Sony's Struts Out New S Series Vaio Laptop
Sony's Struts Out New S Series Vaio Laptop
Posted 05/25/2011 at 7:58am
| by Paul Lilly
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We're fine with companies offering thinner, lighter designs, all we ask is that they figure out a way to nip and tuck without removing vital organs and replacing them with less powerful parts. After all, this is Maximum PC, not Compromise PC. Well, Sony claims that its new S Series Vaio laptop "combines for the first time portability, performance, and power" in said thinner and lighter design. Did they really do it?
Judging by the spec sheets, it doesn't look like Sony's blowing smoke. Pricing starts at $1,000 and gets you:
- 13.3-inch LED backlit display (1366 x 768)
- Intel Core i5 2410M processor
- 4GB DDR3-1333 memory
- 500GB (5400RPM) HDD
- AMD Radeon HD 6470M graphics
- DVD burner
- Wi-Fi; Bluetooth; GbE LAN
- WiDi ready
- USB 3.0; two USB 2.0; HDMI; VGA
- Memory card reader
- Windows Home Premium 64-bit
That's a respectable set of hardware to cram into a laptop that measures 13.04 (W) by 0.95 (H) by 8.84 (D) inches and weighs 3.8 pounds (with battery). It's also only the starting point. For $1,500, the S Series gets upgraded with a Core i7 2620M processor, 6GB of RAM, 7200RPM hard drive, and Radeon HD 6630M graphics.
There are other setups to choose from, as well being able to configure your own with a quad-core processor, Blu-ray player, SSDs in a RAID 0 config, and more. Users looking for extra long battery life can also select an optional sheet battery that offers up to 16 hours of run time on certain configurations.
The Vaio S Series is available for presale in five color options at www.sonystyle.com/sseries.
Image Credit: Sony
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drdjin
July 12, 2011 at 8:33pm
In my opinion, a true laptop need to be light weight and loaded with Power.
This Vaio S fits the bill perfectly. With i7 that can be turbo-boost to 3.4 GHz, dedicated 1GB VRAM, and 1600 x 900 resolution. It is a super-heavy weight Champ that is only 3.4LBs.
Adding the sheet-Battery, the total weight is still only 4.6LBs (way less than most notebook of this class)
In my opinion, the short-comings are few, 1) the screen benzel is too thick, the Vaio SZ670 I had was much thinner. 2) 3G WiMax only??? After shelling out $3443.00 I expect a 4G modem. 3) sheet battery is a poor investment!!! unless you are always planning to have no AC outlet or car/plane outlet for more than 4 hours.
Here's my spec:
13.3-inch LED backlit display (1600 x 900) Intel Core i7 2620M processor (2.7 GHz turbo-boost to 3.4GHz) 8GB DDR3-1333 memory 512GB SSD (2x 256GB SSD in RAID-0) AMD Radeon HD 6470M graphics with dedicated 1GB VRAM Blueray burner Wi-Fi; Bluetooth; GbE LAN WiDi Verizon 3G USB 3.0; two USB 2.0; HDMI; VGA Memory card reader, SD Card Reader Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 13.04 (W) by 0.95 (H) by 8.84 (D) inches Weighs 3.4 pounds (with battery) Weighs 4.6 pounds (with sheet battery) approximately 7.5 hours of intense processing with Photoshop and Premier Weighs 5.4 pounds with sheet battery and Targus APM69US charger. Total Cost with shipping and tax: $3443.00 4.2 pounds is my total carrying weight when I fly (minus the sheet battery)
Brad L
May 26, 2011 at 5:30am
Did they really do it?
No. All I had to do was read the first line of specs. I'm not interested in a laptop for entertainment reasons. I need a laptop for productivity and work. I need a laptop that has a 16x10 display.
rawrnomnom
May 25, 2011 at 11:56am
for their console buisness. boo sony
for their pc buisness...
Stop cramming every piece of bloatware in that you can find, and if you must cram it in, at least disable it from running on start up.
If you want to cram awesome things into small things keep doing it.
Stop making your entry level laptops things that fall apart. Dell managed to do it.
Use a better AC jack design. i've had ~12 laptops come in since january that i had to take the entire laptop apart and solder in a new AC jack because of the poor design.
Drop your prices a little... you arent apple...
kixofmyg0t
May 25, 2011 at 9:04am
Just wish they would use AMD cpu's....I'd buy one. I had a Viao back in 2006 and it was a huge piece of crap, but it was a manufacture fault that I fixed with some scraping and re soldering.
Oh wait...errr I mean SONY SUCKS YEAH!!! BURN SONY!
Whew, Crysis averted. Almost had a positive Sony post there for a sec. Forgot I was on MaximumSonyHate.sonysucks.com.reallysonysucks.org
Havok
May 25, 2011 at 9:55am
Really? You're going to bash Sony over a nice component set? Or was that about the PSN being down?
I approve of Sony releasing nice looking (and sounding) hardware, during their time of shame. They're not sticking their heads in the ground like ostriches here... I'd buy this if I needed it. It's actually the first Sony computer in 5 years that's caught my attention.
kixofmyg0t
May 25, 2011 at 12:58pm
Oh no I'm not really bashing Sony(shhhh! I dont want anyone to know!)
If you saying anything pro-Sony here you're usually greeted by about 3 people flaming you about how Sony is screwing you over this and blah blah blah OtherOs was the best thing since sliced bread blah blah blah.
So I just turned to hating Sony in public cuz its what all the "cool kids" are doing, kinda like meth ya know?
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