The Sony VAIO VGN-NR430E/L Notebook is my last minute pick for another back to school or college notebook. It was also CNET’s pick for entry-level Back to School laptops.

There are a lot of Sony products I really like, but I must admit that the VAIO notebooks just don’t seem to appeal to me. Like a most Sony products they look very good, it is just that they had a reputation for being loaded with bloatware. According to CNET this model has the minimum of bloatware.

Now to the important stuff. The specs are; an Intel Pentium Dual Core T2390 processor running at 1.86 GHz, 2GB of RAM, Integrated graphics with 358 MB RAM and a 160GB hard drive. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium and apparently the 2GB of RAM seems to be enough as long as you don’t try to play games on it. The Sony VAIO NR430 has a 15.4 inch screen (measured diagonally of course). The VAIO NR430 has four USB 2.0 ports, a mini Firewire port, and Memory Stick and SD Card readers. Networking options include built-in Ethernet,  802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11 pre-N Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The VAIO NR420 weighs 6.3 lbs and comes in “Night blue” (not to be confused with “midnight blue”).

Posted on August 26th, 2008 by mervyn