Sony VAIO PCG-GRV550 PC Notebook

Pros: Fast computer. Beautiful screen. Nice looks.
Cons: Feels flimsy. No variance in drive bay.

I have owned the PCG-GRV550 for about three weeks now. When I got the computer, it was bloated with Sony software. I tried to remove a good bit of the software. When I tried to reboot, the computer gave me the blue screen of death. I installed a fresh...

Pros: huge screen, 3 USB ports
Cons: very heavy, battery life sucks

If you want good desktop replacement, and you live in Alaska, then this laptop is for you. It has a big screen but gets VERY hot (thus Alaska) and poor overall design. It falls apart and warps really fast. DEFINATELY NOT RECOMMENDED! Pros: >huge ...

Pros: Excellent display size and quality. Performs most tasks well.
Cons: Limited battery life, heavy, durability issues, no use for any of the factory media bundles

I bought this laptop mainly for home use (internet, online poker, mp3) and occasionally for working from home. It cost $2000. I've owned it for just over three years and in general am pleased with its performance although it has had some problems. As ...

Pros: Perfect Screen no bad pixels, well built, very fast
Cons: Very noisy, rattle, roaring CPU Fan

This is the 6th laptop I own, and so far this GRV550 is the one with less screen defects, NO BAD PIXELS.
It's a fast Laptop, plenty RAM (who wants more than 512 MB), very fast HDD, looks and feels strong; the LCD display hinges are very strong and...

Pros: large screen
Cons: spotty quality, horrible support, heavy, sticky keyboard

While Sony enlarged the display, other areas like quality have shrunk.
Having three laptops from three different manufacturers, I must say GRV-550 would be my least favorite. And here are the reasons:

- Rock heavy! Not sure if Sony was...

Pros: Beautiful screen and looks. Fast and easy to use. Two batteries included! Typical SONY quality.
Cons: Speakers are weak. No floppy disk drive. A little bit heavy and clumsy.

I bought the SONY Vaio GRV550 Laptop with a 2.4GHz pocessor a CD-RW / DVD-ROM and 16.1 inch screen. Big.
I love this computer. The cheapest price I found was at Costco, at the store. Buying untested, at first was scary. Also it was a problem...

Pros: fast, big screen, light, durable
Cons: comes with Sony VAIO software already on it

Sony VAIO is a remakable product. Yes, it does not come cheap, but this laptop is all worth it. It is a 2.4 Ghz or a 2,400 Mhz, 16 inch screen, 256 ddr ram, 40 gb hard drive, and comes with a DVD and Cd-Rw. This laptop is useful and fast to get any...

Pros: Smoking Fast Processing speed; Awsome 16" display.
Cons: Flimsy, pricy.

The Sony Vaio Grv550 Is quite the nice laptop. This laptop is very versatil. The Smoking fast 2.4 gigahertz processing speed is more than anyone would need to run any application. Burn Cd's while your on the go or sitting in the hub at an airport (like...

Pros: screen size and quality real solution for portable gaming
Cons: Um, it breaks?

I had this computer for three months and loved everything about it, including the huge bright screen, the graphics detail and processor speed for gaming (for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and EA Sports games), and success with audio and (limited by my needs) video editing. Then the problems started. The power socket began to fail. I took the laptop back to Circuit City, then sent it in for repair, and I got it back working fine. 6 months later the same thing happened. 3 months after that the same thing happened again. Apparently there is an engineering problem with the socket and the soldering is very weak. Since I don't know how to solder, I was considering buying a port replicator and retiring this from mobile to desktop use. Then the hard drive died 16 months after I purchased it. The people at Sony said there were "no known issues" with this laptop. If you want to use it for a desktop and never move it, you might be okay. Otherwise, YOU WILL HAVE PROBLEMS.

Pros: Great display - powerful machine.
Cons: Runs too hot with constant fan. Overheats. Heavy, but I knew that when I purchased.

Have owned this since Dec 2002 - has been great for awhile. Now it gets overheated constantly and it shuts itself down periodically. Support just says to take it in to an authorized dealer.

Pros: Monitor size & clarity. USB's spread all around the box & other I/O's as well.
Cons: Runs HOT. Heavy. The dam mouse doodle pad is too close to the space bar.

I decided to write a review after reading all the experiences everyone else had. It goes something like this: Yes, it would definitely keep you warm where ever you may live, from Alaska to FLA. After 2 years of ownership the computer just started shutting down. Initially I thought it was overheating so I bought this cool butt laptop cool pad with dual BIG fans and it didn't help. Diagnosis, hard drive was going bad because not soon after it started shutting down it just died. Took it back to Best Buy. Sony replaced this 30 Gig HD with a 40 Gig HD. Since then, no problemo. I even bought the extended warranty expecting something would happen in 3 years. That was an expensive 40 Gig HD.

Pros: When it runs, a very fast notebook.
Cons: Too many hardware design flaws in Sony notebooks.

This computer has a poor power jack design. It has no strength. I have replaced it many times, until it finally became non-fixable and needs a new motherboard ($1000+). Not recommended by any means.

Pros: big screen`
Cons: everything else

This was the worst $2000 I have ever spent. The video card sucks and the memory is only 512mb (max)!!!
I want to cry! I will never recommend this piece of crap!
The computer runs too hot and turns off when i play older games like winning eleven soccer 8 or star wars battlefront 1. it is my own fault for not researching it before i bought it. Now I know and knowing is half the friggin battle. the hard drive is small. No dvd burner. and all 3usb ports are usb 1.0 (not 2.0)
but then again to be fair i did buy it a few years ago but i am so upset that i want to make sure that noone else ever buys this crap again!!!

I love the big screen.

Pros: Great processor and features - a favorite machine
Cons: Sony cooling fans are known to fail

Blazing fast - great with 3D animation - a tad too heavy and very poor battery life - WARNING - upgrade your internal fan if you leave online/on all the time... heard about this problem and sure enough our fan malfunctioned and overheated hard drive and some internal parts - 1 MONTH for Sony to repair this machine... unheard of in the world of tech support for a major brand.

All in All though this is one great notebook.

Pros: Fast, large screen, big memory.
Cons: Bad TFT and CD-RW/DVD quality, no infrared port.

I own a Sony-Vaio GRV550 since january 2003. I had to buy a custom carrying bag for it as it wouldn't fit in any standard laptop bag. No wonder - its 16" TFT screen is (was?) great, at least until 6-8 bad pixels showed up gradually within couple of months. The CD-RW/DVD combo dyed
three days after the 90-day warranty and it turned out that I should have registered the notebook in order to have the usual 1 year warranty. Other than that, it works great. However, my next notebook most definitely will not be a SONY.