Sony Vaio VGN-FW31M reviews: 16.4" Laptop computer

Sony Vaio VGN-FW31M reviews: 16.4" Laptop computer reviews

+ This laptop scores high on performance. - It has no outstanding negative points.

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8.6 out of 10 based on 74 reviews.

Sony Vaio VGN-FW31M with Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4 GHz Dual Core Processor, 4GB of Memory and 500GB Storage on Windows Vista Home Premium. DVD drive, 3.66 hours of battery

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Product details
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Battery life	6.9
Design	8.8
Size and weight	8.3
Performance	8.9
Value for money	8.3
Overall rating	8.6

Some customer reviews of Sony Vaio VGN-FW31M

Most helpful reviews

daniel, Wimbledon Music, gaming or video fan

Score 9.0/10

Good points:: Works extremely well and is very fast.. The battery however is half of the best u can get
Bad points:: The charging input place always comes off and is always loose so that is very annoying

Battery life	4.0
Design	10.0
Size and weight	8.0
Performance	9.0
Value for money	7.0
Overall rating	9.0

Was this review helpful? 1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Confirmed purchase: 19 Jan 2012

Confirmed purchaser Business user

Score 8.0/10

Good points:: Good performance overall, great quality screen
Bad points:: Poor battery (about 2 hours on a full charge)

Battery life	5.0
Design	8.0
Size and weight	7.0
Performance	9.0
Value for money	8.0
Overall rating	8.0

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Confirmed purchase: 13 Dec 2010

Gary, Galashiels General home user

Score 7.0/10

Good points:: Overall finish.
Bad points:: Broke down after 3 months and needed a new motherboard.

Battery life	7.0
Design	8.0
Size and weight	7.0
Performance	8.0
Value for money	7.0
Overall rating	7.0

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Confirmed purchase: 09 Jun 2009

Peter, UK, Birmingham Business user

Score 8.0/10

Good points:: looks good
Bad points:: Can only support 4GB ram

Battery life	7.0
Design	9.0
Size and weight	9.0
Performance	8.0
Value for money	8.0
Overall rating	8.0

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Confirmed purchase: 08 Nov 2009

Tomlinson, General home user

Score 8.0/10

Good points:: Good Build Quality and performance
Bad points:: Poor battery life and heavy

Battery life	3.0
Design	7.0
Size and weight	6.0
Performance	9.0
Value for money	8.0
Overall rating	8.0

Was this review helpful? 1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Confirmed purchase: 08 Mar 2012

Gary, Bournemouth General home user

Score 9.0/10

Good points:: Nice design. Good specs. Much faster with Windows 7! Does everything well for a mid price laptop & the build quality is excellent.
Bad points:: Charger socket on the side is a bad idea as it can easily be knocked. However no problems so far. No spare drive bay, although not surprising for a laptop of this size.

Battery life	7.0
Design	9.0
Size and weight	9.0
Performance	9.0
Value for money	9.0
Overall rating	9.0

Was this review helpful? 2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Confirmed purchase: 07 Jun 2009

John, London Business user

Score 5.0/10

Good points:: Looks nice and well built; good performance; BD drive included.
Bad points:: The 16.1" screen looks odd and slightly disproportionate; quite heavy to lug about; ATI display driver doesn't allow much flexibility in screen resolution; even at it's highest resolution the screen display isn't the sharpest around; it is large enough to accomodate a full size keybaord with numeric keypad, but doesn't ; even with relatively light use and care there are already marks appearing; performance is good but the specifications indicate it should be fantastic;expensive!

Battery life	6.0
Design	5.0
Size and weight	3.0
Performance	6.0
Value for money	4.0
Overall rating	5.0

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Confirmed purchase: 01 Oct 2009

Read all 74 customer reviews

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Product Features

Screen size (Inches)	16.4
Screen size is measured diagonally from corner to corner.
Operating system	Windows Vista Home Premium
Software on which the device runs
RAM (Gigabytes)	4

Number of cores	Dual
Computer processors are made up of 1 or more cores. Having multiple cores allows the computer to run two or more processes at once, improving multi-tasking and speeding things up.
Hard disk capacity (Gigabytes)	500
Hard Disk capacity is measured in GBs which stands for Gigabytes. A gigabyte is 1000 MB or megabytes. The more GB you have the more info like photos and music you can store.
Screen Resolution (pixels)	1280 x 720 (WXGA)
The number of pixels the screen has. The more you have, the more detail the screen can display, given a high quality source. A breakdown of resolutions can be found on Wikipedia here
Processor brand	Intel
There are 2 main manufacturers of computer processors. They are Intel and AMD.
Processor series	Core 2 Duo
This is the processor model range. Different types of processor have different types of functionality. For example Centrino processors are specifically designed to increase battery life in laptops.
Processor number	P8600
This is the specific processor number in the processor range.
Processor speed (Gigahertz)	2.4
The processor is the driving force of your personal computer. The higher the number in Gigahertz or Ghz the faster your computer will run. Don’t forget that other factors such as the number of cores will have an effect on speed.
Number of USB ports	3

Connections	Firewire

Connections	Bluetooth

Connections	Wireless

Built-in disc drive	CD-ROM drive
Built-in disc drives can be used to copy data, music, documents or films from your laptop, netbook or desktop computer, onto a blank DVD. DVD writers can also copy info onto blank CDs but CDs have a lower storage capacity. Normal DVD discs can store up to 4.7GB of info. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc.
Built-in disc drive	Blu-ray drive
Built-in disc drives can be used to copy data, music, documents or films from your laptop, netbook or desktop computer, onto a blank DVD. DVD writers can also copy info onto blank CDs but CDs have a lower storage capacity. Normal DVD discs can store up to 4.7GB of info. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc.
Built-in disc drive	DVD drive
Built-in disc drives can be used to copy data, music, documents or films from your laptop, netbook or desktop computer, onto a blank DVD. DVD writers can also copy info onto blank CDs but CDs have a lower storage capacity. Normal DVD discs can store up to 4.7GB of info. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc.
Card reader	Multi Card Reader
A memory card reader allows you to connect various types of card such as SD Cards, MMC Cards or Compact Flash Cards to your laptop or desktop computer. Memory Card Readers are extremely useful for photographers as it allows you to quickly transfer your snaps from camera to machine meaning you can have them uploaded to your favourite website or printed out in a matter of minutes.
Battery life (Hours)	3.66
Battery life is important if you travel a lot. Long train journeys can be a pain if you don’t get more than 3 hours of life out of your laptop. It’s worth remembering that a lot of trains offer power sockets now so don’t be put off by a low battery life unless your lifestyle demands ultra portability.
Weight (kg)	3.1

Graphics card brand	ATI
Graphics cards in desktop computers and graphics chips in laptops are manufactured by 3 main companies: Intel, ATI and nVidia. If you want to play modern games aim for an ATI or nVidia card or chip. Intel cards and chips work perfectly for general laptop use, video playback and older computer games.
Graphics card model number	Mobility Radeon HD 3470
This is the range and model number of the graphics card or chip in your desktop or laptop computer.
Graphics card memory (Megabytes)	256

Type of hard drive	Hard Disk Drive

Chipset brand	Intel
Chipset series	45PM
Remote control	No
Aspect ratio	16:9
Width in cm	38.4

Depth in cm	26.1

Release date	2009-02-24
The date the product was originally made available for purchase.

Also known as: Sony FW31M, Sony VAIO FW31M, SONY VGNFW31M, Vaio VGN-FW31M

Laptop Buyers Guide

Manufacturer's Description

More info at Sony's website

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