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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Great Laptop - for most users
By FunPro
PROS: Full 1920x1080 HD screen, excellent text display, true docking station connection, very good overall speed/performance, good touch pad features and performance, good keyboard, 10-key numeric keypad, built-in BlueRay player, light weight, fairly quiet, does not get hot in everyday use, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi connections work well, convenient power mode selection.CONS: Laptop screen color accuracy could be better (concern for some users)I have been using mainly high-end Dell desktops and laptops (and laptop workstations) at work and at home. This is my first Sony laptop/PC. I still like Dell but appreciate top quality and performance of any brand, even if it comes at a higher price (in this case my Sony laptop actually costs $400 less than its rival, the latest comparable Dell XPS 15 laptop). My Sony laptop is slightly different (has a Blue Ray player and somewhat faster HDD) than this Sony laptop on Amazon (I bought mine directly from Sony). My laptop is a Sony 15.5" S Series SVS1511BFXB laptop with: i7-3612QM processor, 8GB RAM (1333MHz), 640GB HDD (7200RPM), 2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE dedicated graphics card, 1920x1080 display with anti-glare, slot-loading Blue Ray disc player, WiFi Adapter Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235 with Bluetooth. This is a new Sony laptop (with the 3rd generation Intel i7 quad-core processor) that appeared in stores/online for the first time in late May or early June 2012. I've had this laptop for almost two months now. Before buying this laptop I went to several computer stores and spent hours evaluating several high-end laptops from different manufacturers, including this laptop at a local Sony store (plus I red many online reviews about them). The main reasons I chose this laptop were: (i) this laptop screen has 1920x1080 resolution with excellent text quality, (ii) it can be used with a true docking station, and (iii) it has a good multi-gesture touch pad that does not inadvertently do a lot of things you do not want it to do.This laptop displays text so well on its own screen (even the very tiny text) that is not far behind the famous retina display on the MacBookPro laptop. The text in Internet browsers on both laptops looks similarly good at a normal reading distance of 18-20 inches when using the max 1920x1080 display resolution. Also, the text on my Sony laptop looks better than on any other high-end laptop from Samsung, Dell, HP, ASUS, Toshiba, Lenovo, MSI, etc. Even the latest Sony VAIO 13.3" Z Series 1920x1080 laptop that has probably the best RGB color reproduction/accuracy of any laptop, including MacBookPro with retina display, does not display as good/sharp text (very good but not as good as this laptop). The text quality on this laptop screen alone would be enough for me to eliminate all other laptops. The text on the MacBookPro with retina display in MS Word and Excel is actually worse than on the average laptop at this time. Microsoft may improve the fonts for retina display in the next Office for Mac release. I use my laptop a lot for web browsing and reading/writing email, word documents and spreadsheets, so text quality is a big factor for me. I did change the default fonts to Tahoma 10 size for program menus, icons etc. in the Windows Color / Advanced Appearance settings (right click on the desktop and select Personalize to get there), and I use it with "Smaller-100%" Windows display setting which is the true 1920x1080 display resolution that matches the screen physical pixel resolution. These settings make text sharper and easier to read at the true 1920x1080 display resolution. The laptop comes with "Medium -125% (default)" setting, which is equivalent to a less sharp 1536x864 display resolution, but some find it easier to use because everything on the screen looks bigger (right click on the desktop, select Screen Resolution, then click on "Make text and other items larger or smaller" to change to "Smaller-100%"). I use 115% zoom in the web browser for a larger text (easier reading). I did see an i5-based version of this S Series laptop (also 1920x1080) at a local BestBuy recently that did not have as good text as my laptop or the laptops on display in the local Sony store, so there may be some variability from laptop to laptop, or the laptop at BestBuy had some different settings (e.g. Clear Type text settings in Windows 7). The right Windows settings can make a big difference, so I suggest to play with them until you get the best display for your laptop use. The antiglare coating on the laptop screen is very good and unnoticeable - the display is still bright and sharp, and you do not get any noticeable light reflections like you would from glossy screens.One thing with this laptop display, as some other reviewers mentioned elsewhere, is that like with almost all other laptop displays, RGB color accuracy at the high-end spectrum is not as strong as it could be (like on the above mentioned latest Sony VAIO 13.3" Z Series). Some colors are not as bright as they should be, e.g. the very bright red colors (red roses, red dresses) look less red and somewhat orangey. However, none of the high end graphics laptops and monitors I have seen can produce as sharp/accurate text across all applications as this latest 15.5" VAIO S Series. Apparently you can get either exceptional text quality (on some laptops) or very good RGB color reproduction (on some displays) but not both. I am happy that Sony decided to optimize this one for text quality. Don't get me wrong, I am being very picky here. The colors/graphics on this laptop are very sharp and look as good for most things as on high-end professional monitors. The only reason I know about this color reproduction thing is that after I read a review about it I checked to confirm it. I used this laptop for about 3 weeks without even noticing any lack of color accuracy, and I do not notice it now in my laptop usage either. That said, if you are selecting roses or red dresses online or are a graphic designer, get a high-end professional desktop monitor for best color reproduction and connect it to this (or another) laptop. For other laptop display uses you will not miss anything but will get an amazing quality text display in all Windows and Office applications (and at a reasonable price). The text on my professional 24" IPS monitor, which is one the best desktop monitors for text display today and normally looks very sharp, looks fuzzy when I use it after using this Sony laptop.When using this laptop at my desk I have it in its Sony port replicator - a true docking station that you put your laptop in and provides power supply/battery charging, monitor connection (HDMI or VGA), USB keyboard, mouse, USB speakers and any other USB peripherals connection, and a 1Gbps wired network connection, plus it has 500GB HDD in it, all automatically integrated with the laptop. You just put your laptop down on the port replicator (to engage the connector) when using it at your desk, and just lift it up to take it with you to a different place, absolutely no wires or separate connections to deal with. Other, USB-type port replicators that almost all other laptop brands have to rely on (except for business laptops/workstations) do not power your laptop or charge your battery and do not properly/reliably support high quality peripherals (hi-resolution monitor, speakers, etc.). That's why the VAIO port replicator was a big factor for me. The external HDMI display link is very good and works excellently in 1920x1200 resolution on my HP 24" HDMI professional monitor (either directly from the laptop or via the port replicator HDMI connector). Sony's specs for this laptop say (wrongly) that the max resolution out of its HDMI port is only 1920x1080. In reality it is better. 1920x1200 works great for me, and NVIDIA specs for this graphics card HDMI output are even higher (I don't have anything higher than 1920x1200 to test it).This laptop is very light (~4.5 pounds) for the screen size, power/performance, and built-in BlueRay player. It has been performing very well so far and without any problems. The laptop feels solid enough for a 15.5-inch lightweight and slim laptop. Some reviewers have expressed some concern about the laptop lid flexing when opening and closing it. The lid does flex a little when opening and closing it from one of its top corners, which is fairly normal for larger laptops that have a longer distance from the lid corners to the hinges . The lid hinges on all laptops are tight to hold the lid steady in various open positions, so some push is needed on the lid to move it. The lid flexing may actually improve the life of the laptop by reducing stresses at some other critical lid/laptop points (e.g. the lid hinges) that could be higher if the lid were more rigid. It all depends on the laptop design and materials, and how the laptop is used. Either way, I suggest opening and closing the lid from the middle of the top side as intended, and, in general, handle the laptop with care and it will last longer.The laptop does not get hot at all, and the fan produces mainly very low level constant noise and only gets slightly louder when the CPU is loaded more aggressively. I do not use this laptop for gaming, but from my other computer experience and based on the hardware specs, I think it should be good for moderately intensive PC games. If you are a hard-core PC gamer, you should probably get a higher power (and twice as heavy, noisy and hot) laptop or, even better, a high-end gaming desktop PC. For any other use this laptop has excellent performance/speed in both Stamina (power save) and especially in the high-performance mode (there is a convenient manual switch/slider on the laptop to change the power/performance mode). The keyboard is very good, backlit, and it feels very good and quiet as well. The 10-key numeric keypad is very useful. As for the touch pad, I have not seen one that I liked completely so far. However, this VAIO touch pad is much better than on previous Sony versions and much better than on any other laptop brand I have tried in stores and at work (and I have tested/tried many). Even the Apple laptop touch pads that apparently many people think are the best did not feel as good/smooth as this Sony laptop touch pad, although this could be subjective due to individual habits and getting used to it factors. One finger push or tap for the left click, two finger tap for the right click, two finger swipe for scrolling up/down and left/right, two finger pinch to zoom in/out, and three finger swipe for going back and forward are very good and very useful. So useful that I don't use the left or right click buttons on the touch pad almost at all, but they (integrated click buttons) also work well when used. I have had very few unintended touch pad actions, something that I cannot say about other laptops.The battery life with the built in battery is good for my usage of the laptop. I put the laptop in the docking station and use my 24" monitor and external mouse and keyboard if I am going to use it for hours - no laptop is comfortable on its own for 4-5 hours. From my mixed usage, I can reasonably conclude based on the usage time and the battery indicator (remaining life/time) that in the Stamina (power save) mode (which is very good for everything except heavy gaming or some other very heavy programs) and the screen brightness about 70% (still excellent display), I could get about 5 hours total on a single full battery charge while casually browsing the web and/or working on/reading email, word documents or spreadsheets. In the full Power mode, with the screen brightness about 90% and running heavier programs or videos, similar observations imply that I would probably get about half that much battery life. But it can be very different, depending on your laptop usage and screen brightness. For $150 extra (or sometimes included for free) you can double the battery life with the external sheet battery that actually does not make your laptop look or feel much different and still fits nicely in the Sony docking station (the built-in battery is enough for me). You can also set the max battery charge to 80% or 50% to extend the overall battery useful lifespan (to delay the need to replace the battery completely). This is especially useful if you keep your laptop plugged in most of the time, e.g. in a Sony docking station or with the laptop power cord plugged in. It's relatively simple to replace this Sony laptop battery if needed, unlike the latest Dell 15" XPS laptop or some other high-end laptops on which the customer cannot change the battery.The wireless network adapter is both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, which is nice. 2.4GHz is the default setting, so you need to change the settings to 5GHz in VAIO Control Center if you want to use 5GHz (and if your WiFi router supports it). I get up to 300Mbps WiFi speeds (max for my dual band router ) with the 5GHz connection (half that much with 2.4GHz) and no losing signal even when used across the house floors/sides, although the speed does vary from about 150Mbps to 300Mbps, but I don't see any download speed difference compared to my wired network connection when downloading large files (your external Internet service speed is probably less than 25Mbps anyway). The laptop speakers sound much better than they did in the relatively noisy Sony store and are OK for basic needs. I suggest getting some good computer speakers (or ear/head phones) if you want to listen to the music or watch videos more extensively. The Blue Ray disc player works well with music CDs, DVDs and BDs and is slot-loading. It does not have a tray coming out, which is nice and more practical, unless you need to use a smaller size CD or DVD, which I could not figure out how to load - the disk being too small to get pulled in by the hardware. The laptop comes with some useful Sony preloaded software (VAIO Control Center, Sony Music and Vegas Movie Studios, VAIO Care), and also with some annoying (to me) software (VAIO Messenger, some automatic synch and content sharing apps) which I am about to disable/uninstall, but nothing bad.In conclusion, I am very satisfied with this laptop and do highly and regularly recommend it to my friends and co-workers. For higher accuracy color display needs described above (or just for a bigger display size) use it with a professional grade PC monitor. If you are a hard-core video gamer, you may be happier with a high-end gaming desktop PC (and maybe with some other more than twice as heavy, hot and noisy laptops), but this laptop should be good for casual video gaming and everything else.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Don't let the photo fool you - this is a great computer
By otuaco
My original title was: "Great specs and functionality for graphic design" - I had to change it because from the photo, I would not buy this computer. But fortunately, the first time I saw it was in person and it had a chance to win me over.The price is a little steep, but after about a year of searching for the right laptop, I crossed paths with this one at a Sony store and I was sold. The version in white only came with an i5 processor so I had to give up on the color (well translucent/teal akin to those old Macintoshes would've been the ideal...), but everything else was spot on what I wanted. Which was: 10-key pad, less than 5 lbs (this is an amazingly light 4.4 lbs), i7 processor, 500+ GB hard drive, 6+ GB RAM, optical drive, matte screen (this one has a dull glossy screen), good screen resolution (this one's full HD! 1920x1080, which makes a lot of on-screen content/text appear a little small, but pictures look great!), decent battery life (this can probably range from 4-6 hours depending on screen brightness and their stamina vs. speed performance options), and good hardware (details below).I was considering an ultrabook for a while and waiting for all the models to come out, but none of them seemed to have good enough specs to run any design programs too intensively. I do graphic design work using Adobe Creative Suite programs (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) and these lagged a lot on my old 2006 Sony Vaio, which is why I was in the market for a new laptop. I was dabbling in Kompozer and Eclipse a little too and that wasn't really working out. It was hard to find graphic design computer reviews since most people are email/iTunes/Office/programming users so I started looking into gamers' PC reviews but a lot of those laptops (Alienware, etc.) are huge, and weight was an important factor to me. Apple is always a great option for designers of course, but in using an iMac at work and Windows at home, I was constantly directly comparing the two interfaces and I prefer PCs for my personal computer/design use. I think it's partially because there are a lot more options, not just MacBook Pro or Air, 13 or 15" (15" without 10-key); plus some small menu/window items and mouse/keyboard functionality differences. Also what's nice is that I can hook this computer up to my Westinghouse 24" monitor (which the HD looks great on), my Microsoft mouse, and my Seagate portable hard drive without worrying about compatibility, especially since I don't remember if I bought a dually-compatible hard drive; and I can use my old software, yay! I wasn't particularly intending to buy another Vaio but I was looking around at everything - Dell XPS, Asus Zenbook, HP Envy, Toshiba Satellite, Samsung, Vizio, Acer, MacBook... and I was about to give up and buy a CD drive, a plug-in numeric keypad, and a USB port splitter, so I could get whatever ultrabook otherwise had the best specs, but then this laptop came along and solved all my problems. Actually my ideal laptop really would have been a 14" with 10-key, but that doesn't exist.About this 15" Vaio if you don't get a chance to see/use it in person before ordering it:- Sony now includes a regular SD slot on their laptops! This was the killer for me before since you could only put Sony cards into their Sony card reader. Now there's 2 card readers - theirs and the regular. Side note: when you insert a card it goes almost all the way into the slot; I wasn't used to that since the cards usually stuck out more on my netbook.- All of the USB ports are on the right side, which is inconvenient since the power cord also plugs into that side and wireless receivers, flash drives, etc. are all poking out where I use my mouse, but it's manageable and worth it for having a built-in CD drive on the other side. Plus the USB slots are 3.0, 3.0, and 2.0. The slots are slightly snug so it's a little hard plugging and unplugging things into them, and you end up having to use a little extra force (or care).- The computer takes a while to power on, longer than I was expecting it to for a new computer anyway, but it wakes up from hibernation really quickly.- It's odd - the shallowness of the keyboard and the way the keys are designed kind of make it difficult to type fast. I don't know what exactly it is about it. But even still, this is a much better keyboard than one I saw on an HP that was actually bouncing as I typed. This is solid at least. The keyboard is backlit but I don't know where the sensor is because sometimes the lights are on and sometimes they're not, at what seem to be arbitrary times to me. But at a certain darkness I think they're always on.- The sound quality is pretty good. I had an Eee PC netbook that had horrible speakers, and that was when I first realized sound quality could vary from computer to computer. On this Vaio there's nothing out of the ordinary, amazing or egregious, and that's all I want from a laptop.- The touchpad feels flimsy so I'm not really a fan, and I use it about half the time (when I'm not using a mouse). Since there are no dedicated buttons, I feel like the bottom left corner is eventually going to cave because I'm pressing on it all the time. And somewhat more frequently than I'd expect, my intended left clicks register as right clicks, which gets annoying. I think this is one of the few aspects of the computer that I really wish could be different. Everything else is something small I can get over.- Software-wise there's some weird alternate menu option Sony offers as a drop-down at the top of your home screen. I turned it off but it's nice that they have something different, if you want to try it out.- This computer is wider than most 15" laptops (it's about 14.75" across x 9.75") so it doesn't fit all sleeves - it's an uncomfortable squeeze to fit it into a backpack I bought that specifically advertised that it can hold a 15" laptop. So be somewhat aware when buying accessories. There are some 16"-sized items out there that probably work well.- The interior is metal but the exterior is plastic, which looks okay but borderline cheap. I think it makes the laptop lighter though, so that works for me. The metal rounds around the edge where your wrists rest so at least it's not a sharp metal-to-plastic transition.Lastly, a product placement tidbit: (since that's always fun)I think I spotted this computer being used by Channing's pals in 21 Jump Street.
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Sorry I bought a Toshiba. Be careful!!!!!!!
