. Priced well. -Doesn't Get Hot. (unlike MacBook Pro) -Keyboard is Amazing -Overall design, based off a rolling wave for inspiration -A lot of ports including HDMI & VGA -BluRay! Cons: -Speakers are quite disappointing. (but sound is fine through headphones or stereo speakers) -Sometimes wish headphone jack was on the side of the laptop rather than the front of the laptop -All 3 of the USB ports are only on the right side of the laptop. Wish Sony could have put the USB ports on both sides. -Touch pad buttons are a little clacky/clicky. Summary: My review is going to go more in depth only on the topics pointed out in the pros and cons of my quick review. But before that, many people relate this Sony to the MacBook Pro, and so did I, which is why I had so much trouble trying to decide between the two. But now that I have bought this laptop, I don't know why I considered the MacBook Pro, and last year's version at that, a refurbished 2008 Edition, not the new thin models. But this Sony is much more in its own, and this is why: The 16:4 Widescreen is gorgeous, and with the BluRay player, movies look great on the laptop. I haven't yet connected this laptop to a HDTV though. Resolution is 1600x900 and Sony also makes an even higher resolution model, which would provide true 1080p. -The laptop is priced very well. I bought this one new from BestBuy for 1000. -The laptop doesn't get hot because the back of the laptop is raised from any surface that it might rest on. Therefore the back of the laptop is thicker than the front of the laptop. -Point blank, you will not find any other laptop with a better keyboard. Since Sony spaced out the keys first, I would expect them to be the best at it. And on the FW they really proved it. Build quality, as with the whole product, feels superb, and the key press stroke is perfect. This keyboard is noticeably better than any Mac. The keyboard does take some acclamation. -Design is sleek and simple. Mine is white, wish it was black, but for the price I couldn't argue. Design is straight to the point. Glowing power button is a nice touch and just plain sexy. -This laptop can be your sole BluRay player. Macs will never have BR. So if you want to be left out of HD content future, buy that Mac. This Sony is your BR player with everything else. PS3 or this is the way to go. BR is the future. This particular version does not write BR Discs, but can read. It DOES read and write CD/DVDs. -Has a microphone line in jack, and an outer microphone that records pretty well. Also has a 1.3 megapixel camera. Represents colors well. -Touch pad is nice, buttons a little clicky. Touch pad could be bigger, but you don't want that because you would never hear the end of it from Apple fanboys. -Speakers suck, at least for an entertainment laptop. But that's not what I bought this for. Dolby Digital Sound Room can add some nice effects such as surround and bass booster. You can actually notice the surround sound. Makes the speakers more bearable. Sounds great through headphones or stereo speakers. I'm so glad I didnt waste $300-$600 more on a Mac Pro. Vista has been perfectly fine. I like it. Leopard is nice but not worth all the extra hassles of finding a Mac compatible version if you want to do a little more than write papers. Even writing papers and making powerpoints is a hassle because you can never transfer a clean version to a PC at work or school. Sometimes you don't want to convert every single thing that you make. Admitedly I wanted a Mac cuz of it's sexy factor which I would give a "10" to the Sony's "9" and also because of Garageband. Then I realized everything in iLife, there is a better version made for a PC, it just doesn't already come with the laptop. This Sony has so much more than a Mac, which I have highlighted, at $600 less. There is nothing the Mac has over this Sony. Nothing. Don't even bring up the no virus thing. Other: Wireless is very strong. My laptop always finds a strong signal, and retains the signal strength. There is also a wireless switch on the front of the laptop which can be switched off to conserve that much more battery life. -SD slot and Memory Stick Duo slot make transfer of files from camera, phone, or PSP extremely easy and fast. Probably won't ever see an SD card slot on a Mac. (at least not for a long time) Never will you see a Memory Stick Duo because it's Sony proprietary format. dead pixel by .. Hunter (Usa) It's a very good laptop, although mine is slightly different and has 250 GB of hard disc. for those who thinks the capacity of the hard discs are less than normal, in laptop computers there are some hidden recovery points which will be more and more by time goes on. you can free very considerable amont of space on your laptop hard dis by righ clicking in the specific partition / properties / disc clean up / more options / system restore & shadow copies / clean up By this way you can free up to 30 GB of your hard disc space. about the dead pixels, so many vaio laptops come with dead pixels on the screen. duo to world standards, up to 3 dead pixels is normal but in my opinion it depends on where the dead pixels are. if they located in the center of the screen, you should immediately send the lap top back, but if they were on the margins, there is no garranty that you get a better one, mine has one dead pixel on right side of screen, near the margin and i decieded to keep it Very good return policy for Amazon by .. Natman (CA USA) I got a dead pixel so I returned it to Amazon and got the full refund. I gave 4 stars becuase the laptop is very nice except the screen, a lot of glare. You can not see clearly if you are not right in front of screen. Other than that, it is a good laptop for the price you pay. Solid Laptop by .. L. C. Hager (Metro D.C. area) I've had mine for three months and it does everything I want it to. It's a little big but if you don't mind that its a good laptop for a good price with a nice display. The video memory is shared and I've heard some people have had problems while watching video and doing other tasks at the same time, but I haven't encountered any problems with this, I've been fine watching a video on itunes and switching to another window to do word processing. Beware Sony vaio laptop by .. cpabi (chicago,il) For all who are buying sony vaio laptop then please please do not buy it,I sent my laptop 3 time to repair center in one year there customer relation is very very bad they dont care for customer,customer service is arogant.In warranty period if you are facing any serious problem then also they are not going to give you replacement of product.not good product to go for.I am giving one star because i need to select atleast 1 out of 5 star otherwise its not worth for 1 star also belive me.