There are people who think that Sony computers are top of the line because they are more expensive. This is far from the case. Yes, they are more expensive, but they are filled with horrible hardware. They think they are special and do not follow the industry standards for hardware. This means that if you want to replace a component you have to purchase their hardware only, which is price around double what the industry price is.
Besides the hardware there are other issues, one is spyware. About a
year and a half ago my Dad purchased a Sony computer without my
advice. He got the very best Sony desktop the salesman could sell him,
probably $5k in total. The computer came loaded with spyware and
horrible hardware.
As soon as I heard about the new computer I
has them scan it for spyware, around 60 pieces in a 3 day old system.
None of which were from browsing the web, all pre-installed. I don’t
see how a computer for $5k can come with so much junk on it, it’s
outrageous.
Once the computer was cleaned up during a 3 hour
Zac-support call the computer was up and running. Well, it ran for
about 6 months until the hard drive started making funky noises. After
running a few tests I decided that the drive was dying quickly. Since
the computer was so new it was still under contract which included on
site service. Within not all that long a tech was out to replace the
hard drive. They did not offer any backup services, only to replace the
drive and start a format. The tech did not stick around long enough to
wait for Windows to finish installing. They had to finish the install,
not that unusual in tech support, but nothing special for an expensive
computer.
Another few months go by and another funky sound –
this time I found out that it was the graphics card. Instead of having
them try to deal with Sony to get a new graphics card I just had them
purchase one from the local computer store. The install went fairly
easy for them and the computer was back up and running, at least for a
while.
It was not much long after that the hard drive started
having problems again. This time everyone was mad enough at the
computer to replace it. The computer was in service for approximately a
year and a half and was replaced with a Dell that was less than half
its price.
This is just one of my experiences with Sony
computers. I have had many others that have turned out just about the
same. The horror stories with Sony far outweigh the success.
This
along with the recent rootkit event with Sony music CD’s makes me
really wonder what Sony’s intentions are. They clearly do not want to
make a superior product when it comes to their computers.They have made
a decent product with the playstation 3, but I can only imagine that
they use bad hardware in them as well. I do not have any experience
with them, but that is the conclusion I would draw in my other Sony
experiences.
I think that Sony just has too many buns in the
oven, they have so many different products that they are unable to
produce all of them very good. They have done a good job with their
TV’s, but they are overpriced and nothing all that special. I just
prefer not to use any Sony products if I have the option.
