Accessories

My kid loves it (in grey)
I ordered this Vaio (in grey) from Amazon over a month ago when it was offered as a Gold Box item. His Compaq mini-tower had died two months prior and I thought a laptop would make more sense for him now.

I am not going to go into the technical mumbo-jumbo because you can see the specs posted in the product description section. Suffices to say that it is adequately supplied with memory, has sufficient disk storage and comes with... hmmm... Vista.

On the computer itself, it is a true laptop, meaning that it's not a TOO large mini-super-computer-emulator but not too small either. The display looks great. The keyboard is only adequate. This model does not come with a mouse so, if you don't want to depend on the little touchpad, make sure you have a USB mouse handy.

Installation... well you turn it on and it works. As it is always the case with 'consumer' computers, as soon as you turn it on, you are bombarded with tons of tutorials and various pre-installed trashware/bloatware - the usual suspects: AOL, Macaffee, Adobe, Norton... It took me a couple of hours to clean it up and leave only the stuff that was not on a 'trial' base and get rid of all the well-meaning spyware.

So, after cleanup, we got ourselves a nice, Wi-Fi enabled, AOL/Explorer/Macaffee/Norton-free little laptop that my son loves using for his personal entertainment and for the occasional school homework - Microsoft Works comes pre-installed for that.

Battery life appears to be adequate but the battery is relatively slow to charge - I guess you can't have everything at the same time.

On the 'cool' factor. The laptop comes equipped with a built-in camera almost invisible, it plays DVDs and, of course it has a microphone. My kid also likes the text-to-speech capability but he's telling me that the computer is more often wrong than right when interpreting his words. The cool stuff that DOES work is the fingerprint authentication. You provide the computer your fingerprints and you no longer need to enter username/password ever again. You simply slide your finger (any finger) over the reader and, you're authenticated.

I never had to call the Sony customer service, so I can't comment on that. I am very much a do-it-yourself type when it comes to computer (never on cars).

Overall rating: I am satisfied with the the laptop but the keyboard could have been better.

Great Purchase
This is my second VAIO. We also own a Toshiba Satellite. This VAIO works so much better than my previous VAIO with Vista. Everything has worked solid and quick. The hardware, HD, and RAM are awesome and this is a great purchase for someone needing a PC for home use, not extreme gaming. I look forward to keeping this around for years.

My dads (my second) computer
This is the laptop my dad bought(and I use) and we all love it, the design is awesome, plenty of ram and storage space, sonys tech support is good and makes my dad happy every time he calls, he has many questions about windows vista and they answer everything without any problems, me and him have cybershot also and using the sony pro stick duo with the laptop and the camera then in my psp and ps3 is so fantasticly easy and smooth. Sony keep up the good work my family and friends love you.

Very good PC
**-*-*Exc seller, I purchase for 5-9 Bussines Days, And I get The PC in only 3 days.*-*-*
--------Here are some Pros and Couns regarding the PC, -------
**Cons ** 1st -The pc only works w/windows Vista, I contact the Sony Support online, and the told me that for the moment the product will work only w/Vista, after some month will upgrade to XP, I hope so!!
**Pros**, The pc is very fast, The processor helps a lot, and the 3Gb memory too..the HD is enough to safe your videos, Music, files.
**Pros** The desing is exc, is for people who like high tech.
**Battery** like 3hrs.

Comment for the seller, The specification sd the machine comes w/ a processor Core 2 duo, but I recibe my pc w/ a sticker that sd Centrino, I find out the internal processor was the one mention on the box (the 2.0Ghz Core 2 duo). But at 1st time I just get scared about it.

In General, I love Vaio....

sleek
The Sony VAIO VGN-CR510E/P 14.1" Laptop is a very sleek, beautiful laptop. I have had no issues with it at all. I especially like the feature where you can use the media center or play a DVD without having to start up the computer. Most computers are coming with bloatware, but Vista is a hog for ram. I really like the keyboard as it looks and types like my MacBook keyboard. I do a lot of heavy typing, and this keyboard works very well for me. All features of the computer works like it is supposed to. I have found only one little annoying thing about it and that is the DVD drive door opens too easily. It does sometimes open up when I have just barely touched it when lifting the laptop. I have not had to contact Sony for any tech support, so I cannot respond to other people's reviews. Years ago, when I had an issue with my old desktop, Sony responded promptly, took care of the issue and sent it back within a week, all on their dime. A box was sent to ship it to them. The desktop has continued to work for ten years. I would definitely recommend this laptop.