Sony Vaio E laptops
By Dean • May 3rd, 2010 • Category: Laptops, Mobile Computer News
- Photo: Sony
The new Sony Vaio E laptops are a strange beast. Historically, Sony’s laptops are almost all aesthetically amazing, rivaled by very few. Sony just makes good looking computers. The problem, however, is what’s under the pretty contours and finish has been a decidedly average computing experience for years.
Now with E laptop series, Sony has flipped that script, by making a competent to impressively powerful laptop and, in turn, sacrificing what made the company’s laptops aesthetically amazing.
Input interface
But before getting to what is generally disappointing about Sony’s Vaio E laptops, let’s talk about what works well. Outside of upped performance, the Vaio laptop series has always had great inputs and a fantastic interface.
The proprietary isolation-type keyboards, where numbers are seen separated from symbols and letters, are fantastic. Keys are well-spaced, feel good and are very tactile.
The same can be said for the slightly off-centre trackpad, which is well sized, has the perfect balance of resistance so that your fingers neither slips nor sticks to the trackpad, and the buttonis well sized and nicely positioned, too.
Performance
This is where Sony Vaio laptops have often come unstuck. With the Vaio E series, this has been rectified, thankfully, and media playback, basic usage and occasional heavy lifting are handled with very few problems now.
The Sony Vaio VPC-EB1JFX/W is a good example of this, with its Intel Core i3 overcoming its predecessor’s shortcomings. The Intel Core i5 e series laptops that have come since are an even greater improvement.
What disappoints
Though, as hinted earlier and in a move that’s as bizarre as it is humorous, this particular Vaio isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as the rest, being bulky, too box-like and in decidedly unimaginative colour schemes.
Furthermore, across the entire Sony Vaio e laptops range is sub-standard battery life, just topping 3 hours on video playback. This was acceptable years ago, but for a contemporary machine, is just not good enough. This, in turn, is quite a drawback for a laptop that’s such a pleasant experience to use otherwise, with its generous screen size and great input, meaning its users may want to put it through its paces more than its battery can cope with.
Back to front
It’s strange how Sony went from good design with poor performance to good performance with poor design (by Vaio standards). If the company could marry the two aspects at their best, the Vaio laptop range could legitimately go to a level reserved for very few computers.
The Vaio E series is not terrible. It’s just not quite everything it could be.
Tags for this article: sony vaio, sony laptops

