Product Description: Equipped with the productivity tools that keep you going, the S360 is the notebook for those who will not sacrifice function for performance or convenience.Integrated multimedia features, wireless capability and advanced technologies make the S360 notebook your ideal companion for enhanced productivity and entertainment at home, in the office or on the road. An upgraded hard drive and graphics card will improve your notebook experience whether you are using it for business or pleasure. The 13.3" widescreen display and generous keyboard won't cramp your style whether you're on a plane or at a hotspot. The integrated CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive gives you the power to view, play or store the information you need to disc. At 4.2 pounds, the S360 will be easy and convenient to bring with you wherever you go.
Amazon.com Product Description: Amazingly slim and light, superbly stylish, and packed full of powerful productivity features, the Sony Vaio VGN-S360 is a great traveling companion, weighing just over 4 pounds. It features integrated 54g wireless connectivity and a battery-sipping Intel Centrino processor for long life while on the road. It also offers such Sony technologies as the sharp XBRITE LCD and Smart Display Sensor, which instantly adjusts resolution when you connect to a display or a projector. It also features an 80 GB hard drive, 512 MB of installed RAM, an ATI Mobility Radeon video card with 64 MB of video RAM, DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, and Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2).
The Basics
Hard Drive: The 80 GB Ultra ATA hard drive (4,200 RPM) is one of the larger sizes you'll find in a notebook, and it's a big benefit for such an entertainment-centric PC. It offers more than enough capacity for storing documents and productivity software for road warriors. You'll also be able to store a good-size digital audio library.
Processor: The Intel Pentium M processor is designed specifically for mobile computing, offering a balanced level of mobile-optimized processor technology, good mobile performance, and exceptional value. It features a Deep Sleep state, which helps enable longer battery life by minimizing the power consumption of the processor during brief periods of inactivity. The 1.7 GHz speed is near the top of the speed spectrum for this processor (as of winter 2004), and is on par with a 2.5 GHz Pentium 4-M. It also offers a 400 MHz front-side bus (FSB) speed and a large 2 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data, and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance.)
Sony Vaio VGN-S360 1.7 GHz Pentium M 512 MB RAM 80 GB HD Windows XP Home
Sony Vaio VGN-S360P 1.7 GHz Pentium M 512 MB RAM 80 GB HD Windows XP Professional
Memory: The 512 MB of built-in memory (1 x 512 MB, DDR SDRAM) is a good start for power users, and it offers a faster-than-average RAM speed (333 MHz). It has two memory slots, with a maximum memory expansion of only 1 GB (2 x 512 MB), which is a smaller maximum than other entertainment-centric laptops.
CD/DVD Drive: The combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive can read, write, and rewrite CDs at 24x speed. It can read DVDs at 8x speed.
Keyboard and Mouse: This notebook has a standard 82-key keyboard and an electro-static two-button touchpad.
Screen, Graphics, and Sound This ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 is a strong video/graphics card for a notebook PC, and it features 64 MB of DDR video RAM and longer battery life, thanks to ATI's Low-K Technology. It's suitable for the high frame rates of DVD movies and immersive 3D PC games and will drive an external monitor that works in tandem with the notebook's LCD. The 13.3-inch WXGA LCD has a resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels. It also offers an integrated audio card with built-in speakers.
Preloaded System and Software This system comes with the Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 operating system with Advanced Security Technologies, which helps to reduce unwanted downloads and pop-ups while surfing the Web. It also comes loaded with a bevy of Sony multimedia software: Vaio Zone with WinDVD (for watching DVD movies), PictureGear Studio (digital photo), SonicStage (digital music), Vaio Media (network file sharing), and DVgate Plus (digital video). Other preloaded software includes Quicken 2005 New User Edition, Microsoft Works 8.0 (with word processing, spreadsheet, and calendar), Norton Internet Security (with 90-day subscription), and SpySubtract.
Connectivity and Expansion Slots The VGN-S360 has an integrated 54g wireless LAN that's compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g networks. You get a good offering of connectivity options, including both USB 2.0 and i.Link (Firewire):
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
1 VGA monitor port
1 PCMCIA (or PC Card) slot (Type I/II, 32-bit)
1 headphone jack
1 microphone jack
Memory Stick media slot, compatible with Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro
It also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Gb Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems).
Dimensions and Weight One of the lightest notebooks around, the VGN-S360 weighs just 4.2 pounds. It measures a tiny 12.3 inches wide, 8.85 inches deep, and 1.39 inches high.
The S360 features a full suite of software applications, including SonicStage, which enables you to listen to, manage, and transfer your music library.
Power It's powered by a lithium-ion rechargeable battery (PCGA-BPS2), which can run between 2 and 6 hours.
What's in the Box This package contains the VGN-S360 notebook PC, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions. It is backed by a 1-year limited hardware warranty.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Terrible Experience
Have owned laptop a little over 2 years. It has been back to Sony twice and has finally crashed with its third bad motherboard. No help from Sony and Sony Customer Satisfaction has no interest in keeping me as a customer or resolving defective motheboard issue. I buy several computers each year for business and will no longer consider a Sony product. they are great when they operate properly, but i'm afraid that is a challenge for this product.
Rating: - Terrible experience w/ this laptop
I bought this laptop a little over 2 years ago. One has to be skeptical in finding too much value in customer comments who have only owned this or other computers for just a few months. I was initially drawn to the crisp picture, sleek design, size/weight and power w/ this small laptop. It started shutting down after about 8 months, slowing down and just running very poorly. Sony took back the laptop and replaced the motherboard for free as it was under warranty. This happened again about a year later.
After discussions with my computer repairman I learned that the S model regularly has this ... Read More
Rating: - After 2.5 years, I write this
I have owned a sony VGN-S360 for two and a half years, and it has never given me any worries during the hard and busy times I have owned it. From the sound quality to the portability to the fact that I can run today's games (which require better graphics cards to more than the listed 512mb of ram), this laptop has never ceases to amaze me. The fan is a little louder than other notebooks, but I can not think of anything else that could bother even the most particular person. Though I was planning on buying a new computer after 2 years of use, the S360 has never given me a reason to consider another ... Read More
Rating: - About the fan and the software
I just read other's reviews about the fan and I have to say I had the same problem... until I uninstalled the Sony energy saving software. Since I started to use Windows XP default energy manager fan works very little and only when I'm runing high demanding programs. So I really recomend you to do the same.
As I said, I bought a Win XP Pro and installed it over the clean, formatted HDD. After that I installed the drivers what I could find in the net (many forums deal with that topic, try google), and used Windows defaults for the rest... and the result is much better than the crappy Sony software!!!
Rating: - Good but some significant flaws
I bought my Vaio nearly one year ago. Since then, I had not a single tecnical problem. It is small, lightweitght and cute. However, it comes with a hiden HDD partition that makes unavailable 5 valuable GB of your hard disk! I upgraded my computer to WinXP Pro and found that Drivers were not available, the only answer I got from thecnical assistance was that I had to buy them!! An the worse is that they don't shell you regular drivers, they shell you a pack which authomatically creates the danmn hidden partition again...
Another significant flawn is battery design, it moves inside its slot and a couple ... Read More
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