Sony Vaio CB Official Owners' Thread

[thegreatlarrybird33]

The Vaio CB is now available to order in some countries. This is the official owners' thread for prospective owners and owners of the Vaio CB.

I'm looking for a decent laptop that I can use for school, and also that I can download movies and music on. I can't afford a macbook pro, but I really like the looks of the new Sony Vaio CB. I customized it on sonystyle.com and this is what I came up with....havn't purchased it yet. I decided not to upgrade to a blue-ray player for the extra $70 because I can easily download HD movies, and don't see myself paying the extra $ just to buy or rent the blue-ray discs. Do you think this is a good price for what I picked out, any suggestions??

* CD/DVD Player / Burner
* High capacity battery
* AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB VRAM) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
* No Fresh Start
* Norton Internet Security™ 2011 (30 Day Trial)
* Sony® Imagination Studio™ Suite
* 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
* Intel® Core™ i5-2410M processor (2.30GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.90GHz
* 500GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm)
* Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter (Click More Info for details.)
* White
* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* 15.5" Full HD VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080)
* Cart Subtotal $ 1,009.99

[Sagar Jacky]

I'd suggest you get the faster 7200 rpm drive if you don't plan to install an SSD later. Otherwise the configuration looks fine for the purposes you mentioned.

[thegreatlarrybird33]

I don't think I will be installing an SSD later...do you think it's worth the $50 to upgrade a 500 gb 5400rpm drive to a 500 gb 7200 rpm drive?

[gohawks3]

What does everyone think about this one for $1310.00? Plus, are there any coupons out currently?

I'm not a gamer - this will be used for HD photo editing, HD video, music/entertainment, web browsing and general application use such as Excel, Word, etc. Just a family laptop.

VPCCB190X CTO
AMD Radeon HD 6630M with widi
i5-2410 processor
15.5 premium HD display
500GB HD (7200 rpm)
6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Blu-Ray Player and Burner
high capacity battery

trying to decide between this one and the Dell XPS with full HD screen....

[Bhima]

What does everyone think about this one for $1310.00? Plus, are there any coupons out currently?

I'm not a gamer - this will be used for HD photo editing, HD video, music/entertainment, web browsing and general application use such as Excel, Word, etc. Just a family laptop.

VPCCB190X CTO
AMD Radeon HD 6630M with widi
i5-2410 processor
15.5 premium HD display
500GB HD (7200 rpm)
6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Blu-Ray Player and Burner
high capacity battery

trying to decide between this one and the Dell XPS with full HD screen....

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just stick with the stock ram and buy some at newegg or something?

In terms of build quality, Sony has an edge over the majority of Dells, though that XPS has a really killer screen.

[Sagar Jacky]

XPS screen is nice but very reflective. You could wait for reviews to see how good the premium CB screen is. If you are like me and give importance to aesthetics, then the XPS is an eyesore. It is a big, bulky and ugly machine, but it beats every other laptop when it comes to audio quality. XPS is also suffering from CPU's overheating under load due to inadequate cooling. Head over to the XPS Sandy bridge threads to see people complaining about it.

I like the Imagination Studio Suite that Sony includes in the C series. Vegas Movie Studio HD can be particularly useful for HD video editing.

[Bhima]

XPS screen is nice but very reflective. You could wait for reviews to see how good the premium CB screen is. If you are like me and give importance to aesthetics, then the XPS is an eyesore. It is a big, bulky and ugly machine, but it beats every other laptop when it comes to audio quality. XPS is also suffering from CPU's overheating under load due to inadequate cooling. Head over to the XPS Sandy bridge threads to see people complaining about it.

I like the Imagination Studio Suite that Sony includes in the C series. Vegas Movie Studio HD can be particularly useful for HD video editing.

Yeah, Sony Vegas just freakin' rocks! So much easier to use than Premiere (which has become sort of a cluster-F at this point).

[baoweezie]

i already made a customized cb order, but i see that theres some that are called the signature collection, am i missing something? whats the difference with the customized ones and the signature collection ones? besides the signature collection ones being premade

[Zarthushti]

Hi,

just came across this thread while searching CB reviews. I've been shopping around for a new laptop with the latest Sandy Bridge Chips and I have to say that the Sony is a good deal although I have been looking at Dell too.

I have a few questions regarding this laptop if anyone here can help:

1. I would like to go with the Large Cap Battery as I travel a lot and its just more convenient not to be sitting at airports and planes with wires wrapped around you. Does the sony large cap battery protrude downwards or out the back of the device? I have an HP with a large cap battery that protrudes down and in fact it isn't so bad, it actually helps when you lay the device on a table as it raises the back end of the laptop and makes typing slightly more comfortable.

BTW props to the guys at intel for what they have managed to do with the power consumption on the new chips. Mac is not the only manufacturer that can now boast of 6+ hour battery life. The best anyone could have asked for from a standard Windows based manufacturer was 4 or 5 hours, now lenovo is easily boasting of 7+.

2. I've read a few posts that mention SSD purchases from third parties. Are you guys talking about an external drive or will you be replacing the standard issue HD with an internal SSD?

3. Guys, what about the XPS 15", you can get similar features, HD screen, Blu-ray 6GB Ram but with an i7 (2nd Gen) and more memory on two fronts, a 2048MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT540M, and 640GB HDD (running at 7200RPM), all for around the same price of a CB with only an i5, 500GB HDD and 1GB VRAM. Anyone have any comments about this?
I have to say the Sony does look a hell of a lot sexier, and no doubt it will stand out a lot more than a dell. Is there something else I'm missing here as to why you can get more bang for buck from dell or do they have Sony beat? Read somewhere that the Sony build quality was better? Don't know myself since i've never owned a sony.

Thanks

[xxGenericSNxx]

#1 The battery is a "sheet" battery so it has the exact same footprint as the computer. The whole thing gets raised evenly from front to back, left to right. This is not like your HP or a lot of extended batteries that simply raises the rear of the computer.

#2 They're talking about replacing the internal HDD with an SSD.