Sony VAIO PCG-V505DX Laptop (1.40-GHz Pentium M (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive)

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [1.46mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.5 x 1.4 inches ; 4.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 12 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000D90BR
• Item model number: PCG-V505DX
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,079 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 26, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Featuring Intel’s exciting new Centrino technology and desirable amenities such as DVD playing and wireless communications, the Sony VAIO PCG-V505DX Notebook is a perfect match for those who need a lightweight machine that transports easily and is powerful and versatile enough for typical mobile tasks and a variety of environments.

What is Centrino? It’s an Intel-developed technology built upon a triad of three interconnected elements -- an Intel Pentium M CPU (with 1 full GB of Level 2 cache), an Intel 855 chipset, and a cord-free network connection – that work hand-in-hand to keep your notebook lightweight, wirelessly connected, power efficient, and faster than its rated CPU speed might indicate. The power section of the VAIO PCG-V505DX Notebook includes a midlevel 1.4 GHz Pentium M processor, 512 MB of DDR SDRAM (expandable to a whopping 2 GB), and a surprisingly capable ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics chipset with 32 MB dedicated video memory. Though the unit can’t be recommended for high-end 3-D design and games or harsh business multitasking situations, it will handle most everything else.

Measuring a mere 10.9 by 9.5 by 1.3 inches and tipping the scales at just 4.4 lbs., the VAIO PCG-V505DX Notebook is easy to carry and easy to use. Yet this level of portability doesn’t come at the expense of creature comforts. Apart from an unexpectedly large 60 GB hard disk and a CD-RW/DVD combo drive through which you can burn audio and data CDs and enjoy the latest Hollywood blockbusters, the unit also features a 12.1-inch XGA TFT display capable of 1024 by 768 resolution, integrated stereo speakers, and three levels of communication -- a V.90 modem, 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet, and an Intel PRO Wireless 2100 Network Connection for those times when you just can’t plug in.

Other perks include a high-speed IEEE 1394 port for high-speed interaction with external peripherals such as digital camcorders, a pair of fast USB 2.0 ports, a Memory Stick media slot and an electro-static touch pad. The impressive bundled software package includes Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Money 2004, Microsoft epic Age of Empires II game, and a broad array of multimedia utilities. Maximum battery life is estimated at 2.5 to an amazing 6.5 hours.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small, sexy and built like a tank. 4½ Stars, December 4, 2003

By 

Mark Hills "Nobody gets me, I'm the wind, baby!" (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCG-V505DX Laptop (1.40-GHz Pentium M (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive) (Personal Computers)

This new laptop replaces a Toshiba A15-S127 that we bought 3 months ago and one that died 4 weeks later when the LCD screen cracked. This one still confuses my wife and me given that the thing spent most of its time in its carry case and it bore absolutely no external damage on the laptop's shell. To add insult to injury the store we bought it from wanted to charge us literally 2/3rds the cost of the thing to repair it, manufacturer's warranty be dammed, I guess. Suffice it to say that we won't be buying Toshiba products again nor shopping at this store (who's name, by the way, rhymes with Stomp Youse Say), ever again. I would have reviewed the S127, but what's the point? We hardly had it long enough to get to know it.

When Sony began producing computers, I was less than impressed. Yet another big name producing very shiny products that look great while using second rate parts that deliver underwhelming performance. That was several years ago and while I still don't care for big name brand PCs, they are still good machines. Even though I build my PCs from parts I choose, I can't build a lap top, and after the Toshiba debacle, anything would have been an improvement. Truth to tell, I didn't really like the Toshiba from the start, but my wife wanted something cheap to take to work and use it to learn Spanish, practice her mathematics and watch the occasional movie, and the Toshiba did a fair job at all of those things. The Sony PCG-505DX is a vast improvement in every category, though it was twice the price.

The 505 features a 1.5 Ghz Pentium 4 Centrino processor- possibly the most important consideration when buying a laptop these days. The CPU scales its speed and processing ability to conserve power and extend the usability of the lap top. With the full charge the 505 will run for nearly 5 hours when doing things like word processing. Obviously, the more things you do, the shorter the battery life will be. The Vaio also sports a whopping 512 mb of RAM, an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 16 mb of its own RAM, (a lot of laptops video RAM is actually shared with system RAM and performance takes a real hit), a 400 Mhz FSB, an 11 mb IEEE 802.11b `Wi-fi' wireless network adapter, 1 PC-MCIA slot, 2 USB + 1 IEEE 1394 FireWire ports, CD-RW & DVD player combo drive, Network and modem ports, VGA port, and a Sony memory stick slot. All of this is packed into a very small and very attractive box,. The casing also has a lot of polished aluminum, which will no doubt enhance the durability and life of the computer.

Though the S127 was fully 600 Mhz faster, the 505 out performs it every category- it boots faster, loads programs faster, and came with much better software pre-installed. I actually plan to keep all of Sony's own music and video programs, which is odd as I usually spend the first day or so with any laptop I have owned blowing out all the junk and promotional software that comes with them. About the only things I removed was AOL and that really terrible office package known as Microsoft Works. Everything else will stay. Sony also wisely partitioned the 60 Gb hard drive to make mirroring the drive much easier. (What they didn't include was a system restore CD or DVD and instead require you to make your own. If you want to do this, make sure your have a stack of CD-Rs handy, because it will take 9 of them).

The 505 is actually pretty much the same size as my old 486 Compaq Aero, which itself was a dynamite little machine. I love the Vaio's design and feel- it's sturdy, incredibly well made and given the luck we have had with our other Sony products, I suspect this little beauty will be around for a long time. About the only real complaints I have about it is the speakers sound terrible, but then again, this is a laptop and a general gripe about laptop keyboards in general- I just can't get comfortable with any of them. This is the best laptop I have ever owned in both performance and build quality. The screen image quality is great, the keys and controls intuitive, I only wish we had bought this first instead of the Toshiba.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Notebook died twice in 4 months, March 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCG-V505DX Laptop (1.40-GHz Pentium M (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive) (Personal Computers)

I bought this notebook in December 2003 because I was attracted by its sleek and shiny design, and thought I could trust a Sony product. Looks are certainly deceiving. Two months later, I left the notebook idle for 5 minutes while I attended to something else, and when I returned and touched the touchpad to activate it, the whole thing shut down and wouldn't start up again. Sony Support told me to take out the battery, hold down the power button, etc., but nothing worked so it was sent in for repair and I received it 4 working days later. A month and a half later, in mid-March, I touched the touchpad to move the mouse and the notebook died again!! It was completely unresponsive to any attempts to revive it. I am incredulous at the quality of this product. Sony should really get its act together. If there's one thing I have learned from using this product, it is to constantly backup my files. When the notebook was working, it worked beautifully, but it's intolerable to have to send it in for repair every couple of weeks. I would strongly urge prospective buyers to consider other laptops, e.g. the IBM X40.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Stylish, December 29, 2003

By 

Kumar (Norman, Oklahoma United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VAIO PCG-V505DX Laptop (1.40-GHz Pentium M (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive) (Personal Computers)

This is one of the best laptops I worked on. Though many people think 12.1" screen is smaller, I do not think so, it gives you an 1024x768 resolution which is very good, unless you are expecting your laptop to be a TV replacement to watch movies. I am a student and use my laptop for heavy software development and I never faced any problem with the CPU performance. Till now my experience with this new centrino processor is awesome. As for the battery life issues, it cant be better than this. Though compared to the other centrino machines this machine is bit expensive, but I pay for the style and brand and the quality of the product. Its been 3 weeks since I bought this notebook, and I never repented for paying the extra buck..

AS for the other side,You have to make your own recovery CD's, which is very important step before you do anything with the laptop.. And I could not upgrade to windows XP professional, it gave me some virtual memory low message and kept on restarting after the installation was done, So I had to do complete installation of XP Pro. If the XP pro upgrade is not successful for you also, do not worry. You can put the recovery CD 1 and get all the software installed back on the clean XP professional. So there is a way around to keep the software which came with the machine and have XP pro.. And I am little disappointed SONY did not provide us with a third party CD writer software, we are forced to use the inbuilt XP writer, which is slow compared to NERO cd burner software or Roxio easy cd creator.. Overall you will get the value for your money..

And I do not understand why Amazon display's different specification on this website than what we see on sony. My laptop has an L2 cache of 1MB, but amazon displays here it as 512 KB which is very confusing. I didnt buy my notebook on Amazon becoz of that confusion..