Sony laptops

Re: sony

I have a Sony Vaio Z1XMP. Bought new off eBay for £1300 about a year ago ....it's been absolutely superb.

sony

I bought a second hand Sony vaio (PIII) for my daughter about 5 yrs ago and it's been fine apart from needing a new battery (about £80) about a year ago. Then last weekend it died!. I rang around a few laptop repair places yesterday who all suggested it's the motherboard and due to difficulty of getting parts, I'll probably end up having to spend a lot of money dealing with Sony directly. Fortunately a place recommended near Watford have taken it to have a look at and optimistically reckon it'll cost about £80+vat to get working again, provided they don't have to replace the whole motherboard.
I have a bit of a laptop household, with an Acer, Samsung and Novatech laptop being the most recent. There's not a lot to differentiate them. They all do the job, the Novatech cost about £580 with a 14" 'wide screen' and Wifi built-in, so it's quite light and the screen is excellent for a budget priced laptop.
The new Sony's I've seen look the business but they start at about £800, but then it's a bit like buying a Merc or BMW, it's the badge that infers the quality etc and as long as you're happy to have paid a premium for it then fine.
p.s Another make a colleague rates highly is AJP.

NOOOOOOO!

Not a Sony fan. Mine (and a few colleague's machines) have been nothing but trouble.

I am thinking of buying a VGN-B!XP or a VGN-S3HP for the business. Before I do, anyone got any feedback on either of these models.......or even service/help from Sony?!