Sony sells its Vaio division

[A31]

http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/06/sony-sells-vaio/

Sad day for Vaio fans. I always thought they were quite nice machines.

Thoughts?

[Temetka]

I should be bothered by this, but I am not.

Sure VAIO's were nice and looked great. But I never owned one. I hope the new division they sold to JIP does well though.

[pointyhat]

http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/06/sony-sells-vaio/

Sad day for Vaio fans. I always thought they were quite nice machines.

Thoughts?

They're ok until you have to repair them. I recently fixed an overheating VPCJ1 with a dead CCFL inverter and it took nearly an hour to get inside it. Literally 50 screws and a multitude of clips. The cooling system was a right mess and a pain to clean out. Once I'd taken the cooling system off, it was apparent that whoever built this particular one hadn't applied the conductive pad straight as well resulting in half the CPU not contacting the heatsink. I had to repair the CCFL inverter as I couldn't get a part (this is literally always the case with Sony). The repair involved bodging a clone part from HK with some soldering as the pinouts were different. This scares me as I have no HV protected equipment.

This is the 6th VAIO I've had to repair and they've all been horrible.

[pianowizard]

They're ok until you have to repair them. I recently fixed an overheating VPCJ1 with a dead CCFL inverter and it took nearly an hour to get inside it.

The VPCJ1 is an all-in-one desktop, isn't it? Have you come across an AIO desktop that's easy to repair?

I have opened only two Sony laptops, both of them extreme ultraportables (a 1.23-lb P Series and a 1.41-lb X Series). Laptops in this weight range tend to be very difficult to take apart, but I managed to fully disassemble the bottom chassis of both machines in just several minutes. I figured out how to open up the X Series on my own, though the P Series was less intuitive and so I had to watch an video demo. Oh wait, a couple years ago I had to open a 4.66-lb Z1A to replace its hard drive, but it has been so long that I don't remember if it was easy or not.

Along with Panasonic and IBM, Sony made the most original laptops in the industry. For years, Sony was Apple's counterpart among PC makers -- the general public considered most Sony products to be premium products, and many people were willing to pay more just for the brand name. This was true even for used laptops on eBay -- Sony laptops seemed to have the slowest depreciation rates among PC laptops. But these days, it's really hard to sell any laptop over ~$1K. In the last several years, Sony tried to compete by having a few "budget" lines that were 30% to 40% cheaper than their flagship lines, but their quality was clearly subpar, e.g. a $700 budget Sony looked and felt kind of like a $300 HP or Acer. When these laptops sat side by side at Best Buy, everyone opted for the $300 HP or Acer. Making things worse, they gave consumers the impression that Sony had stopped making top-of-the-line products, and over time the brand name lost its magic.

I am glad I bought Sony's last flagship laptop, the Pro 13.

[A31]

In the last several years, Sony tried to compete by having a few "budget" lines that were 30% to 40% cheaper than their flagship lines, but their quality was clearly subpar, e.g. a $700 budget Sony looked and felt kind of like a $300 HP or Acer. When these laptops sat side by side at Best Buy, everyone opted for the $300 HP or Acer.

Bang on. I think you hit the nail on the head with this. If people can buy cheaper products, they will, because most of the time nobody really cares about the brand name (unless it's Apple).

[Saucey]

Sad to see that the VAIOs will be no more, they've always been sleek laptops.

Macs are bought because they are known to be error prone.

[A31]

Macs are bought because they are known to be error prone.

I think you mean 'not error prone' or 'reliable'?

[Saucey]

Macs are bought because they are known to be error prone.

I think you mean 'not error prone' or 'reliable'?

Yes.

[dogbarber]

It was good branding. Shame to see it disappear. Such potential.