Customer Reviews

Sony Vaio PCG-V505EX Laptop (1.50-GHz Pentium M (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB, CDRW & DVD Combo Drive)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought my SONY VAIO V505EX to write my disertation.

The good news: It is FAST and reliable. I can easily sync with my home and work computers using Briefcase so my data on all three computers is always up to date. As mentioned in other reviews, downloads from sites such as iTunes are speedy and accurate. I love that the connections are on the sides instead of the back. This allows me to keep my "baby" in a zippered sleeve that I don't have to remove to plug it in or use the USB ports. Most other brands have their connections on the back and it is awkward to hook up if you prefer to keep a cover or sleeve on the machine. The screen resolution is brilliant if tilted at just the right angle. I have never been a fan of touch pads, and in fact purchased a small portable USB mouse when I purchsed the computer. The touch pad is so "true" and easy to use, that the mouse now stays in my briefcase unused.

The "not so good" news: My machine came with a multimedia package that included a partitioned hard drive. This was NOT workable for me as my data and research (including a library of PDF files) needed to be easily accessbile. I did not like having to switch drives or go to special lengths to make sure I was not overloading the smaller partition (20 GB). When I contacted Sony, they told me that if I remove the partitions, I could no longer use their support. I stewed over this for awhile and then opted to reformat the entire drive and take the risk. I am much happier with one 60GB hard drive. The only other problem I have is with the keyboard. I have read in other reviews that the keyboard is great so I am not sure if this is just "me" or if others have this problem. They keys are nice and tight, but have edges that help you make sure you are not "drifting" to a neighboring key...however, the shift key is only one key instead of a double key. Thus I am constantly hitting "Page Up" when I mean to shift and typing in the wrong place. Additionally, if I accidentally touch the key pad when this happens (a sleeve brushes it, etc.), I end up selecting (and often deleting) a whole page of data. I have caught this each time and am able to use the "undo" function to retrieve my info, but it is annoying. I have been trying to review and revise my own keyboarding habits to overcome this problem, but so far without much luck. For now, I make sure I glance at the screen (not as easy when taking notes in a class or meeting) to make sure I am in the right place.

Overall, I couldn't be happier (with minor exceptions) with this tiny, light, and efficient machine. I recommend it to anyone who needs portability, speed and reliability. Perhaps an external keyboard when not on the road would make it almost perfect!

I HAD THIS FOR ABOUT 2 MONTHS NOW. I AM IMPRESS WITH THE ATI RADEON GRAPHICS CARD AS IT PLAYS VARIOUS 3D GAMES. SO FAR I LOADED NEED 4 SPEED UNDERGROUND, AND FREEDOM FIGHTERS, AND IT PLAYS GREAT. BE FOREWARN; RUNNING A GAME ON CD REQUIRES LOTS OF POWER SO DONT EXPECT THE SAME PERFORMANCE ON BATTERIES.

I HAD PROBLEMS WITH ERROR MESSAGES POPPING UP REGARDING THE SONY MEDIA SERVER. TECH SUPPORT HELP CORRECT THOSE PROBLEMS

OVERALL, ITS A GREAT CENTRINO MULTIMEDIA/BUSINESS LAPTOP, ALL PROGRAMS WORK FAST AND THE SYSTEM SEEMS VERY STABLE.

SO AFTER TWO MONTHS.. NOTHINS CRASHED YET!!! GREAT LIL MACHINE.. ENOUGH KEYBOARD SPACE.. AND VERY FAST! ONLY NEGATIVE... IS THE 2 X 256MB MEMORY THAT IT COMES WITH INSTEAD OF JUST 1 512MB! THOSE SONY EXECS ALWAYS TRYING TO MAKE MONEY FROM US!

This is my third Vaio laptop since 1999 and my wife has one also, plus two Vaio desktops, so you can tell we like this brand. I like my PCG-V505 for several things, like the speed and the built in DVD writer, which seems very fast. It is great to use data DVDs for backup and ripping music CDs into iTunes is very swift.

But the PCG-V505 series has two minor issues for me--the keyboard keys have tight edges that can catch on fingernails and the case scrathes easily as one other reviewer indicated--and a major problem for anyone with XP and anything over 512MB of RAM. There is a known bug in XP that can prevent hibernation in machines with 1 gigabyte or more of RAM.

Hibernation is essential for a laptop because the hard drives in laptops are susceptible to heat damage. The longer they run in a high temeprature laptopn case, the sooner they die (I think I have replaced enough hard drives in laptops, including Vaois to make this claim, and if you read the tech lit, this is a well-documented phenomemon). So if the laptop won't hibernate you either have to shutdown as you travel between locations or it is liable to come on, in your bag, during travel, resulting in damaging 'hot briefcase' syndrome.

I treated myself to 2 gigabytes of factory-installed RAM in my machine and boy am I regretting it. Performance is great, I can run a ton of apps at once, which is how I like to work, but no hibernation. Sony support told me XP SP 2 would fix this (it is listed on the fixes that Microsoft claimed). But SP2 did not fix it and the thing that bothers me is Sony knew of the problem when they sold me the machine. Tech support at Sony was not at all helpful -- "rebuild the machine from scratch then add one app at a time, test, and then add another." Since the problem only appears after about 24 hours of use, and I can't go without some apps for several days, this was not a good fix.

Microsoft support was more helpful and is still working with me on it. But I am now inclined to take out the extra RAM and sell it (at a loss) defaulting back to the standard 512MB. My advice to buyers, test the keyboard yourself, and skip the extra RAM.

Stephen

This laptop by Sony has been good to me for a while now and I recommend it for people who are on the go but yet do not need the very latest and greatest in technology. The Intel Centrino processor works fine. I have no complaints although, of course, at 1.5 GHz it's not the fastest processor out there. It works fine for me, though. The RAM I added to have the laptop be able to use a full gigabyte of RAM has not interfered with hibernation, as another reviewer experienced.

The case DOES scratch easily; and the sound is fair. I use earphones that let me increase the sound beyond what the computer is capable of producing; and that's an obvious plus. The keyboard is much tighter and smaller than a desktop keyboard and this took some getting used to. I wound up buying a mouse to avoid that pad upon which you slide your finger to control the cursor and mouse pointer on the screen.

You will need a special cleaner to wash the screen--this screen is not made of glass but fortunately the cleaning products are relatively affordable.

In addition, I really like that this comes with a combination CDRW--DVD drive. I have often used this to watch movies while I travel or lie in bed just lazing around on a Sunday afternoon. The drive works very well and there are no software issues so far for me.

As Amazon notes, you get Norton anti-virus software and Microsoft Works with this and all this and more runs on the Windows XP Home Edition operating system, which is fine with me. There are ports and more to make this laptop exactly the way you personally want it to be. Excellent!

Overall, this laptop is very solid. Sure, the smaller keyboard took some getting used to; but that came in time. This little computer's got a lot of life in it; and I think you'll be able to make good use of it. If you still have any questions, you can download the product manual from this website or you can also read the product description above. The other reviews are well done, too.

I got my vaio about a year back to replace an aging desktop. In about 6 months, a couple of keys came off but sony support replaced those immediately.

I'e had some problems wiht the operating system- for instance, internet explorer will not show some images on websites. Its irritating (is it SP2? I dont know). ALso, the beautiful case gets scratched easily adn the screen seems very delicate- I dont carry it around too much and I am afraid to.

But otherwise it is a great little machine which I can take around and use anywhere in the house. Very pretty, very smart only thing is needs more strength.

Do not buy this sony laptop. It has a sleek design and stylish look but does not have a lot of features and also beware of your hard drive as it dies in little over an year.
Sony support sucks and they wont even let me know about the nearest sony support center until they bill me for the time I spoke to their support guy. Their support is also very expensive.
Thank god I did not need to spend $750(as per their website) and send my laptop and wait until they fix it, as I got it replaced the hard drive which I bought online for less than $300. Very bad experience with the laptop and their support. My friends who bought Dell and Toshiba for $1300's (cheap when compare with what I spend $2000) around the same time I bought this Sony viao are using them without any problems and good features and great support. On an overall I am not buying any Sony laptop in future.

I've had my Vaio PCG-V505EX for a year now, and I haven't had any problems yet. It's light so I can carry it under one arm easily. It withstands light shaking and bumping, so it's not too fragile. I bring it everywhere!
Keyboard feels great, screen is nice and bright. Only thing is I found out about Giga Pocket, which this particular model doesn't have. I would love to be able to watch TV from my laptop and record TV shows...

I have the EXP model, which is the same as this model except with Windows XP. I bought it in April 2004, and it failed in July 2005. The hard disc crashed, the machine started up once or twice in SAFE recovery and then would not start, and it said that the "config" file was corrupt. I have automatic update on my firewall and virus and Windows so I am sure that it was not a virus.

Beside, when you read so many other stories about disc crashes and unreliability with SONY VAIOs then you know that you made a mistake with this company. The support centre was worse than useless and when pushed refered me to an "authorised" dealer who quoted me twice what another city-based data recovery firm eventually charged me to recover the disc. Based upon my experience and what I now see is common with others I would never buy another Sony laptop.

I've had two of the V505 series, this one being the latest. The first one suffered from touchpad problems (clicking at random) and had to be sent out for repairs for a month right after i got it. After two months of use I noticed the case was so poorly reinforced that ripples would go across the screen if you slightly touched the back. After a few more months of carrying it around in a case purchased especially for it, it had major pixel damage. Sony's telephone representatives insisted that carrying it in a laptop case was excessive or abusive use and refused to replace it for several months. They finally replaced it with this model, and now the touchpad is starting to malfunction again.

Aside from the touchpad not working and the wireless card not working on some LEAP enabled networks, this model works well enough and it would make an OK desktop replacement for someone who works from home and never moves their laptop more than a few inches. If you're looking for something you can haul around with you though, look for something that's built better.

I am an IT Person for a midsized company. Back In 2002 I decided to buy about 12 of these PCG V505's. They have been the unmitigated bane of my existence for almost 5 years. As you can see by other reviews the hard drives (which are made by toshiba ) go bad. That is the least of the troubles. The biggest problem with these units is the pcmcia slot that is almost guaranteed to go bad- especially using 32 bit Verizon cards. Of the 12 we bought 8 of them within as little as a year had bad slots which make them unusable for portable use- as the slot doesn't work. I found a company called Elan Digital systems that sold me 5 PCM to USB card converters that, with some tweaking can get you back on line- but for the $249.00 I'm not sure if its worth it. Also the keybaords have flimsy keys which have very often broken off,save for the fact that I have a few on the junkpile to pick from, a new keybaord is $95 from which you must carefully pick off the bad keys and replace your keyboard. In addition, SONY in all its brilliance, designed the spare RAM chip slot so that its too close to the back and is not always fully protected fron Static electricity. Of course you'll find this out after sitting the laptop on staticy pants or A Hotel Bedspread and shortly thereafter the computer locks up. This again has happened with at least 6 of 12 computers we own. New Chips at sometimes 100.00 a pop add up quickly. I haven't even mentioned the clueless people at SONY who claim they know nothing about BAD PCM slots and of which there is no mention of the problem on the search part of their tech support.

All in all everyone who thinks this these are great beacuse of size and weight well, take my advice: think twice. They are and have been my nightmare and truly the happiest day of my life will be when the last one hits the scrap heap. Try Averatec's 2150 half the price and non of the BS with SONY.