Sony Vaio GR 370
Written: Apr 23 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very good display. Good hard drive capacity. Combo drive included
Cons: Average battery life. Could have had a more impressive software bundle.
The Bottom Line: Go ahead and get one. It works great as a desktop replacement for us.
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| sukhoi_flyer's Full Review: Sony VAIO GR370 PC Notebook |
We were looking for a notebook computer simply because we wanted to be able to move it from room to room in the house. Once we decided on a price range, it was obvious that we would not find a better hardware package than the Sony.
The carton contains CD's, they contain the software that is already installed on the machine. It contains 1 power supply/battery charger. A plastic plug to insert in the combo drive slot if you intend to use a second battery. A battery, and a small manual. All the normal tutorial software is included on the machine.
The machine operated fine right out of the box. What strikes you when you look at a demo in the store is the clarity and quality of the display. It is the same when you unpack your own. The keyboard is different, but very nice with a good tactile response and adequate travel. I am not sure how the keyboard will hold up to a lot of use however because the letters are decals.
The primary interface with most desktops is a mouse, this computer could support a USB mouse, but it has a "Jog Dial" and a touch pad. I found the touch pad a little difficult to use at first, this prompted me to use the jog dial, but I found that it was more annoying than the touchpad. I still do not love the touchpad, but it is a preference on my part and not a failing in the hardware that causes this.
The graphics chip installed as an ATI Radeon D with 16 meg. It is good, but not excellent. I guess some compromises must be made for the sake of battery life and overall machine performance and price. I would have preferred a chip that included anti aliasing. This is not something that bothered me with a normal CRT but I seem to notice jagged lines on this screen more. This is a tribute to the exceptional clarity of the Sony LCD.
I do not know much about the sound card installed except to say that it works with everything I have tried. The speakers are small, but actually sound pretty good. The sound card will process Dolby 5.1 but you would need a set of external speakers.
The DVD combo drive works well. It is hot swappable. It writes to normal writable CD's as well as rewriteable CD's.
The battery is a Sony Lithium Ion type. It is like the batteries they use in their line of digital cameras and the like. It keeps track of how many times it has been cycled. I have had no problems with the battery. This is our fist notebook computer so I do not know what to expect for battery life. The way we use the computer, netsurfing, word processing and personal finance, gaming-- it seems to last between 2.5 to 3 hours.
The case for the computer is simple and has only 8 led's on it. To get performance or battery information you must launch one of the included programs. This is not a problem and I think it contributes to the clean business like look of the machine.
Overall we like the computer, our biggest complaint is about the included software, or lack thereof. I would have liked it if at least the Microsoft Works suite had been present. Our machine came only with Word 2002.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1599
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
sukhoi_flyer
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Location: Glenwood, MN U.S.A.
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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