Rating: 
Summary: Impractical laptop, poor harddisk
Review: I was impressed with the nice big screen. However after using for a few weeks I realized some of the impracticalities of this machine that some of you prospective buyers may want to know about.The laptop is obviously good as per the features and the other reviews. However my experience will help some of the users to put the features in perspective and so I will focus on the negatives for this review. Please refer to other reviews for positive remarks. Combined you will have a good idea if you need this machine. CONS:
1. Laptop is quite wide because of the big screen, so in domestic flights it was a pain to use it. Privacy is out of question as well!
2. Extremely noisy harddisk. May be its my machine only. But after sending twice for service, Sony support got back to me saying noise levels are normal harddisk operations. I use server side software for programming and it tends to write data to disk frequently. So get I guess I just have to get used to the constant crackling sound from the harddisk.
3. No InfraRed port for quick sync with Palm or other such devices. Ironically no serial port as well so you just cannot sync up a Palm with out additional USB device purchase.
4. 512MB is the maximum. For developers this will limit them in the future.
5. Jog Dial pretty useless with W2K.
6. Poor sound quality, CD does not operate unless system is booted, no hardware volume control so you have to struggle to reduce/increase the volume by software means.
7. No standard floppy drive.
8. The beautiful display does not work with other machines. In summary, do not confuse your need to own a 16inch LCD with your laptop needs.
My recommendation:
1. Buy a good LCD monitor for about $500.
2. Buy any small foot print laptop with similar config. If you are a Sony fan, other Vaio models would be fine. If you still want this one, consider following accessories:
1. USB 32MB flash memory as alternative to floppy drive.
2. USB InfraRed and Serial Port.
Rating: 
Summary: What are you thinking, Mr. Ting???
Review: This computer has everything you could possibly need, including a firewire port. Sony calls this the i.link (IEEE 1394), and it is through this you can connect your external hard drive, that is, if you can use up the 40 gigabytes that they already offer in the computer itself.
My only problem with the laptop is its sheer weight and size, but i guess that is something you have to deal with if you want to have an amazing 16.1" screen.
Rating:
Summary: Worth every penny....
Review: The GRX500 series machines are in a class by themselves. In my opinion, their large keyboard and screen size make them head and heals over competitor laptops. This can easily fill the role of being the only computer you need to own. Sony's 16.1" TFT is a wonder, improving any graphic it displays. Graphics appear with more presence, ambience and continuity, making the TFT superior to CRT monitors. Simulators and games appear more realistic. Competitor TFTs are not as high of quality. DVD playback is obviously superior due to the larger screen, pre-empting some of us from having to buy a dedicated DVD player. To give you an idea of what you can fit onto the standard 1600 x 1200 x 32 bit screen, consider the default-formatted Excel spreadsheet at 100% zoom with columns A through X and 57 rows visible! I found the machine is usable on a plane despite its larger size. You would definitely appear more professional with this machine next to smaller laptops you see in meetings on conference tables. The bundled software speaks to the superior audio and video output of this machine. The pute has terrific, blow you away sound (for a laptop, i.e. don't expect much bass) with its Yamaha sound card. The three USB ports are very considerately located on three different sides of the machine. Furthermore, there are much larger "wrist rest" areas than on other laptops, making it more comfortable ergonomically. Cons: 1. As with several OEM putes, you do not get a bootable XP disk, so if you lose the drive, you must recover to day 1, unless you imaged the drive. I lost config.sys, and Sony said I needed to use the recover disks to get the pute back (and erase a perfectly good drive. However, if I had a MS XP setup disk, there is a utility to fix config.sys. Bottom line: image the drive if you get this pute after your customization. 2. Sony does not make or endorse a product which removes the inevitable fingerprints from the TFT screen. 3. Sony customer support is not always knowledgeable about the machine. For example, I asked if a USB floppy drive would be a bootable drive, the rep said no. In reality, I found the machine can boot off a USB floppy. (While I am on the subject, you should plan on eventually buying a USB floppy if you buy this machine for data exchange and drive image recovery. They are fairly affordable). 4. Sony's own VAIO system software windows are dwarfed on the default huge 1600 x 1200 screen, and they cannot be scaled up. 5. Sony does not appear to explain their audio/visual port specifications and how their power management system operates in concert with MS Windows XP power management. 6. The large adapter outputs 19.2 volts, an uncommon voltage.
Rating:
Summary: Great Desktop Replacement
Review: Pros
* The 16.1" screen is beautiful.
* DVD movies look incredible.
* Performance is good, especially for games.
* Has 3 USB slots and 1394 port.
* Ethernet and modem built in
* 512 MB RAM and 32 MB VRAM standard
* I never use my desktop any more Cons
* Heavy and bulky due to size of screen
* Needs wireless lan card to be built in. Currently I have to use a PC Card wirless and the antenna keeps banging into everything.
* Can't expand to 1 GB ( Ithink that this is a limitation of the Pentium 4M chipset
* Cannot upgrade the 'quick ship' GRX models to the 3 year warranty (The built to order GRX models sold through Sony have the 3 year warranty option). This is scary because both my previous Sony laptops needed repair at least once.
Rating:
Summary: An overrated product and generally bad use of your money
Review: Sony notebooks must be the most overpriced,overrated, and undersupported in the market, even by PC standards. The saddest thing about it is that Sony uses their software bundling as bait. Be warned, it worked on me, please don't let it happen to you. The PCG-GRX570 I bought has turned out to be the bane of my existence. First of all, I hadn't realized just how heavy and clunky the unit was until I received it. This is certainly not a portable unit if that's what you are looking for. Sony certainly wasn't kidding when they called it a desktop replacement as it will spend most of its life on your desktop unless you want to strain a few vertebra trying to carry it around (9-11 lbs incl. battery, but no accessories etc in that weight). Secondly, it is too noisy for something that was supposed to be top of the line. The CD/DVD drive can freak you out sometimes just by the sheer amount of noise. Some months after I got it (and towards the end of the limited warranty), I started getting a garbled screen that Sony was quite reluctant to fix. I got the sense that they were trying to delay me until the warranty expired. Anyway, after a lot of nagging on my part, they finally got it fixed though it took two service requests to do it after they just mucked around the first time round. The latest problem I have had with this notebook is that the same LCD screen has now gotten so dim that I cannot use the computer any more unless I attach it to an external monitor. All the tips in the troubleshooting guide and SonyIQ Knowledge Database have proved quite useless, as have the support staff at their online service. Don't bother with the online support people, they will only refer you to articles at the knowledge database which you can find unaided anyway. They are on the whole quite clueless, as is most of Sony's support staff. After pleading ignorance to what could be ailing this now glorified CPU and keyboard, the support people at Sony are now advising me to send it in to their less than stellar group at the service center in San Diego. The initial estimates for my repair job (now that the 1 year limited warranty has expired) is at least $700, and I am sure that it would be pushing $1500 by the time they are done. Personally, I am just going to use that money as seed money for next notebook computer, which will definitely not be a Sony. Fixing this Sony notebook is just not worth that amount of money.
Rating:
Summary: Great Desktop Replacement
Review: Pros
* The 16.1" screen is beautiful.
* DVD movies look incredible.
* Performance is good, especially for games.
* Has 3 USB slots and 1394 port.
* Ethernet and modem built in
* 512 MB RAM and 32 MB VRAM standard
* I never use my desktop any more Cons
* Heavy and bulky due to size of screen
* Needs wireless lan card to be built in. Currently I have to use a PC Card wirless and the antenna keeps banging into everything.
* Can't expand to 1 GB ( Ithink that this is a limitation of the Pentium 4M chipset
* Cannot upgrade the 'quick ship' GRX models to the 3 year warranty (The built to order GRX models sold through Sony have the 3 year warranty option). This is scary because both my previous Sony laptops needed repair at least once.
Rating:
Summary: Missed the boat by a mile
Review: Reviewer: Henry Ting from Cupertino, CA United States I bought this computer due to the size of the screen which I needed. But after using it for a while, I found quite a few faults. Here they are : * The most obnoxious hard disk that ever consigned to a computer. It is loud, clunky, crackly. Considering that this is the newest and the greatest laptop from Sony, I wonder how in the world the R&D folks could ever decide on configuring this drive to the computer. At first I thought my computer was the exception and perhaps came with a faulty drive, but then after I visited a few stores and examined their display model, the drives on all those were equally noisy. * Max out at 512m memory is just NOT good enough. Considering that this notebook is targetted for the audio/video presentation users, quite often utilizing memory intensive programs like "Photoshop" as well the latest software for digital scanning, the performance would most likely be better with more memory allocation capability. * The "home" key is just to the right of the backspace and is an ergonomic disaster when quite often backspacing will brush and activate the "home" key that will put your cursor a mile away from when you wanted to. * The jog pad is again a brain-dead feature that's useless. * Considering the obnoxious hard-disk, one could have at least configured an external drive to be used....but again out of luck because there is NO FIREWIRE port. * Adding additional drive is a big problem and again SOOONNNY flunked in the design department because additional storage is not designed in the expandability department. PROS : Other than the big screen, the new laptop offers very little functional features. Suggestion : Bypass the GRX series and wait at least for improvements.
Rating:
Summary: Missed the boat by a mile
Review: I bought this computer due to the size of the screen which I needed. But after using it for a while, I found quite a few faults. Here they are : * The most obnoxious hard disk that ever consigned to a computer. It is loud, clunky, crackly. Considering that this is the newest and the greatest laptop from Sony, I wonder how in the world the R&D folks could ever decide on configuring this drive to the computer. * Max out at 512m memory is just NOT good enough. Considering that this notebook is targetted for the audio/video presentation, quite often users memory intensive programs like "Photoshop" and the latest software for digital scanning, the performance would likely be better with more memory allocated. * The "home" key is just to the right of the backspace and is a ergonomic disaster when quite often backspacing with activate the "home" key that will put your cursor a mile away from when you want. * The jog pad is again a brain-dead feature that's useless. * Considering the obnoxious hard-disk, one could have configured an external drive to be used....but again a problem....NO FIREWIRE port. * Adding additional drive is a big problem and again SOOONNNY flunked in the design department because of additional storage needed for digital imaging. PROS : Other than the big screen, the new laptop offers very little functional features. Suggestion : Bypass the GRX series and wait at least for improvements.
Rating:
Summary: Not recommended
Review: Quite a disappointment for a laptop costing [price].
Pros to this machine is obviously the big screen and the high resolution. But the hard drive is a royal annoyance with a constant crackling sound. Not only that, it seems to be constantly polling the hard-drive even when no activities are going on. As a result, while scrolling the cursor, it becomes jerky when the obnoxious polling happens on the hard-drive. I called Sony's helpdesk and have a walkthru reloading the entire system files and not to my surprise, did not fix the cracking hard-drive sound. The sound is quite obnoxious, reaching the level of a mainframe disk-drive. Unfortunately I bought this thru [a store], with no exchange, nor refund policy for computers other the the option of sending it to Sony to fix this problem. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT !!!!!!!!!!! Warning to those who cannot jump into the latest and the greatest...and ultimately will be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT!
Review: This laptop is by far the best one out there right now. If you are looking for a desktop replacement, this is the one. Hands down...if you are someone who likes to travel and use the computer for gaming, entertainment, programming, and/or business, this is the best. Also, it reduces the hassle of needing a desktop computer. At first I thought I would use an external monitor with it, but now I see it is not necessary. Every penny of this relatively expensive laptop is worth it. People who complain about a noisy hard drive, have a slightly valid argument. I had some hard drive noise, so I uninstalled some of the applications that I did not need (including some that came with the laptop) and now it has the average noise level of any other laptop. This is a great computer for any graphical designer out there, or anyone else for that matter.
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