The Sony VAIO S360P is a number crunching, long lasting, amazingly small and light weight machine. It is very well suited for mobile business users and busy students running around school. Featuring the ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 packing 64MB of dedicated video memory, even the mobile gamer will be pleased.
Choosing the S360My criterion for a new laptop was simple, I needed to replace my heavy and aging eMachines M5310 with something light, and fast. My search eventually lead me to compare 4 different models including: Toshiba Portege R100, IBM ThinkPad T42, Dell Inspiron 700M, and Sony VAIO S. I went to different shops in the Sacramento, CA area looking for all 4 of these notebooks as well as reading various reviews on the internet. Finally I came to the conclusion that the VAIO S was my best option. I must confess my decision was helped by the fact that there were rebates totaling $250 on the S360P from CompUSA.com (where I purchased the notebook) and Sony.
Sony VAIO S360P Specs as Received:
Intel Pentium M 735 (1.7 GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB)
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 w/64MB dedicated RAM
512MB PC2700 333MHz DDR memory
13.3" WXGA (1280x800) XBRITE screen
DVD-ROM / CD-RW (8X, 24X, 24X)
Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG wireless network card
80GB 4200rpm hard drive
Integrated V.90 modem w/RJ-11 interface
10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet w/ RJ-45 interface
1x firewire, 2x USB 2.0, 1x PCMCIA type II/I card slot, 1x memory stick slot
VGA out w/ Smart Display Sensor
Mono mini microphone jack, stereo mini headphone jack
Weight 3.9 lbs with standard battery
Size (WxHxD) 12.3" x 1.16"-1.39" x8.85"
Sony VAIO S360 Above view, lid closed (view larger image)
When I first picked up the package from FedEx I started wondering if maybe the store gave me an empty box, it really is that light! Don't panic though, open the box and packed neatly inside you will find the notebook itself, 1-standard battery, power cord/supply brick and a short quick start manual. Mine also came with a disk that had a few movies on it and a code to unlock only one of those movies. What you will not find however are any backup disks at all (more on that later). After plugging the notebook in you can turn on the laptop immediately, the first thing you will be greeted with is Sony's custom startup screen followed by the familiar Windows boot screen. If you have the "P" version you will then be greeted by Windows XP PRO (w/ SP2). The software package is a bit on the weak side considering most of the big name titles are 30 to 90 day trials.
Software Installed:
WinDVD 5
Picture Gear Studio
Quicken 2005 (new user edition)
Microsoft Works 8.0
Microsoft Office 2003 60-Day trial (student/teacher edition)
Norton Internet Security w/ 90-day Norton anti virus
Intermute SpySubtract 30-day trial
AOL (trial)
AOL instant messenger
VAIO Update, Recovery Wizard, Help and Support
Instead of including any kind of backup disks at all Sony has instead decided to include two things. One they created a backup on the hard drive taking up valuable space, two they included a utility that lets you burn your own backup disks and save the hard drive space. Since the laptop does not have a DVD burner you will be expected to use no less than 7 CD-R disks. There is also an option to purchase the disks from a web page.
Intel Pentium M 735 (1.7 GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB)
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 w/64MB dedicated RAM
512MB PC2700 333MHz DDR memory
13.3" WXGA (1280x800) XBRITE screen
DVD-ROM / CD-RW (8X, 24X, 24X)
Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG wireless network card
80GB 4200rpm hard drive
Integrated V.90 modem w/RJ-11 interface
10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet w/ RJ-45 interface
1x firewire, 2x USB 2.0, 1x PCMCIA type II/I card slot, 1x memory stick slot
VGA out w/ Smart Display Sensor
Mono mini microphone jack, stereo mini headphone jack
Weight 3.9 lbs with standard battery
Size (WxHxD) 12.3" x 1.16"-1.39" x8.85"
Sony VAIO S360 Above view, lid closed (view larger image)
When I first picked up the package from FedEx I started wondering if maybe the store gave me an empty box, it really is that light! Don't panic though, open the box and packed neatly inside you will find the notebook itself, 1-standard battery, power cord/supply brick and a short quick start manual. Mine also came with a disk that had a few movies on it and a code to unlock only one of those movies. What you will not find however are any backup disks at all (more on that later). After plugging the notebook in you can turn on the laptop immediately, the first thing you will be greeted with is Sony's custom startup screen followed by the familiar Windows boot screen. If you have the "P" version you will then be greeted by Windows XP PRO (w/ SP2). The software package is a bit on the weak side considering most of the big name titles are 30 to 90 day trials.
Software Installed:
WinDVD 5
Picture Gear Studio
Quicken 2005 (new user edition)
Microsoft Works 8.0
Microsoft Office 2003 60-Day trial (student/teacher edition)
Norton Internet Security w/ 90-day Norton anti virus
Intermute SpySubtract 30-day trial
AOL (trial)
AOL instant messenger
VAIO Update, Recovery Wizard, Help and Support
Instead of including any kind of backup disks at all Sony has instead decided to include two things. One they created a backup on the hard drive taking up valuable space, two they included a utility that lets you burn your own backup disks and save the hard drive space. Since the laptop does not have a DVD burner you will be expected to use no less than 7 CD-R disks. There is also an option to purchase the disks from a web page.
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