Under-performer
The processor inside the SB is a dual-core Intel Core i5-2410M running at 2.3GHz, and while 4GB should be considered a minimum spec these days, there were no signs of a slowdown when the SB was being asked to think fast. There's a spare SO-Dimm memory slot ready for more Ram if you find you need it.
PCMark 7
Longer bars are better
PCMark Vantage
Longer bars are better
3DMark 06
Longer bars are better
PCMark Vantage returned a decent score of 5820. Neither of the SB's two GPUs qualifies this laptop as a gamer’s machine, but a final score of 5084 in 3DMark 06 suggests you should be able to get reasonable framerates on older games if you can keep image quality in check.
However, within an hour of getting the SB out of the box it was clear that it has a bit of an Achilles Heel. Like almost all laptops, it needs active cooling to stop the processor going into meltdown, but unlike most others the fan is pretty loud - when it’s working hard you’ll easily hear it from the next room if there’s nothing else going on. Not only that, but it doesn’t take much to prompt the fan into life, either.
PCMark Vantage Battery Life
Battery life in Minutes
Longer bars are better
It may have been the hyper-active fan - along with choosing Speed mode - that produced the SB’s shocking intensive use battery result of just 89 minutes, which makes it of limited use for those who really push their laptops during their commutes.
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COMMENTS
Totally
16:9 is a stupid ratio on a small screen unless you're only using it to watch films. And if all you're doing is watching films then you can buy a portable DVD player for much less money.
If 16:9 is good because it's better for films then maybe we should be using 1:2.35 screens on our laptops.
A 3:2 aspect screen would probably be a good ratio. The most important thing is that it's possible to buy screens with a sensible number of vertical pixels. Modern software can make use of high resolution screens. Windows has DPI settings so that the gui appears the correct size. Websites can be zoomed to make them readable but everything is nice and sharp.
My phone has a 3.7" screen with 800x480 resolution, I want that kind of DPI level on my laptop.
Sony have been using chiclet keyboards for as long as Apple, maybe longer. This keyboard has a significantly different layout to a Mac, and the recessing is about as different as it could be.
There seem to be plenty of reasons in this review to not buy this laptop (90 minutes battery life!), but looking too much like an MBP really isn't one of them
apple hate = dull
Apple have a thorough configurator on their site.
headphone jack is a combo jack :P
If you noticed, a lot of notebooks are starting to use the combined audio jack type used on smartphones, so you don't have to fiddle with a Y adapter anymore to hook your headset into a computer.
So yes, there is a mic jack. But if you want to use an older PC headset, you'll need to use an adapter now, combining your two plugs into one.
What's going on with the Vaio keyboards?
I almost bought a Vaio last year. Then I tried the keyboard and was horrified. I opted for a slightly heavier Lenovo instead.
