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Sony VAIO BX540B02 Notebook (1.73GHz Intel Pentium M, 512MB DDR2, 40GB, DVD/CD-RW, Windows XP Pro, 14.1" TFT - MPN: VGNBX540B02)
Description: Customizable mobility, modular functionality, security, superior communications options, and VAIO Care full-service support the VAIO BX Notebook makes productivity truly scalable, giving you the flexibility to empower your business with Son.... Read More Description: Customizable mobility, modular functionality, security, superior communications options, and VAIO Care full-service support the VAIO BX Notebook makes productivity truly scalable, giving you the flexibility to empower your business with Sony technology. Featuring XBRITE-ECO LCD technology, swappable optional peripherals that can be shared across the product line, leading-edge communications and security functionality, and Intel Centrino Mobile Technology, the VAIO BX Notebook is equipped to deliver performance with your priorities in mind. Minimize |
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| Date Reviewed: 12/26/2006 |
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 BX540B02 Review Strengths: Bluetooth, fingerprint reader, nice LCD screen.
Weaknesses: HEAT! hot palm rest and noisy fan.
Summary: First when I turned it on, I was surprised by heat on right side of the palm rest where hard drive is located. I didn't want to type on it because of the heat. The fan was randomly turned on and , it made high pitch noise. Sony release new firmware to resolve the heat issue. After flashing the Bios with the new firmware, the fan spins all the time with low speed. It helps to reduce the heat, but it may annoys users to hear the fan noise all the time. Bluetooth works well and fingerprint reader is fun to use and adds more security. The screen is bright and clear. I can't complain a lot since I got this laptop cheap through Sony's Trade-Up program. However, for the title as a business notebook, it is not even close like IBM or Dell. It has all the nice features but system design is not well thought.
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| Date Reviewed: 12/12/2006 |
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Entry level "business-class" laptop
Strengths: Features
Style
Thinkpadesque features
Weaknesses: Heat
Price
Fan noise
Summary: First of all, I must agree with previous reviews about the laptop heating up. Even with the BIOS update available from the Sony support site, the laptop gets hot quickly. Otherwise, this is a pretty good laptop which was shipped with Win XP Pro, and comes with built-in bluetooth and wireless b/g, fingerprint scanner, and a Firewire port.
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| Date Reviewed: 12/10/2006 |
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Strengths: great screen, high resolution, size and weight
Weaknesses: gets hot quickly
Summary: Generally I am satisfied with this laptop. It looks great, and the keyboard is really comfortable. Although the finger scan takes a little bit longer than I expected, it is acceptable. It is also nice to have a wireless switch, and the card reader is useful. The screen is really bright and colorful, one of the best I have ever used. The only issue I have is the heat, it really needs a cooling pad otherwise it is going to be very hot around where the hard drive is. Battery life is also a little short comparing to my old IBM R40.
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| Date Reviewed: 12/07/2006 |
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Strengths: light weight, great screen, fast
Weaknesses: heats up fast
Summary: I like this laptop from Sony. For the price I paid I cannot complain. It is light weight, performance is pretty good especially the screen qulaity is really good. The only issue is that the laptop heats up fast, however I contacted sony customer service and they gave a fix which kept the fan on all the time. The fan is very quiet. So in short I like it very well.
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| Date Reviewed: 10/19/2006 |
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Strengths: XBright screen. All the bells and whistles: 10/100/1000, b/g wifi, BlueTooth, fingerprint reader
Weaknesses: Hard drive 40g is a bit small if you handle video etc
Summary: The memory configuration of B02 is better than some other BX540 laptops. It has one 512MB module instead of 2X 256MB. I only need to pop in another 512MB to upgrade it to 1GB. Great LCD screen.
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| Date Reviewed: 10/18/2006 |
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brand name
Strengths: can add on more ram
Weaknesses: no dvd-rw
Summary: still recommend it over sony bx 540 b11 since 512 mb on one slot.
like windows xp pro more than windows xp home edition.
packing for sony product becomes worse than before.
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| Date Reviewed: 10/12/2006 |
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Strengths: fast, small, efficient
Weaknesses: not duo
Summary: i have had my eyes on this unit for awhile now!!!!
its small, fast, and very efficient(on power).
primary strength is definately the size, however, ever since duo core came out, that's been the power house for about the same size. for everyday purpose, however, this is more than enough!!!!
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| Date Reviewed: 10/07/2006 |
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 Sony worths your buck?! Strengths: Stylish, X-Brite LCD
Weaknesses: Heat, Short battery life, pricey
Summary: Some people tend to only buy Sony products because of the brand name. However, does Sony worth every buck? I agree most Sony products are high quality, but this Sony is an exception. If there is not a Sony Vaio logo on this laptop, I would not even think of getting it.
First, you gotta pay a premium for Sony products. Therefore this laptop is a bit pricey compared to the same class of lappies from other brands like Dell, Toshiba, and HP. The 540B is just like other Sony products, stylish, but besides the style, I can't have anything else to be appreciated. When I first got my 540B. I ran the software and Windows updates immediately. There were lots of updates to be downloaded, roughly around an hour. During the download process, the battery was drained very fast when the laptop was on. In addition, the bottom of the laptop felt like a heater is running. If you put your soft skin on the bottom of it, I am sure your skin will get burned. There are sure a lot of different choices within this price range.
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| Date Reviewed: 02/07/2007 |
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Strengths: Quality materials; solid construction; nice LCD screen; built-in Bluetooth, media readers and fingerprint scanner
Weaknesses: Short battery life; heating issues; CPU speed gets compromised
Summary: First, the basics: the Sony BX540B02 is a Pentium M 1.73Ghz laptop with 512MB RAM, 40GB hard drive and a DVD/CD read-only optical drive. Sounds pretty typical, right? Well, there are some quirks to it. Although it's equipped with 512MB RAM, only 504MB of it seems to be available to Windows (XP Pro SP2). Normally when actual RAM shows up as less than installed, you'd think the graphics chip is borrowing some of it, but the graphics chip on this laptop seems to have 128MB of its own memory. So where'd that 8MB go? Beats me. The other thing to be aware of is that, although the processor is 1.73Ghz, it will actually run at 795Mhz most of the time if you have the " Vaio Optimized" power management profile enabled - and you'll want to have it enabled most/all of the time because the battery life is not very good. I've never timed it, but it feels like a full charge only runs for 2 hours. Since I've already started on the bad stuff, I might as well get them out of the way. This laptop gets really, really hot in some areas, especially in the vicinity of its hard drive. It can run so hot that in a later BIOS update, Sony made it so that the fan runs continuously when running at the full 1.73Ghz and doesn't rest too often even when running at the power-optimized half speed. I ended up buying a Targus chillpad to use with it, and that worked like a charm on the heating issue. (It worked so well, that sentence really doesn't convey how effective it was.) There was also some weird annoyance with the Intel wireless NIC drivers/software causing an error message to appear on shutdowns and restarts which required manual intervention. This strange glitch didn't appear initially with the laptop but started later on. When I searched for info on the error, it seemed to be fairly common with some versions of the Intel wireless NIC software. An update to the Intel software corrected the problem, but that updated Intel software was not compatible with the Sony utility that lets you control the wireless NIC and Bluetooth capabilities off and on. Now I have Bluetooth on all the time, but at least I'm not getting the "error closing program" stuff I was getting on shutdown/restart. I also wish the maximum volume could be louder, but I find that to be a common problem with laptops. The 40GB hard drive is quite a bit on the small side. So those are the negatives, but there are many positives about this laptop. The materials used are of high quality. In an age of plastic laptops, this one still uses a lot of metal. Not only is that reassuring in terms of durability, it makes it look really nice too. The craftsmanship is pretty solid as well. The hinge between the laptop and the screen, for example, is still as tight as when I first opened the laptop out of its box. The LCD screen is nothing short of beautiful, or at least compared to a Dell's, but maxes out at 1024x768 resolution. This laptop is loaded with extras. It comes with built-in wifi card, which is not a big deal these days, but also comes with built-in bluetooth wireless. The wifi card can be turned on and off with a switch at the front of the laptop. It also has built-in readers for secure digital and memory stick cards. There are three USB ports and a monitor port. There's a built-in fingerprint reader with preloaded software that secures login to your computer as well as creates a digital safe where you can store files you really really want secured. This software works surprisingly well. And finally, there's no need to choose between a trackpoint mouse (the joystick-like thing on IBM Thinkpads) or a touchpad, as this laptop comes with both built-in. Despite its shortcomings, I do like this laptop. It's usually on the expensive side, in which case you should look at a Core Duo or more recent laptop instead - but, if you can get this at a good price, it's worthy of some consideration if you plan on using more like a desktop (the battery life takes away from its mobility).
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