Sony VAIO SA3 Series VPCSA3AFX/SI 13.3-Inch Laptop (Platinum Silver)

This machine has a solid, all metal construction, with the only plastic being the keys and the bezel surrounding the screen. It is quite fast with a 2nd gen core i CPU and an AMD 6630 GPU. Keyboard is one of the best I've ever used, and easy match for any thinkpad, and backlit to boot. The 1600x900 matte screen is bright and very clear, but lacks color depth and contrast for any kind of high quality, color accurate display.

Other reviews have referred to it as flimsy but honestly, this is a pretty solidly built machine. Pressure on the back of the lid produces no distortions in the display, the base is very very stiff, especially for such a thin machine. Overall this machine reminds me of the T4x series thinkpad I used to own, but with a much brighter screen.

The speakers are terrible, even for a small 13" machine.

Linux compatibility has some issues that will hopefully get ironed out. Nothing that makes using it unusable, but a few things like the trackpad not having any suitable drivers, and really poor battery life (under linux) that make it a questionable choice if Linux on the go is your primary reason for using this machine.

I have used my laptop for a few days now and put it through some different trials. I tried videos, no problems, the only thing I wish could of been a little better was the sound of the speakers, but that's just the style of the laptop, it's hard to concentrate on both light and slim and at the same time have insanely large speakers. Next I inserted a few CD's including a movie which played perfectly and very clear, again the speakers are loud enough, just a little high pitched. You can always plug in a set of aux speakers if you wish. I installed a couple simple action games to make sure they would load and play and again no problem. I miss the old Sony power switch on the end of hinge, now it's like most other laptops positioned directly above the number keys. One more adjustment I had to make was getting used to a dedicated dvd eject button above the number keys again. You can't just push in on the dvd play door any more. Not a big deal and once I get use to it I'll be fine. I really like the 1600 resolution option on this particular model, if your wondering about text size, my philosophy is that you can always turn up the zoom of the page to 125% and most web pages still fit on the screen. The keyboard is nicely backlit and the keys have enough space between them so you don't hit two at once. I only wish with the new hinge setup that it didn't have that plat in the rear of the laptop, it's centered and runs better than half way across and sticks out a bout an 1/8". Not a big deal, but again, I liked the old style Sony hinge better personally. The new hinge cover is finished nicely though, looks like brushed metal. All of the input/output connections, except for the dvd player are on the right side of the laptop, I prefer this because it's easier for me to remember what side it's one. There are 3 indicator lights in the front left and look nice. There is a cap key light above the numbers. The laptop feels well made to me and I have no regrets.

Buy Sony VAIO SA3 Series VPCSA3AFX/SI 13.3-Inch Laptop (Platinum Silver) Now

I looked at all similar units in the 800 to 1200 price range, and chose this one for the keyboard ease, backlight, and robust construction. It is substantially made, mostly of aluminum/magnesium alloy, and the matte display is outstanding. Other units had the gloss and the glare is quite distracting. You pay a bit more for the Sony name, but it is worth it. It has the usual bloatware, but not overly intrusive, and one can disable these pesky bits easily. It is remarkably light, yet not flimsy in the slightest. I'm using it in my surgical office for electronic records, CT scan image review and other fairly processor intense tasks and the i5 handles all quite rapidly. I did up the RAM to 8mb, and that was $14 well spent! Got mine from 42nd street photo in NYC, and all is well. I would recommend it highly.

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Purchased this laptop because its basically the only machine out there with the combination of features I wanted, and it costs less than a grand to boot.

-Backlit keyboard very difficult to find in this size, much more effective than the little thinklight on Thinkpads

-Hi resolution 1600x900 screen just try find this feature outside of Dell enterprise workstation models

-USB 3.0 onboard

-Fingerprint reader

-Dedicated Radeon graphics seems like nearly every PC is using the crappy Intel HD integraded chips in their 13.3" and smaller models

-Aluminum unibody I'm really confused by the reviews describing this laptop as "flimsy" or claims that its not actually metal

Have been using the machine for about a week now and its simply impressing me at every turn. After uninstalling the bulk of the Sony bloatware, Ive got it setup quite cleanly rather than doing a full clean windows install (as mentioned by another reviewer who was having difficulty).

Runs every game I've thrown at it in native resolution (1600x900) so far, including BF3 and MW3, which is jawdropping. Having a portable gaming system thats this svelte is going to make traveling a heck of a lot more enjoyable. It quite simply blows the doors off my last "thin and light" acer timeline.

All in all, a good purchase and a happy camper. Thanks Amazon for a great price versus the Sony website!

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This is my second LAPTOP from SONY VAIO, First one was F series but I had to buy new one because F series if is big and i need one smaller

I have bought this laptop SA Silver(color) for 1 month, first I was surprised of its shape. It is very thin and light. Silver color is amazing. All my friends love it when they saw at the first time.

It is very fast,

this graphic card is strong, so I can play on it strong games like (MW3, The RUN .etc.)

I have photo shop program, but it doesn't affect on the performance of Laptop

I believe that SONY is best company for Everything