Sony Vaio SZ120P/B

So after debating with myself for the last two months or so, I finally purchased the Sony Vaio SZ120P/B from an online store called vanns.com. I did, however, plan to get the laptop from Bestbuy because they seemed to be the only dog in town holding this precious sweetie. Fry's has Vaio too but with a different model SZ140 which is a bit pricier than this one. A quick note here, before we start talking about this laptop. I would never, ordinarily, considering making such
purchase at Bestbuy. But they had this most wanted laptop on sale, and they were the only store within 20 miles radius had the one I wanted in stock. I will, however, never considering buy anything from Bestbuy again.

I should be a dream customer: I walk into the store, I know exactly what I want, I don't ask stupid questions. Bang, easy commission right there. After 15 minutes pleading for attention from a saleman and being ignored for another 15 minutes, even after explicitly commented that I knew what I wanted and I was ready to buy it here, I was finally handed the item and passed off to three other people. Lucky me, that one wasn't the correct model that I demanded. And the model I needed turned out to be out of stock! In short, you shouldn't have to beg a company the privilege of giving them a few thousand bucks!

So, to hell with Bestbuy. On to the goods:

I ordinarily wouldn't buy a Sony laptop, since the cool Sony "Vaio" logo seems to add an automatic $300 - $400 onto the cost of the machine. But what I need is very specific, so whichever company could provide me with everything I need, would win. I need a laptop which is closed to "super-portable" status as I could get, while still maintains a monster status under the hood. I wanted it weighed under 5 lbs, has small but wide screen, has dedicated graphic card so I can play games on it too because it's not only a laptop for development work but a desktop replacement as well. Most of the rigs I saw in this price range had a few, but not all, of the ingredients I need. The SZ120P/B provides anything I could ask for. The run down:

- 1.83 Ghz Centrino Core Duo
- 1 GB Ram
- 100 GB SATA Hard drive
- 13.3" LCD with XBRITE technology
- Dual layer DVD Writer
- Hybrid graphic card, check it out: this laptop has a dedicated card from Nvidia with 256 MB for graphical intensive programs, switchable to an onboard Intel graphics chip for a regular computing task.
This means power when you need it battery life when you don't!
- Built-in biometric fingerprint scanning security system
- Integrated camera and mic

All of this packed into a less-than-an-inch thick machine, weighed about 4.3 lbs.
The battery lasts about 6 hours with normal tasks running, using the Intel's integrated video chipset.

I spent days getting things ready on this laptop: transferring my old backups here, copying music over... Couldn't be happier. One thing I don't like is SZ120 doesn't support Linux very well. I columned get my previous installation of Ubuntu to work. And not even after I installed a fresh version of Ubuntu into a separate partition. Probably because the hardware is too new and
has not yet be supported. In the meantime, I wouldn't hesitate recommending this laptop to anyone.