Sony VAIO YB Series VPCYB35KX/P 11.6-Inch Laptop (Pink)

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Sony VAIO YB Series VPCYB35KX/P 11.6-Inch Laptop (Pink)
So in this market of not-quite laptop/more-than-a netbook, it's easy to get bogged down and flustered, trying to figure out which system is the one for you. Sony has tried to bring its own netbook/notebook to the market with the Vaio YB series, but hasn't really succeeded. It hasn't altogether failed though either, but let's break it down and figure things out.

Pros:

1.) Incredibly easy out-of-box experience. Connect battery, turn on. Run through a very simple Windows 7 setup, and you're done.

2.) Not an altogether awful amount of pre-installed software (though still far too many Vaio entries in Programs/Features). The 500GB hard drive (456GB after formatting) has 437GB available, which is pretty reasonable after a Windows 7 installation.

3.) The system itself feels fairly solid, despite its platicky nature, with little to no flex anywhere.

4.) A nice array of ports for an 11.6" laptop, with 3x USB, 1x HDMI, Ethernet, VGA, headphone/microphone, SD Card/Memory Stick.

5.) Nice resolution for the screen size, at 1366x768, and very bright.

6.) Decent battery life (4-5 hours).

7.) Raised palm rests that are quite comfortable, solid, and not smudge-magnets like many other systems.

However, the cons have to come in here, and there's a lot of them...

Cons:

1.) The screen, while featuring a lovely resolution, is desperately (and I mean desperately) lacking in contrast. Viewing angles are atrocious, vertically and horizontally, and I'm just not happy with the way text is displayed due to the lack of contrast. Black text just looks faded and grey.

2.) There's one fan in the system, and that's on the left side of the system. It's always blowing, and makes a noticeable whining in a quiet room. I wouldn't classify it as obnoxious, even under full power, but it's definitely present, and runs 100% of the time.

3.) There's 4GB of DDR3 in the system, but with Windows 7 32bit installed, only 3.5GB is actually usable. Even more bizarrely, after opening up the panel on the underside, I found my system is equipped with one stick of 4GB RAM. But despite having two slots total in the computer, it's only capable of 4GB max (even with Windows 7 64bit - tested)! So one slot will always stay empty...

4.) The trackpad, despite being very responsive, is very, very small. Curiously, it supports multitouch (but not for scrolling - that's taken care of on one side of the trackpad with one finger, and is adjustable). Pinch to zoom and rotate is present, but good luck doing that with one hand. I found I had to use the index fingers of two hands to make it work. A bigger trackpad would help.

5.) The physical trackpad buttons are very loud and click-y. Definitely not conveying a high-end system here (which of course, it's not).

6.) The E-series dual-core AMD processor in the system just seems to struggle doing the most menial tasks. Watching HD YouTube videos pretty much means not doing anything else, and there's just a general sense of "slow" surrounding the entire computer. This isn't helped by the pedestrian 500GB 5400rpm Hitachi hard drive inside. Thankfully the drive is easily swapped out for something faster (7200rpm drive or SSD, please!). The unfortunate thing is this computer feels slightly less netbook-y, but altogether not enough notebook-y.

7.) The keyboard's keys are not full size. You get used to this for the most part, except for two absolutely obnoxious keys: The right shift key and the question mark key. The right shift is the same size as every other normal letter, and I just can't get used to it. Any time I use this key (which is all the time), I have to look down at it to see where I'm pressing. And entering a question mark is even more difficult, since that key is even smaller than the right shift - and they're both next to each other! Ohh the pain!

8.) While the keyboard has a nice, chiclet-style feel to it, the higher rows of keys (the numbers especially) have a noticeably "tinny" sound to them, which once again doesn't convey quality...

9.) The power LEDs (yes, there are two of them, side and top, for no good reason), are astonishingly bright. These things light up a pitch-black bedroom. Good luck to your wife/husband/partner sleeping with you using your Vaio. Bright green fills the darkness. Oh, and you can't cover the larger of the two LEDs (the one on the side) with some felt or duct tape, because the LED houses the actual power button!

10.) Extremely tinny/thin sound, but this isn't altogether unexpected. Use earphones.

11.) Last and definitely least, there are 5 individual stickers on the laptop out of the box. While easily removed, it feels like an advertisement for everything about your new computer. Windows 7 sticker, AMD E sticker, Dual Core Graphics sticker, Energy Star sticker, and the Sony goodness-this-thing-has-HDMI-and-weighs-only-3.2lbs sticker. So many stickers!

Overall, this isn't a horrible system. If you have big hands look elsewhere as the keyboard (and to a lesser degree - trackpad) will drive you mental, but if you can get past the cons, it's quite a nice, solid computer. It's hard to recommend, but not exactly easy to dismiss. For the money, though, be sure it's what you want.

3 stars out of 5.

Sony VAIO E Series SVE15115FXS 15.5-Inch Laptop (Aluminum Silver)

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Sony VAIO E Series SVE15115FXS 15.5-Inch Laptop (Aluminum Silver)
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars High quality laptop June 29, 2012
By Arcadian
The Sony Vaio E15 is an excellent mid-level laptop. I use mine for a variety of functions including music production (Cakewalk Sonar), gaming (Steam games such as Team Fortress 2), and standard work-related tasks. It runs everything quickly and smoothly thanks to the generous RAM and the dual core i5 processor. To be honest, I custom ordered mine directly from Sony, which wasn't a bad deal. I upgraded the RAM to 8 GB and got the color of my choice (black). They give you free quick shipping (took about 4 days to ship from China), but they do charge tax unlike Amazon.

The default graphics card is the Intel HD 4000, which is surprisingly good for an integrated (as opposed to dedicated) graphics card. I am able to play TF2 with most of the graphics settings on high, and there is never a hitch in the framerate. If you order from Sony, you can also upgrade to the Nvidia Geforce GT 640M with 1 or 2 GB of dedicated graphics processing.

One of the finest qualities is the keyboard. The keys are soft and silent, and they are backlit as well. This is extremely useful for typing at night when the lights in your room are turned off.

It comes with Windows 7 64-bit (with Service Pack 1). After using Windows Vista 32-bit for several years, the upgrade is noticeable. W7 is cleaner, less error-ridden, and has a nicer interface. Some of the pre-installed Vaio software is actually useful, like Vegas Movie Studio and Sound Forge, but it's easy enough to uninstall the crap you don't want.

For $700, this is a great value. It probably performs as well as any $2000 Apple laptop...just a guess.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect... July 8, 2012
By J. Shipp
Amazon Verified Purchase
Received my new Vaio yesterday, returned it today, but more on that later.

Fit and finish: The first thing that struck me as I un-boxed my new Vaio was that it is a very handsome machine. This computer is not for Rocket Boys or Pink Ladies - it has a distinctly adult look to it. The lid is dark, almost pewter-toned brushed aluminum with the deeply engraved Vaio insignia. The inside deck is dark grey plastic but rigid and very attractive. The hinges have a solid, high quality feel, just enough resistance. The Vaio was completely free of dust, fingerprints, scratches, gaps, misalignments and rough edges, with one exception: the upper left quadrant of the keyboard was not completely seated into the deck. A little finger pressure around the edge of the keyboard and it literally snapped into place.
The trend among higher-end laptops these days is toward a seamless machine, one that appears to have been carved out of a single block of aluminum. This is not one of those machines - it is made of many pieces of plastic and metal but they all fit together well and look good.

Keyboard: All of the keys worked well, they have a softer and shallower touch than I am used to but the feel is perfectly acceptable. I don't use the touchpad so I can't speak to that issue. The keyboard backlight is quite bright with no brightness adjustment. The control panel menu offers several options for the backlight - on all the time, off all the time or it will turn on when you touch any key and turn off after 15 seconds of no activity (my preference). It is a little brighter than I am used to but lighted keys are essential to my happiness so, once again, no problem.

Display: I really like the display. Colors are rich and accurate (reds are deep red, blues are true blue). The screen is plenty bright for me. Script is sharp and clear. The screen is glossy which helps insure a vibrant picture but also reflects ambient lighting so I wouldn't advise outdoor use. I belong to a tiny minority that believes 1080P is too many pixels for a 15" screen - everything, especially script, gets very small with full HD. 720P works just fine for me. The new Intel HD 4000 graphics are also a major improvement over the older 3000 version.The 4000 control panel offers more picture quality adjustments and (most importantly) allows you to save a list of presets for various uses such as browsing, streaming, DVD, etc.

Performance: The new i5 Ivy Bridge CPU is very quick. It is noticeably faster than the first generation i5 in my 3 year old HP. I'm not a gamer so I can't talk about high performance issues but then this is not a gaming machine by any stretch of the imagination. The sound quality is better than I expected, good for dialogue but not so much for music (hey, it's still a laptop).

And the bad news...I use my laptop mostly at home with an ethernet connection and the RJ45 (ethernet) port on my new Vaio is defective. The ethernet cable connector is very loose in the port and the slightest movement causes loss of internet connection. Unacceptable. Rather than bang heads with Sony (their nearest repair facility is 200 miles from my home) I am returning the Vaio to Amazon for a replacement. Otherwise, I really like the computer and I hope everything works out.

Update: Amazon got my replacement to me within 4 days. I have had time to dump the bloatware, set up the computer the way I like it and, quite honestly, I couldn't be more satisfied with the product. I ordered a keyboard cover from Sony - expensive but a perfect fit and it allows the keyboard lighting to shine through. Of the 4 laptops I have owned, this Vaio is the most quiet and cool running.

Acer Aspire AS5560-7402 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

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Acer Aspire AS5560-7402 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

I have been researching laptops for quite a few weeks before I decided to purchase this one. The goal for me was to find a laptop powerful enough for gaming for $500 or less. Yes, the options were very low, but then I found this beauty. I can play games like World of Warcraft and League of Legends at nearly the highest settings with no screen tearing, lag, etc. Everything runs surprisingly smooth. I've played WoW for a few hours in a row without the laptop overheating. I would also like to mention that this laptop is very quiet. It is not noisy at all.

Pros
-Powerful for the price
-No noise when on for hours even in games
-No overheating
-Keys are nice and quiet
-Sleek and attractive design
-Etc!

Cons
-Speakers are not the greatest, but not a huge enough flaw to worry about in my opinion
-Can't think of anything else!
So yes, I must give it a 5 out of 5! This laptop is worth every penny! If you are on a tight budget but desire a laptop for gaming, this is the laptop for you!