Rating: 
Summary: Love the notebook
Review: The main reason why I purchased this SONY VAIO is because of its large 16.1" screen.
Rating: 
Summary: The last laptop of its kind you'll ever own
Review: The Sony Vaio GRX 560 is very well constructed. The 16" screen is very sturdy, the keyboard feels crisp not cheap and plastic like a lot of laptops. You might think a 16" screen is too large but it makes a very noticeable difference from a 15" screen, especially if you use the 1600x1200 resolution. The 1.6ghz P4M and 32mb VRAM are enough to handle games such as Medal of Honor, JKII, etc. Also it comes with Word 2002 and some video and multimedia editing software...I couldn't be more satisfied with this laptop, I think you'll feel the same, go try it out at a computer store for yourself. I seriously think you'll never get another laptop like this again, Sony has created the best of its kind. The only thing that could surpass it would be a whole new type of laptop with detachable or flexible display or something like that. There was only 1 glitch when I got it - the hard drive made a loud clicking sound about every second. Turned out the processor was turning on and off the drive in order to conserve power.
You can download the "Intel Application Accelerator" from Intel to fix that. To answer the only negative comments I remember seeing about the new Sony VAIOs:
1. "The keys are loud when you type." Me personally I like the feedback, its not so loud to be annoying. The keyboard feels very solid.
2. "The arrow keys are small." Sony made the up and down arrow keys slightly narrower, but I have not even noticed the difference.
3. "Heavy laptop, AC adapter too big." The AC adapter is really not abnormally large. Yes the laptop is heavier, but I used to carry a powerbook across campus everyday that was 14 pounds. If the weight is an issue I'd recommend a backpack carrying case or else buying a weaker and tinier ultralight laptop instead.
4. "No USB 2.0." It does have firewire, buy a firewire-compatible external hard drive for backups. Or get a USB 2.0 PC card... Or just hook up the USB 2.0 device to your USB port if the data speed is not such an issue (such as with backups). Here are my only cons about this laptop:
1. Doesn't fit in most standard laptop cases, you'll likely have to buy a new case.
2. No 64mb VRAM option, but again 32mb is enough.
3. No integrated wireless. Wireless PC cards are not too expensive but it would be nice to have it incorporated inside the computer.
Rating:
Summary: a super laptop with one irritating problem
Review: this is my second sony laptop in 3 years. I've been shopping for a desktop replacement that could also be transported easily between my office and the classroom and be comfortable for small-scale but sophisticated multimedia work (film clips, pp presentations, editing film footage, etc.). Photoshop 7 is reasonably fast with a 20mb file. Once you incrfease the ROM 512K (a freebee from Sony), Adobe Premier 6 works very well, and occasional initial choppiness in the Premier editing display monitor during on-screeen editing tends to disappear after a few minutes. Rendering is reasonable fast on transitions (final rendering of a 2 min. dv file into MPEG2 at best full screen resolution takes about 5 minutes). The only problem with this machine is its rather slow and intermittently VERY NOISY HARD DRIVE (chirping and grating sounds from time to time as if it is having digestive problems). I was irritated by them at first enough to consider sending it back (and Amazon was ready to oblige), but I so much liked the screen and the feel of this machine that I've decided to send it back to Sony first -- to see if they could fix the hard drive noise). It came back a week later with a new hard drive and exactly the same noise. I gave it another week and -- decided to keep despite the irritant. The screen and the ergonomics of this laptop are so fantastically good that I have not been able to go back to my desktop, with its 17 inch monitor and all the possible bells and whistles. Some users complain about the sharpess of the screen. This has turned out to be spurious: once you figure out how to angle the screen optimally for your desk and chair, it all comes into the sharpest possible focus. I do a lot of writing and note taking on it, and it is a superb device -- as close as you can get to a legal pad and a dozen shar pencils! I keep it in itse native 1200 x 1600 resolution but set my Word files to 130% view, and I have no complaints -- crisp and sharp as a tack. Even in MS Access which does not have a zoom feature, the small type is so sharp that it is not a problem. While I was considering sending it back, I looked at comparable Gateway and Toshiba. Gateway's screen is as almost as large but it is not as crisp. Toshiba is 15 inches, and once you've experiences Sony's 16.1 inch, you'd not want to look back. In any case, I've figured so much stuff in a such a small box, they all have something wrong with them somewhere. At least, I know where Vaio's problem is and that I can live with it. It's also helpful to have the memory stick on your laptop -- if you have a sony camera or their pda, though this can be limiting too. In any case, if you can afford it, get it!
Rating:
Summary: Love The GRX, Be Sure To Buy Speakers Too
Review: This is the notebook for people who love sony products. I just bought mine yesterday and all I can say is "Wow!". The memory stick slot for my digital camera and the iEEE port for my digital camcorder. How can you go wrong. If you like sony products and have them all, this is the notebook for you.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing...
Review: This is the notebook for people who love sony products. I just bought mine yesterday and all I can say is "Wow!". The memory stick slot for my digital camera and the iEEE port for my digital camcorder. How can you go wrong. If you like sony products and have them all, this is the notebook for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Runs very hot, poor battery life,
Review: This laptop runs very hot, I'm afraid the case
will melt. Speed is ok, comparable to an 1.2Ghz Athlon XP.
Battery life is below 2 hours.
Get the Sony VAIO FXA53 Notebook (1.3 GHz Athlon XP1500+, 256 MB SDRAM, 30 ,longer batter life! Runs much cooler and you will not be sorry!
Rating:
Summary: awesome computer
Review: This thing put me in the hole 2500 bucks with insurance, but id have to say it was worth it. One thing that is very underated on this computer is the sound is soooooo goood. Its a lap top with 3d sound. I dont even have my regular speakers hooked up. Also, its super rugged. I bring it everywhere, And i sereously abuse electronics, I brought it to florada once, and after that it broke down on me, so I just brought it were i bought it and got a new one, yea really good buy, wish it had a dvd burner though, well when this gets old, i'll bring it in for a new one.
Rating:
Summary: awesome laptop-----big screen 16.1" UXGA
Review: When I got the laptop and turned it on for the first time, it was loading windows XP home for the first time, and it took a long time to load, and the hard drive was going pretty loud. So I was kind of disappointed at that time. However, after I cleaned up everything, got windows XP Pro on it, it then ran smoothly, just as fine and fast as my P4 1.8 GHz desktop.
Pros: 1. Gigantic 16.1 inch screen @ 1600X1200, awesome, beautiful.
2. P4-M 1.6 GHz, fast and low heat.
3. Fast CDRW at 16X and 10X.
Cons: 1. No hot keys except the function keys.
2. 256MB ram not enough for gamers (but expandable to 512).
3. ATI M Radeon 7500 w/ 32MB DDR video card is not enough to handle intense games.
4. No PS/2 port for mouse or external keyboard. Have to buy a port replicator.
5. USB, not USB 2.0.
6. Big screen, big size.
On the other hand, 30GB notebook hard drive at 4200 RPM is clearly not fast enough, but most laptop uses it, so it's not about the 560. Overall, a great desktop replacement. I love the pros more than its cons... A great product at that price!!
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