Key Specs | |
| 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M 4GB RAM 600GB hard drive Blu-ray/DVD±RW 15.5 inches (1,366x768 native resolution) ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 (512MB) 5.95 pounds 1.2x14.5x9.8 inches Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) | |
Sony VAIO E-Series Review | |
| Reviewed by: Todd Haselton Review Date: February 2010 | |
Perfect for spunky college students and moderately demanding users with a sense of flair, Sony's affordable E-Series notebook focuses on multimedia performance without breaking the bank. Starting at $700, the base model comes with Windows 7 Home Premium, a zippy 2.13GHz Core i3 processor, and 4GB of RAM. It's a good mix; Sony manages strong performance, an eye-catching design, and a recession-friendly price in a model that's a surprisingly strong budget-PC contender. Our $999 test configuration, in an eye-catching wild hue ("Hibiscus Pink") was equipped with a 500GB hard drive and discrete graphics. You can configure your system to order, or choose a preconfigured model in one of four colors for $699. Despite the shocking color of our unit, which telegraphs Paris Hilton's tastes, we’re impressed with its overall design; it really is a beautiful system. Sony offers five colors apart from the pink if you go the configure-to-order route: Gunmetal Black (which knocks $50 off the stated price), Coconut White, Black Sand, Iridescent Blue, and Caribbean Green. The color scheme carries over from the lid across the entire wrist rest and covers the speaker strip above the black keyboard. We noticed that the lid of the computer looked to have some dust or flaking paint under the glossy finish, though, which is troubling, to say the least. The E-Series chassis measures 1.2x14.5x9.8 inches, and our configuration weighed in at 5.95 pounds. Its 15.5-inch screen makes for a laptop with a somewhat portable form factor, but if you travel a lot, you may want to consider a 14-inch (or smaller) notebook.  We love the VAIO E-Series' large and comfortable keyboard. The left side of the chassis is home to an eSATA port, a single HDMI port for outputting video to your HD television, one VGA port, and an Ethernet jack, as well as the power connector. The right side of the computer sports the tray for the Blu-ray drive, plus three USB 2.0 ports. The laptop accepts Sony’s Memory Stick (and its many variants), as well as SD cards, via slots on its front edge, where you'll also find standard headphone and microphone jacks. The large Chiclet keyboard, with a full number pad off to the right, was easy and comfortable to type on. We didn't particularly like the finish of the touch pad, however; its texture was a bit rough for our tastes. Also, the click buttons for the mouse pad feel flimsy and cheap, not matching the premium feel of the keyboard. Above the keyboard are three shortcuts: Assist, Web, and VAIO, as well as a large speaker. The Assist button takes you to the VAIO Care application for troubleshooting your system features, running diagnostics, or restoring the system. Web, predictably, launches a browser, and the VAIO button mutes or unmutes the volume. A Webcam sits just above the screen, and the display is built onto a drop-hinge (that is, the lower part of the screen bezel extends below the back of the keyboard, lowering the system's height when open), which adds to the design's premium feel. Overall, the notebook felt well-built and solid, a rarity in this price range. The feel extended to the screen, too. The 15.5-inch wide-screen display was vibrant during an initial playback of Zombieland, and our model offered a sharp 1,366x768 resolution. More expensive E-Series Signature Collection notebooks can be configured with 1,920x1,080 displays, but at the time we wrote this, these models were only available for preorder. The movie did look a bit grainy in parts, however, and the viewing angles were a bit limited. Two people side by side will be able to watch a movie just fine, but additional viewers may not get a clear picture.  At its price point, the VAIO E-Series offers good multimedia bang for your buck. The speakers were able to crank out audio loud enough to fill a dorm or living room. When we played a test track, Iglu & Hartly's "Dayglo," this West Coast new wave song sounded clear, and we could make out lyrics and background instruments perfectly, but at higher volumes the song lacked bass and sounded tinny. Still, the speakers offered above-average power for a laptop. As noted earlier, the core components in our test unit were a 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM, and discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics. Sony lets you configure the system with a more powerful Core i5 CPU, as well, but the Core i3 was able to handle full video playback and Web browsing without a hitch. In our configuration, overall system performance was good, but we found it lacking a bit in our gaming tests. First off, we recorded the boot time of Windows 7 Home Premium, a mediocre 1 minute and 31 seconds. Next, our test model notched a score of 5,090 on our 64-bit PCMark Vantage test, which measures overall system performance. That’s right in line for its size and price category: The $750 Acer Aspire 5740-6378 beat out the E-Series by only 100 points on this test, while the HP Envy 15 beat it by about 150 points—but the latter costs $1,100 more. When we fired up 3DMark06, our synthetic test of 3D performance, we ran it at the laptop’s native resolution (1,366x768) and got a score of 3,949, which beats the average by about 600 points and promises pretty good 3D performance. Lowering the resolution to 1,024x768, that score improved to 4,360. Both scores are well above average for this class of laptop, thanks largely to this unit's ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics processor. Ultimately, these scores mean you’ll be able to play 2D games very well, and you should be able to play some recent 3D games, so long as you dial back the settings a bit. Next, we booted up the game Batman: Arkham Asylum—a tough challenge for any laptop—and found that, with the graphics cranked up and the resolution set to native, the laptop could run the game, but only at very low frame rates. After about five minutes, we found the sluggishness too much to bear and turned the resolution down to 1,024x768, at which point the game was more playable but still noticeably laggy. The laptop did a little better with the game Company of Heroes, managing a decent (but still not great) 28 frames per second. The E-Series held its own on our Cinebench 10 test, which measures how well the CPU and graphics processor work together. For the 32-bit test run, it managed a score of 5,471, and for the 64-bit run, it garnered 6,768. Both handily beat out the the $649Gateway EC5409u, whose scores were both less than 3,000.  The brilliant Hibiscus Pink finish is one of six available colors. We shifted next to our Windows Media Encoder test. In this, the system finished encoding our standard test video in 5 minutes and 14 seconds, almost 3 minutes faster than the mainstream average of 8 minutes and 10 seconds. When we ran the test again while running Windows Defender to simulate multitasking, the test took an additional 36 seconds. That indicates solid multitasking performance from this dual-core laptop. Our last test was of the battery life, and there's no other way to put it: What we observed was dismal. Whether just surfing the Web or playing a DVD, the runtime was noticeably shorter than that of most systems we’ve used. During our battery-rundown test, which involves playing back a DVD until the battery expires, the notebook lasted just 1 hour and 30 minutes with the display at medium brightness. That barely got us through two-thirds of a feature film and was about 50 minutes short of the average for mainstream laptops we've tested. It’s also much shorter than the 2.5 hours of DVD playback that Sony advertises on its Web site. You’ll need to bring a charger with you most anywhere you go. We were also a little underwhelmed by the software bundle, which was a bit heavy on trialware. Our model came with a 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security, an 90-day AOL trial (classic retro-bloatware, to our tastes), and Microsoft Works SE 9.0, along with a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 or Small Business 2007. We also got the previously mentioned VAIO Care diagnostic software, as well as VAIO Media Gallery (an access interface for your music, videos, and photos), VAIO Movie Story (video-editing software), and VAIO Media plus Multimedia Streaming Software (which lets you stream your media to your TV). The warranty, though, was a bit more promising: Sony offers one-year limited plan with in-home service (the latter being increasingly rare), plus a year of toll-free 24/7 technical assistance via phone. Sony touts its E-Series as a somewhat green notebook, a gesture that may matter to some shoppers. It’s Energy Star 5.0–compliant, and the computer, Sony says, is manufactured using 100 percent renewable energy. Also, all system exteriors and packaging are PVC-free, and the packing materials are made out of 65 to 95 percent post-consumer recycled content. Despite its poor battery life and some lesser quibbles, we’re still pleased with the E-Series. Its PCMark Vantage score was better than its category average, and its industrial design was superb for the price. We found it a pleasure to use in everyday tasks such as browsing the Web, watching movies, and playing light video games. It’s a solid choice for college students who leave their computer plugged in most of the time and want an entertainment device, and also perfect for around-the-house users. Anyone that often strays away from a power plug, though, will want to consider another model. Price (at time of review): $999 (list, as tested) | |
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