Notebook Reviews

I bought this product PCG-GRX770 based on the picture on your web site, the picture has a JOG DIAL on the product, the product you sent me does not, I think this is very unfair because the only reason I bought it was because I wanted the jog dial, now I have the problem to send it back.

It's huge, heavy with mediocre battery life, but still, the pros outweigh the cons.

The monitor is the best I've ever seen in a laptop, its wonderful. The 3d graphics accelorator is adequate, though if you're a hardcore gamer you might look at a high end toshiba instead, or hey, just buy a desktop.

The ports are well laid out and there is a little Memory Stick card slot located on the left side above the keyboard - a big plus if you have the need for such a thing. The door on the back which covers the external monitor port, firewire, a/v out jack, parrellel port (etc) is plastic and not easy to just reach around and open.

The hard drive is very quiet as is the cdr/dvd drive even when burning a CD. The speakers are crappy, but pretty good for a laptop, clear nice treble, no base at all. They're okay for watching a movie in an absolutely quiet room with amazing accoustics - otherwise they're too quiet. Also there isn't a volume dial, you have to adjust it either using the volume in the systray or by hitting the fn key and f4 kinda silly when a knob woulda been a lot better.

No floopy drive (so what), and only one optical drive (the CDR/DVD occupies it). The CDR is pretty good (24x), and it comes with sonicstage a cool looking program that will confuse the hell out of you with its stupid menus and mystery meat buttons. A friend recomended Roxio easy cd creator 5 but it couldn't recognize the burner even after an update (music match jukebox had no problem at all).

The computer comes loaded with Windows XP home edition. Which to my suprise is not the horror that people claim it is. Granted, it looks like it was made by fisher price but that can be fixed.

The keyboard is a little different then the average laptop, it has more tactile feedback - some people might say it's a little noisy, but I like being able to tell when I've hit a key.

Basically if you're looking for a decent desktop in a laptop body this is it. I've been really pleased with it so far.
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Update

After about three and half months (or so) of use I experienced a problem with the dvd-cdr combo drive - the dvd drive stopped working. I contacted tech. support, they walked me through several things (all of which I had tried already). Tech support is based entirely out of India, so when you call you'll get someone with a heavy accent. When it was determined that this was a serious problem I was transfered to an American sounding guy that had kind've an attitude who proceeded to give me a lecture about only installing XP approved software (even though I hadn't installed anything suspect). After wiping the hard drive and restoring it to factory condition I called them back and let them know what was up, they finally decided it was a hardware failure and sent me a box (fed ex overnight, prepaid). I sent out the box on a friday and got my machine back on the following wednesday, no charge for repairs. Good service, not the best attitude.

Despite this experience, I'm still very pleased with this computer. Its preformed very well, only a few crashes (mostly winamp related), excellent system.

If you plan to use this computer as a critical piece of hardware, please be advised there are no on-site repairs nor local service centers outside of Southern California. Moreover, their tech support leaves something to be desired.

The new Sony GRX series laptops truly epitomize the concept of desktop replacement. While my primary motivation for finding a replacement for my Dell Inspiron 8000 was merely to find a laptop with tolerable build quality, I have been rather impressed with the total package offered by the VAIO GRX. The Inspirons have such incredibly flimsy construction that the creaking and cracking leave the user wondering if the product is going to fall apart in your hands. Hence, I sought a laptop with titanium, magnesium, or composite construction. After *extensive* research, the VAIO appears to be the best construction obtainable for a laptop that has a UXGA screen, which reaches an incredible 16.1 inches on the GRX.

This 16.1 inch UXGA (1600 x 1200) screen will be the primary draw for most buyers. For those condemned to flying coach (excl American) think again. This laptop is 10.5" deep and 14" wide. Also, there aren't many fully-padded laptop bags that accommodate this size laptop. FYI, Targus makes two, the CL55 and CL90.

I was pleasantly surprised when I first opened the package at a retailer in suburban Chicago as I hadn't received mine yet. The shell is very sturdy despite having a large footprint with minimal thickness. I have been told that magnesium is used in the shell, but this hasn't been substantiated. Clearly, however, it is better constructed than offerings by Dell, HP, IBM, or Compaq. Apple might be able to edge it out in design quality, but Sony put a great of thought into the shell design.

Apart from the sturdiness, there some nice design touches. First, the various ports are in the correct locations and attractively hidden. For example, there are three USB ports, which are located on left, back, and right (think digital camera, printer, and mouse). Unlike the Inspiron (sorry Dell) the Ethernet plug is not located at the right, which interferes with mouse usage, but in the back. The scroll wheel with Back navigation button is nice but doesn't approach the performance enhancement of the MS Office keyboard. I would suggest that the diameter should be a bit larger to improve traction.

As far as performance, it appears visibly faster than the only other valid unscientific comparison, which is my personal experience with a 1 GHz Dell. This is most likely a result of the 1.6 GHz P4 and DDR memory. At this point, I still don't know what the drive specs are as that information is not available.

The sales process leaves something to be desired. The primary shortcoming is the lack of detailed information on various components, such as the drive seek time. There were typographical errors on their web site, such as one indicating that the screen was 1600 x 1400 instead of the proper 1600 x 1200. The configurator wasn't operational for the initial first weeks. After which it was sluggish and offered only a few options.

hen dealing with the sales staff, it was either hit or miss. One woman was astonishingly rude, which was a shock in my opinion as I was purchasing a premium product.

One major disappointment with the GRX series is the lack of integrated 802.11 b wireless internet. I am assuming that there were some design issues that prevented incorporation of 802.11 b. Another issue perhaps is that Sony, along with other vendors, is now offering 802.11a at 5 Ghz. Realistically, though, this shouldn't be an option as the ubiquity of wireless Internet that most junkies hope for will entrench 802.11 b.

Overall, it is a fantastic premium laptop, albeit a bit large.

This is a nice package with wireless and nice compact design and long battery life. The memory and disk are very good, and the processor quite OK for most purposes. The keyboard is a little cramped, and the speakers give sound no better than a mobile phone, which is puzzling for a Sony device.

I am happy with my choice EXCEPT that the keyboard induces random jumps and characters and unfortunately I have to spend about 30% of my typing time correcting the errors and adjusting the cursor.

I searched on the web and found, sadly, that this is a problem experienced by many people with this Sony keyboard. And it appears that trying to get the problem solved is even more frustrating than the problem. So if you need series keying than this machine is quite useless.

The V505 is highly portable, and pretty powerful. However, don't believe the specs until you open the box. It does NOT come with Works or Norton! It comes with trial versions of both, and then you'll pay through the nose for the software. Better to load 2002-2004 software if you have it on another computer. Perfectly legit if you're the licensed user.

Then, expect problems with Norton. I like Norton Anti-Virus the best of all such software, but their firewall and security system in the pre-loaded software ties up the computer with warnings, notes, hints, and more warnings.

If you pay no attention to anything else I say, pay attention to this: DO NOT LOAD PRE-2002 SOFTWARE on any system with XP or XP Home. I loaded a Win98 WordPerfect Suite on this; it "crashed" and had to restore the entire system. The same thing happens with Word or Works, but then I still run some pre-SE software. Three days of work down the drain.

My V505EX came with no CD and no books, just a Quick Start booklet. If you've never worked with XP before, get a copy of The Complete Reference (Osborne Books) or the Dummies book along with the computer.

Last, and maybe most important if you're considering any Vaio, Sony's warranty is one year parts, labor, and even software advice. And their service has been great! Better than Dell in Dell's better days (i.e., 1984-2002). I'm so impressed that I think I might replace my desktop with a Sony PC, and that after 8 Dells, and one HP.

This is a great small notebook. I did the research for 3 month & this is the best one I could found. The different between V505EX And V505EXP is Wireless G and OS is Window XP Pro (The spec on Amazon.com is Wrong ,V505EXP is not Window XP home). So u dont have to upgrade any more, and the price is only $100 different.I think is better to pick up V505EXP than V505EX.
This notebook has everything u need. The style is Cool, the Weight is light & Speed is fast(especilly for Gameing....Cuz it has ATI 92oo Graphic Card 32Mb build in,not randeon 16mb). If u have Wiless G router, u can have up to 54mb transfer rate. I used to have Sony TR3A, that is a very nice notebook,too. but the problem is TR3a is too slow , And the Graphic card dont support DirectX 9. a lot game cant play.SO i move to V505EXP. I dont know why the other reviewer (the one review V505EX) has wireless problem. But My V505EXP dont have that problem at all.
When I try to buy the notebook I dont really care about price. However , this one is not expensive( compare to Z Series & TR series) and u will get more than those model. (Ps. Dont buy Z series cus the graphic card only has 16 mb...super slow. and the notebook's body is vry easy to get duty) The only thing I dont really like is this notebook is not silver color( I love Silver ) other wirse, this notebook is prefect for me

In nearly all respects, this is a lesser version of the Toshiba M205 . It uses a slower processor, ships with half the RAM, and has a smaller hard drive. Even the naming convention for the model seems inherited from Toshiba (Gateways' M275X opposed to Toshiba's M205). In this case, a bigger model number equals less tablet.

I'm trying to see the innovation here. Maybe it's the Firewire port. It's not the SD-card support, since the Toshiba has that. Maybe it's the larger screen, 14" opposed to the Toshiba's 12". Could prove useful, but compelling?

Weigh them each on their own merits, pick the best one for your needs, but keep in mind that if this in fact a re-branded Toshiba, you'll save yourself some technical headaches by going right to the source innovator. Better drivers, better access to advanced tech... maybe Gateway's technical support has gotten better over the years, but I doubt it.

For a tablet PC, you can do better.

Fred

Are you looking for an awesome deal on a laptop? Need the best Tablet PC on the market? Are you a student that has difficulty with there typing skills? Are you an office worker that thinks they can be more productive if they didn't have to type everything? Do you need an excellent computer, but don't want to pay $2,000* + on a computer that's not as good as the M275? If you answered yes to any of these questions than the Gateway** M275 convertible tablet pc is the right choice for you. Now you're probably saying ok here's a laptop reasonably priced nothing special hmm... next! WRONG the M275 unlike most tablets that don't have built in keyboards and, unlike most laptops that don't offer handwriting recondition the M275 offers the best of both worlds, when you first open it up it's a normal laptop, then all you have to do is turn the screen, push a button and Boom... it instantly becomes a tablet. What is a tablet you ask, a tablet is a special type of computer with special software made by Microsoft*** that offers converted handwriting recondition, that means that with a special pen (Included) you can write on the screen press a button and BOOM!!! It converts your handwriting. As well as offering handwriting recondition it also offers a 14" screen, something only offered by two manufacturers of tablets (Gateway** and Acer**) in addition it also offers a memory card reader so if you are going on vacation and you're bringing along your digital camera you don't have to pack a cable for your digital camera (if it supports SD, Memory Stick**, or Smart Media) This is why I think the M275 is a excellent system!!!!

By Andrew Kostin -- Student** products/companies are registered trademarks of there respected owners

This case seems like a good deal, and it is, but only if you have a 14 inch or smaller notebook. I have a Toshiba with a 15 inch screen and it wouldn't fit in the case. My kids have 14 inch notebooks and they did fit, but it was tight. Good price, but check your notebook size first.

I Feel OK Using This With My IBM ThinkPad T20

The Rhino Ttanium case has saved my M515 several times, BUT...
The case has two design flaws:
1. The case is a little sloppy around the M515, just a little annoying.
2. The pin that holds the Palm goes inot the silo and eventually gets sloppy. You need to bend the pin to improve fit, but after the second slight "adjustment" IT BROKE OFF!! Now the case is useless since there is nothing to keep the Palm in the case.

This is an improvemnet on the old rhinoskin V series "slider" case, which I had used for over a year before I lost it. This case is more streamlined that the old one, but with the same degree of protection.

titanium is the the king of industrial metal, and considering how important the data inside your palm pilot is, its worth it as insurance to yourself.

Cons- It is heavier than plastic or leather and not waterproof

If youre using a palm 505 or 515, you probably aren't into all the rinkydink bells and whistles and delicateness of newer palms, you use yours simply to carry your important numbers and schedules and info. This case is as minimalist and functional as the device it has been sent to protect.

It's your basic compact flash/PCMCIA adapter card. Great for laptops when all you want to do is transfer digital pictures from your compact flash to your laptop.

Too bad this an Office Depot product that you can't pick up in the store. The shipping alone pretty much kills this product as a good deal.

This real plug and play compact flash card reader is a must for every laptop owner. Any laptop has a PCMCIA slot, and every laptop nowadays comes with a modem , LAN , built in, so you use the PCMCIA slot for nothing, but the reader.
I usually keeps it plugged in the laptop, and take a backup for my critical files on it. With a 512 MB card, it really takes a lot, and provides me with peace of mind with an online , reliable and fast backup.
With technology, the storage capacity doubles every 12 months , and the MB/$ drops by half every 9 month. Soon, you will be able to buy a 10 GB compact flash card for the price of 512 MB nowadays. And, still , you will use the same reader !!

I am an NCO in the US Army and am currently deployed to Kosovo. I purchased a Sony VAIO GRV670 notebook to write counseling's and awards for my soldiers; I also use it for recreational purposes, ie. games. My computer was running great for just over a month before I encountered problems with my display while trying to run the same 3D games that I had been playing all along. The problem got progressively worse as time went on. I have contacted Sony in regards to the problem and have done practically everything to resolve the issue but to no avail. Sony tells me that the computer is only guaranteed to run the software that comes with the computer and that they will do nothing for me. To their benefit, none of their software requires 3D or is particularly demanding on the video card; therefore it runs their simple programs just fine. So now I am stuck with a not completely functional computer, or rather, an overpriced word processor.

To bad Sony doesn't make available the 'Sony VAIO GRV670',really nice machine,was made to compete with the regular 'Desktop'. The 'GRV670' is like a 'German Panzer Tank',just rolls right through any 3-D game like 'Shogun: Total War' and 'Medieval: Total War'. Was thinking about a 'Dell' or 'Gateway',but heard the negative reviews,and stuck to 'Sony',fan is quiet,and at worst just gets warm,where as other 'laptops' get hot like a skillet,fry bacon and eggs. Have loaded both 'Shogun: Total War' and 'Medieval: Total War' games on 'Sony VAIO GRV670',works like a charm. I got this 'Sony Vaio GRV670' to do one thing,play 'shogun' and 'medieval',it performs 101%,no crashing,no freeze-ups,no problems period. I'm happy,and completely satisfied,thank you 'Sony'........

One of the reasons I selected the Palm Vx was for its slender and streamlined style. I liked the way it fit comfortably into my coat pocket without adding too much bulk.

With slots for credit cards and businees cards this case represents a great concept. However, after filling each of slots with credit cards and adding some business cards, the case became so bulky that it defeated the entire purpose of owning a streamlined Vx.

Also, I found the loop closure very cumbersome and inconvenient.

very sleek. OS somehow is more stable.

This is the possibly the worst-supported piece of hardware that I have ever used, and I have been using computers regularly since the Commodore-64 days in the early 1980s. The hardware itself works just barely decently, but the software support is HORRIBLE. Don't buy this card expecting it to play nicely with Windows XP. XP does not even recognize that this is a wireless card, and therefore you cannot use Window's automatic configuration utility. Instead, you have to use Linksys's own utility, which is a total joke. It can't figure out what networks are in the area (so it's almost totally useless if you want to use it on a university campus, at an airport, etc.). And the software appears to have been written by grade schoolers: it is full of typos and misspellings, and if you try to, say, get help, a error dialog box pops up with a blank message -- all you can do is click "OK" to get it to go away. The sloppiness of the software is downright insulting to a paying customer.

Stay far, far away from this card.

I telecommute full-time from home and decided to get wireless network gear to allow me to work from anywhere in my house. Based on my previous good experiences with their other products, I decided on a Linksys setup. Setting up the Linksys wireless router was a snap, but unfortunately this "matching" PCMCIA card was not nearly as easy to get working.

Windows ME:

My first few installation attempts were on WinME. The driver installer, on the provided Linksys CD, had problems locating the necessary files it needed to install. The CD was either missing files or the installer was looking in the incorrect folders. Either way, pretty sloppy. Downloading the latest drivers from linksys.com fixed the installation problems. However, I was unable to get the card to make the wireless link with the access point.

Windows 2000:

Frustrated, I switched to the OS I should have installed it on in the first place, Win2k, where the drivers installed with no problems. However, again the card was unable to link with the router.

User Manual:

The manual supplied with the card, at first glance, looks promising. Flipping through, you see quite a few screenshots of their configuration utility (supplied on the CD) and a lot of text. However, I was disappointed and confused once I dug in. The text did little more than label the different configuration utility views and properties in each screenshot, providing little or no explanation for what the setting does and why. I could not even locate an explanation for what the LED's on the PCMCIA card indicated.

The most frustrating aspect of the user manual was the section I needed the most: troubleshooting. The troubleshooting section was a whopping two pages (not front and back) and consisted of three questions.

Linksys Technical Support:

Linksys has 7-day tech support, so I was able to contact them on a Sunday, which was nice. The quality of their technicians is what you would expect - good and bad. I first spoke with a guy for 30 minutes who was little help and, as I later found out, actually gave me some incorrect information. I called back later and managed to get a hold of one helpful technician that took literally 2 minutes to determine the problem and step me through fixing it. I also asked a few basic questions that the manual couldn't answer and the technician acknowledged that the user manual was "embarrassing" and "missing critical setup information".

Summary:

The card works great! While the router sits in my basement, I tote my laptop around the house and am able to work in the living room, back patio, on the 2nd story, etc, and the download/upload speeds are as fast as my desktop, which is cabled directly to the router. Despite the problems I had, I would still recommend the card. If you have trouble configuring it, I would seriously advise skipping the manual and just calling Linksys tech support.

I bought these cards coz a colleague of mine recommended them and I heard good things about them at practicallynetworked.com.
I have a Windows Me machine connected to a DSL line and a wpc11 card with a wdt11 pci adapter for local access.
My other machine is an IBM Thinkpad T20 with Win2K server running on it and a wpc11 card for wireless access.
I use both cards in the adhoc mode since I live in a small apartment and don't want to spend another 240 bucks
on an access point.

Installation was never a problem, although you may want to reboot your machine after setting up all the details like
channel, SSID, etc, even if your machine doesn't ask you to. I'd recommend using the device manager to configure the card,
never use the configuration utility that comes with the card
(floppy disk #2). It sucks!
I have been able to get about 5.0 MBps between my machines consistently (pretty consistent with practicallynetworked.com's
reviews). The only other product in the market with better bandwidth is Cisco's Aironet, which supposedly gives you 6+ MBps
but costs almost twice as much. And
since my high-speed internet connection is not going to be 5 MBps in the near future, I can use these cards for a while.
Technical support sucks bigtime, tho...as other reviewers have mentioned. One of my cards stopped working and I had to wait for
40 mins to get a hold of a live person...he sent me an RMA form my email pretty promptly and asked me to return the card. They replaced it.
He even told me the best way to get in touch with tech support quickly was call them up after 10:00 pm
PST. The load is low that time of the day, he said.
Some tips while setting up your wireless home network.
- two cards work pretty well in the ad-hoc mode. Don't buy the access point unless you really need to.
- If you use Windows Se or Me as the main computer connected to the internet, you have no choice but to use ICS, which works like a charm.
With this config, use ZoneAlarm as the firewall if you need one. If you're main machine has Win2k Server, you can use either ICS or NAT.
If you use NAT, ZoneAlarm will block outgoing access from other local machines on the wireless network. So either buy ZoneAlarm Pro
or use Tiny Software's Personal firewall which works with NAT, but not with ICS (this is the most configurable and user-friendly firewall I've seen so far
that you don't have to pay for).
- Use Qcheck (available at www.qcheck.net) to measure throughput between machines so you can check out the range and other parameters.
- One advantage of using ICS and ZoneAlarm is that you can run a VPN client to your office network from any of the local machines while the main machine
can surf the web without knowing about the VPN tunnel. I haven't been able to do that with NAT and Tiny firewall.

- Buy the wdt11 if you need to install the cards in a desktop. Don't get any other generic pcmcia adapters. I got one for a good price and
then realized that it was a ISA-Pcmcia adapter and the max throughput it supported was 5 MBps. Of course, I can't go higher than 5 MBps
anyway but why not get a tested card from the same company for a couple of bucks more?

So, overall the cards are good, it's a good deal but the tech support is almost non-existent.

I have tried it with a 512 Sandisk SD memory card. 1st on a win98SE laptop platform, & subsequently on a WinXP desktop w/ USB 2.0

In both cases the process starts OK & then stall @ about 15 Second left when copying to the HD on the pc with files over 1MB.
The PC then locks up.

In win98, a newer driver must be downloaded from Sandisk's website.
In Win Xp no driver required.
Each port shows up as a different drive letter to allow copying from one type card to another.
When the disc copy option is selected only options for other media in this device are listed, along with floppie ( Not HD's ).

looks and Feel great, read 32M CF card and SD card is ok, but not read the 256M CF card. Try to get another brand now :(

I've had a [$$$]SD reader for some time but it's a USB 1.1 and even waiting for the folders to open was too long for me.

I shopped (too quickly) for a 6 in 1 (now 8 in 1's out there) and picked up this SanDisk USB 2.0 reader. After taking a lot of pictures I couldn't wait to plug it in and ...wooosshhh... them onto my hard drive.

No go ... I plugged it in and XP did its bit to auto-install the drivers and then told me that the drive was unavailable "J:\ refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, ...". After some digging around I realized that Norton AV auto-protect disables the drive because it considers the SD card to be a boot drive - DISABLING NAV allows this card to work just fine thus far.

So, it it NAV fault or SanDisk? - no idea but until I find out that all readers do this then I'll be trying to return this one. Now I'm off to remove drives H,I,J,K,L,M from my computer.

If you don't have NAV auto-enabled then this card reader may be just the one for you.

PK