The laptop came with two broken parts, the LCD and keyboard. I replaced both and since have not had any problems. The only thing I cannot get to work is the webcam. Modprobe shows the sony_laptop driver loaded bit 0 items using it.
Fn keys for brightness work, external display is untested, the zoom works and a Fn key shaped like a battery puts the laptop into hibernation. It only took seconds to return to login with full desktop available as I left it. Suspend works very well and I have it set from the Power Management application.
The USB slots are fully functional but I do not own a firewire device to test that port. SD card slot works but again I can't test the Sony Memory stick slot. DVD-RW/CD has performed at expected levels. The default wireless worked right off with no configuration needed. The Touchpad works but in my opinion is a bit sensitive and ignores the option to disable when typing.
Battery life is very good considering its age and the signs of use the laptop shows. The fans are very quiet and come on when needed. Even under load i do not see much of a rise 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit at most.
Hard drive and RAM are not stock but perform as expected. All in all I am very satisfied. I will edit if I can get the webcam to work or use any of the other untested devices.
Edit: I have changed slightly in distribution going to LDME. Not a great change as far as functionality goes but more for personal and asthetic reasons.
I have however decided to try and get the webcam to work and I found this
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1321338 that covered the exact model of camera. I followed the steps and it was almost dead on. At the bottom author stated Mint 10 users could skip a step but this must not have applied to LDME. Adding the step and all works.
I have been using this laptop for several months now daily and it has performed very well.