Sony's budget-friendly VAIO VGN-NR160E laptop gets reviewed

Sony sure got the price right with its new NR Series VAIO laptops, and the folks at Laptop Magazine seem to think the company got quite a bit else right as well, with them bestowing their Editors' Choice award on the VGN-NR160E model. Winning the laptop the most favors is, of course, its $829 price tag, which buys you a 15.4-inch WXGA display, a 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB 5,400 rpm SATA hard drive. They were also especially impressed by the laptop's battery, which lasted 2 hours and 19 minutes in their DVD rundown test and a full 3 hours and 41 minutes during their general productivity test. On the downside, all the "crapware" pre-loaded on the laptop resulted in a drag in performance (removing it boosted the PCMark05 score by 139 points), and they were also somewhat disappointed by the laptop's lack of 802.11n capability. That only proved to be enough to knock a half a star off the five star rating, however, which would seem to make this laptop a fairly solid bet for anyone looking to keep things under the $1,000 mark.

[Shadowise @ Sep 25th 2007 2:52PM]

Think I might import one of these babies, seeing as there is no way it will be that cheap in the UK.

[Shadowise @ Sep 25th 2007 3:00PM]

Surprise surprise, it's actually not that much more over here (about $100 more)

[Jon @ Sep 25th 2007 3:57PM]

That is a good price. If it comes in at £500-600 I may consider getting this for my dad. Not worried about crapwares. Those can be deleted within 30 minutes of booting.

[Matthew @ Sep 25th 2007 4:19PM]

Looks like you found somewhere that sells them. Any chance you can tell me where or better yet hand me a link?

[BlackCountryBob @ Sep 25th 2007 5:24PM]

The Sony style UK website is listing the NR series at £549 and £649 for a model with 2gb RAM and a 200gb HDD (4200rpm) for pre order. I hope Play, Amazon, Currys et al will knock £50 or more off the RRP price of each model which would make it a very good deal indeed but I reckon you could probably get a HP model of similar spec for a bit less (though it wouldn't be quite so pretty looking).

[BlackCountryBob @ Sep 25th 2007 5:48PM]

Forgot to say, the UK specs are different to the states, the lower model is a 1.46ghz dual core (not core 2 duo)with 1gb and 160GB HDD while the more expensive model with the 2GB ram and a 200GB HDD has a 2.0ghz core 2 duo processor.

Now it is the best deal on the market for a UK consumer.

https://www.sonystyle.co.uk/SonyStyle/b2c/getLink.do?page=promotion_vaionr_en_gb

[John M @ Sep 25th 2007 2:57PM]

Thats a helluva good price...I got a mac book pro for 860 after $200 iphone rebates and $100 education discount...I have a better processer but much smaller hard drive...all in all it sounds like a solid machine far a student or simple office type work

[NG @ Sep 25th 2007 3:33PM]

nice n cheap.. hope the quality is worth it too.

[Temple @ Sep 25th 2007 3:35PM]

I seriously hate all the "crap-ware" that gets put into laptop these days.

I have no experience with this laptop, but my HP is filled with useless crap. I even tried uninstalling some of it, totally messed my windows install up due to registry entries that weren't completely removed during the uninstall process. I've eventually got it all removed, but its something I definitely want to avoid (especially apps that run in the background)

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 25th 2007 3:36PM]

Sony does make some great stuff when they pull their head out of...

Sony makes some great stuff sometimes.

[chay @ Sep 25th 2007 3:58PM]

I'm off to Japan on Tuesday, any idea how much this would set me back if I bought it there?

(I live in the UK, so i'd hope the saving would be a fair bit?)

Also anyone got any recommendations for cool gadget places to go in Tokyo?

[adrian @ Sep 25th 2007 4:58PM]

I have to say this Sony looks quite nice.

[TIMMAH! @ Sep 25th 2007 5:37PM]

Uh... Dell Vostro 1500 this week... 6.33lb Desktop Replacement Centrino Notebook Core 2 Duo T5470 1.6Ghz, 15.4in WideScreen, 2GB/120GB, Intel Graphics, CD/DVD burner, 802.11g wireless, 1yr warranty, XP or Vista Home Basic $649 shipped free

How is this Sony a good deal?

[zzz @ Sep 25th 2007 6:28PM]

Because it's Sony, not some Dellcrap, dummy!

[David @ Sep 25th 2007 7:24PM]

Sony competing on the low end? Tis the beginning of the end for VAIO.

[linda @ Oct 5th 2007 10:51AM]

bought the fz160 laptop twice. 1st time the keyboard went. second time, it just stopped working. anyone else have problems like this?

[Peter @ Sep 25th 2007 7:33PM]

Now you've done it. The Apple fanboys are going to be furious for copying their Design.