Sony VAIO GRX560 Laptop (1.60 GHz-M Pentium 4, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB hard drive)

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Product Details

Product Manual [1.44mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 14 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000067NNY
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,296 in Computers & PC Hardware (See Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 3, 2002

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome laptop-----big screen 16.1" UXGA, July 9, 2002

By	J. Wu (Honolulu, HI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love The GRX, Be Sure To Buy Speakers Too, September 30, 2002

By A Customer

Having spent a week abroad with my GRX550 (15" screen) I can tell you this machine is a joy to work with for web and desktop apps.

Watching DVDs is great, for the best in sound quality though be sure and get a SONY SRS-T77 speaker set to plug into the notebook, this little set of 4 watt speakers will rock the room and are small enough to fit into your bag and port along.

As for validating other comments I've read I'd suggest:

Size, yes the dimensions are a bit larger and I too bought a new bag - happily. I think this size of unit is best suited for a backpack versus an over-the-shoulder bag

Batteries, seem to last me about 2 hours, I'm ordering an extra one

Hard drive noise, havent really been bothered by it

Screen quality - stunning. I've used Toshiba, IBM, and Dell's - The screen quality is really outstanding with the GRX

Size of the charger unit. Yes, it is larger and bulkier than any others I have used recently. SONY should be able to do better than this

Rebate, came to me in about 3 weeks

Hope you enjoy your new GRX as much as I do. I'm very much a fan.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last laptop of its kind you'll ever own, September 24, 2002

By A Customer

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.