Sorry. Worst Notebook I ever had.

I went through a couple of Notebooks in my life. I purchase a new Notebook for business approximately every three years. From 1998-2003 I worked with HP Notebooks. I liked them. Very robust. A very computer-literate friend of mine talked me into buying an Acer Notebook in 2003 which did an AMAZING job until 2 months ago. The Acer was EXTREMELY robust. Yes, I went through three hard drives, but I am flying every two weeks and my notebook is exposed to a lot of physical abuse.

After the monitor of my Acer died and it reached its third anniversary, it was about time to buy a new one. I asked the same dude if I should go with another Acer, but he replied that Acer quality since 2003 went down in his opinion and he really has a hard time giving me any recommendation at the moment. So I went out there on my own . I went to Office Depot and picked up the Vaio 660. Mainly because I liked the design. What a jerk I was. Yes. It is a beautiful piece of Technology and you can impress girls sitting at Starbucks working with it.

I am a heavy user, business professional and work with my Notebook ALL DAY. I have it on in the evening to pick up my favorite Internet Radio Station. My Notebook is my jukebox, my TV, my work, my hobby. My everything. I USE MY NOTEBOOK ALL THE TIME. The Sony Vaio could not do the job.

After working with it for two weeks I noticed the main weaknesses:

- SOUND Quality is horrible. I love to have music on while working, watch Youtube, listen to my CDs. The sound quality is a shame. You either have turn it down that you can hardly hear anything, otherwise it is rattling.

- Quality of "workmanship": The plastic parts of the Notebook started to come apart. After only two weeks, there were little gaps between the different components such the top cover and the bottom cover. Or the way the keyboard is attached. Everything should be aligned neatly, otherwise you get dirt inside the notebook and it dies sooner. If you buy a $500 notebook, you can expect that, but not if you pay > $1100 for it. High Quality and expensive Notebooks should not have that problem.

- Battery Live:Man. What are we working with Laptops if the battery lasts for only 2 hours. A Laptop is MEANT to be off the power source for hours. What really got me over the edge with this Vaio is, that the battery is even used up if the Notebook is on standby. I usually close the notebook in the evening and leave it on standby. Many times without the external power source. Hey, it is a notebook for Heaven's Sake. A fully loaded battery will not get the Notebook through more than 8 hours on standby. It shuts off. Don't forget to save your documents before. I mean. What is this? Standby means standby, the notebook is not doing anything.

- Power Adapter Size and Weight: The Sony Power Adapter is heavier than the Notebook and almost a third of the size of the Notebook.

- Poor Standby Operation: It is hard to get that notebook out of standby. It sometimes turns off completely, sometimes it goes on standby. You never know how to get it back on.

What got me over the edge was that it finally died completely after 3 weeks of use. Yes, I used it as I used my old one. I abused it. I exposed it to dust (we are renovating), I used it outside, I traveled with it. But hey, that is why you have a Notebooks for?? It died in a way that I could not get the thing back on. Sony Customer Service was helpful and offered that I can send it in, but I hated that thing at this point. I was trying to get the data off the HD by taking it out and connect it to a PC. The HD (SATA) was not accessible either, must have died, too. I could read a few files, than suddenly it stopped reading from the HD at all. I returned it to Office Depot 22 days after purchase. They were so kind and gave me my money back (usually only within 14 days) and I bought a Toshiba A105-S4344 from them instead. I am very happy with it.

Yes. I rambled a lot in my review. I understand the positive reviews about this product. If you spend a lot of money on a product, you want to see it as the most positive thing. For me it was not. Maybe I got a bad unit. It was the floor model at Office Depot and probably got used a lot. But again: Notebooks are getting used, that is why they are called Notebooks and not PCs. It took me three weeks to get through it. It went maybe through a few weeks as a floor model at Office Depot before I got it. For me that means if it is used "normally" it won't get older than a year. Sorry Sony. You should do better next time.