This actually makes the symbols on top of the keys – just transparent cut-outs – surprisingly difficult to read at a number of angles. There's a lot of air between the keys and the surrounding tray, and light absolutely pours out from these gaps. But the bigger issue is actually the backlighting. The island-style keys have too little travel and feel a bit too small, with too much space between them. Perhaps it's all the preinstalled, resident software that's to blame, including the Mac-like Vaio Gate dock at the top of the screen.Īnd while the S Series has a truly phenomenal trackpad – a nice, large surface with the right level of traction, spacious buttons, and excellent tracking accuracy – the keyboard is no great shakes. I also experienced a few unexpected crashes – hardcore, hold-down-the-power-button-to-restart crashes – which dampened my enthusiasm. It's noticeably sluggish during many routine operations. What's not to like?įirst, there's performance: The numbers aren't bad when compared to the field, but when you consider its specs, this Vaio underperforms. Ports include 3 USBs (one is USB 3.0), SD slot, Memory Stick slot, Ethernet, HDMI, and VGA.Īll this in a package which, at 4.4 pounds, is lighter than most 14-inch laptops.
#Sony vaio s 15 2012 review 1080p
And the dazzlingly bright IPS screen, an odd 15.5 inches diagonally, offers a phenomenal 1920 x 1080 resolution – genuine 1080p right there. Switchable graphics let you jump between a Radeon HD 6630M and an integrated chip, depending on how miserly you need to be with your power consumption.
It's massively spec'ed out with a 2.8GHz Core i7 CPU, 6GB of RAM, a 640GB hard drive, and an integrated Blu-ray drive. On paper, the Sony Vaio S Series has everything I could want in a machine. Man, I wanted to love this laptop when I first heard about it.