Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-AR190G 17-inch Laptop (Intel Core Duo Processor T2500, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, Blu-Ray Disc,DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW Drive)

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

 

 

This is a fantastic laptop. Beautiful design, not too heavy for a 17" notebook, massive hard drive, BLU RAY DISC DRIVE, fast processor, plenty of RAM... it's all good. But here in lies the problem, it's $3500!

Now, for those willing to shell out the investment for the long haul, this is a pretty sweet deal. Sony's screen is gorgeous going to resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 and resolutions up to 1080p, this is no slacker. Unfortunately, the nVidia 7600GT is it's graphics card. Not to say it's not a good card, but with 19" SLI Laptops running two top of the line 7900GSs, this seems very weak in comparison. Also, for $3500 dollars you get 1GB of RAM, which isn't bad, but you can have 2GB. There are some laptops capable of 4GB of RAM also, this doesn't seem to be one of them.

Also, Blu Ray right now is very new technology, and very expensive. Yet to be perfected and popular, the quality isn't much better than DVD, and there isn't much selection. Not only that, the battery life is atrocious. The manufacturer claims 2 hours, I got 97 minutes... it died before I could finish watching Underworld Evolution!

Now in its current state it runs pretty impressive benchmarks. The T2500 Core Duo runs at 2.0GHz which is really fast and really dependable, and also causes this laptop to be pretty portable for a full sized desktop replacement. There are lots of media options and a built in camera, but it doesn't justify the price.

BOTTOM LINE: Wait 6 months, the price will not only be at least $500-1000 cheaper, but there were be more options for movies, and more options by other manufacturers.

***Original review July 2006***
i needed a desktop replacement notebook for when i'm not at my desktop at home, with a big enough screen to do work with large Excel spreadsheets, stats and graphics programs, and read long pdfs comfortably. the computer and screen are gorgeous to say the least. the Blu-ray DVD movie looked pretty unbelievable.

i started running into the problems when i started trying to install programs to replicate my setup for each of my computers (to mimic the setup on my work/home desktops and ultraportable notebook). i tried to install my old Office 2003 Professional. it installed but none of the programs would start. i tried to activate the pre-installed "MS Office trial" but this wouldn't install either. the pre-set security settings on the computer blocked the installation. changing all the security settings, spread across multiple programs and areas of Windows didn't help. needing to get some work done, i installed some other programs which worked fine. however, i noticed that Windows media player and the Blu-ray DVD program no longer played files.

exasperated, i reset the computer to previous settings using the installed Recovery software. The Blu-ray DVD was working again. obviously the drive was fine, i guess it was some sort of driver issue. no matter what, however, the Office 2003 trial installation wouldn't start. i couldn't uninstall it either, thinking that would free up the Office Professional installation.

finally, i went back to the VAIO Recovery software and selected re-setting the C: drive to "factory settings." of course, after clicking on this, the computer would not boot again, saying "no hard drive can be found." i had to go through Sony technical help to reset the BIOS, deal with the silly system preparation tool 2.0 window, etc. (just about everything is non-intuitive). eventually everything was fine.

i've had many sony computers, both desktops and notebooks over the years. i still use the TR3AP3 for flights and train rides. i'm generally a big fan of Sony. the AR190 is the first Sony computer that i've had trouble with. i probably should have waited a little while, but i didn't. i think the trouble has more to do with MS Windows and software than the hardware or anything else. i'm definitely not a techie, but i've used both Wintel and Macs for more than 15 years and i'm not completely clueless when it comes to computers either. i don't think they dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's before they released this model. again, the computer itself looks and seems great if you don't mind paying a premium for a Sony product (5 stars for the computer itself). the specs are the specs, either they're enough for your needs or they're not. i guess a better video card would have been nice, but i doubt most people would notice any problems with the factory-installed product. only 1 star for the crummy experience trying to set this computer up. you just don't expect this sort of hassle when you lay down $3500 for a computer. i don't sit around salivating about working on the a computer's interal plumbing all day. 3 stars overall.

***6 month update:***
the computer works great, no regrets whatsoever on purchasing this, except maybe could've done without the Blu-Ray drive, but, oh well. it hasn't caused me any grief at all since the set up period. can't beat the super huge screen. i've even taken it on business trips since it's hard to do real work on really small screens, and it was a lot less cumbersome than i would have thought. had some real angina setting it up originally (a long time ago), but that's long forgotten now....

The price tag says it all: this is one power machine, even when you don't consider the Blu-ray drive. The styling is nothing short of gorgeous -- it'll turn heads everywhere you go. (It's 500 times cooler than anything Apple has produced.) The machine itself is a speed demon, and the 17" screen is breath-taking for a laptop. I don't know why one other person was complaining about "no 1080p"; on a PC, you don't need 1080p because the screen always renders everything in progressive scan mode and the "lack" of resolution is addressed via a superb downscaling algorithm in the computer itself, so you get top-notch video image quality.

$3300 is a lot of dough to cough up for a computer, but if you want one that makes a powerful statement about your status or just want the best geekware, this is for you.

The other reviewer who complained this has a 1440X900 screen clearly has not even seen this notebook, let alone own it. Also Amazon made a mistake stating it is 1440X900. The VGN-AR190G screen is definitely 1920X1200, and it's a beautiful screen. Especially with upcoming Windows Vista where you can adjust font size like a Mac, then you dont have to worry about the letters being too small(at least most of them wont be too small). (The AR150 has a 1440X900 screen, not the AR190G.)

It comes with only 1GB Ram, adequate but for Vista and for such a hi-end machine 2GB is optimum. The good thing is I believe it is normally shipped(or you may request when ordering from certain companies like sonystyle) with one 1GB Ram and one empty slot, so you dont have to throw away or sell two 512MB Ram and purchase two 1GB ram. With 1GB things still seem a bit chopping with certain Blu-ray DVDs, if it is indeed a Ram problem, unless it's a blu-ray problem.

It has a real luxurios black finish that fit's it's price tag. Many Blu-ray movie are 2.35:1 aspect ratio so it seems like a narrow strip across the sceen.

It comes with no DVD or CD software , so just creat your own recovery discs soon after you get it. Of course, it also has the Sony recovery wizard so you can recover settings to an earlier date or reinstall your softare straight from the partitioned harddrive.

It has so many input /outputs, firewire(s), optical, S-video etc. In other words, you can hook it up to a large LCD /Plasma HDTV, optical surround sound receiver, video cameras etc.

4 1/2 stars actually. Mainly because blu-ray mastering/decoding doesn't seem perfect to me yet. A lot of detail but a bit of noise. All in all a beautiful Audio-video notebook computer and a mini HDTV.

I am very impressed with this laptop. I have owned it for over 8 months now and have burned a few Blu Ray films, and they all played on the PS3 seamlessly.. The big, bright screen and the speed in which it is capable of operating different software together is great. I am also going to say that the software at first is restrictive, but once you have taken the time to remove some of the junk Sony has bundled with the laptop, it moves at a very awesome speed. I am glad I made this purchase.

My parents bought me a Compaq Presario on my 18th birthday and a little after a year, while I was away at college, the motherboard was fried. It was a piece of crap from the beginning, but after dealing with that, I decided I needed the best computer that MY money could buy.
The electronic guys we have talked to said to buy either a Sony Vaio or an Apple, as they are the best made computers. Since I don't like Apples (not software friendly), I decided to buy a Sony! I couldn't have made a better choice! I absolutely adore it.
The only problem is that it is HUGE. As a college student, I really can't take it to my classes but thats not much of a problem since I don't want to take such a nice computer to class anyways. But I did have to look really hard for a laptop case, which Sony doesn't make!
All in all, I love the computer. Everything works well on it and I've had it for about 6 months now. It's great!

The screen resolution is not 1920x1080 so it can't harness the power of the blu-ray drive. The only laptop that I've seen with a compatible resolution is the dell 17" series with the optional 1920x1200 resolution screen.