Sony VAIO E Series

Sony’s new 15.5-inch VAIO E Series promises style, performance, and multimedia prowess at recession-conscious prices. Though our $919 configuration is a bit steep, this machine provides more than ample performance to serve as an all-purpose family PC that surfs the Web, plays Blu-ray movies and games, and looks great in your den, kitchen, or living room. However, short battery life and tinny speakers hold this system back.

If you want a notebook with a conservative look that will fade into the wallpaper, don’t buy the VAIO E Series. However, if you desire a colorful, exciting design that really turns heads, the VAIO E is for you. However, it's not made for road warriors. At 14.6 x 9.8 x 1.2 inches thick and 6.0 pounds, the VAIO E is more at home on your desk than on your lap or your airline tray table.

The 103-key island-style keyboard includes a numeric keypad and plenty of room for your hands. The keys offer an acceptable but unimpressive level of tactile feedback, with no noticeable flex. Using the Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor test, we were able to achieve a strong score of 86 words per minute with a 1-percent error rate, better than our typical rate of 80 words per minute. 

The VAIO E’s 15.5-inch 1366 x 768 screen provided sharp images and bright colors. However, the glossy surface on the screen ensured that colors looked washed out at any but the most direct viewing angle and, even when sitting right in front of the computer, we had to push the lid back 30 degrees to avoid seeing overhead lights or our own reflection. 

Every kind of video we played was incredibly sharp, detailed and smooth, from a streaming 720p episode ofFringe to a downloaded 1080p file from Microsoft’s WMV HD Content Showcase to a DVD of the movie Dark City. When we tried playing a Blu-ray disc of Iron Man, images were crisp and colorful, but the soundtrack seemed muted, even at maximum volume.

The VAIO E’s 2.13-GHz Intel Core i3-330M CPU and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics combined to give it very strong overall performance. Whether surfing the Web, viewing high def videos, playing games, or circling the globe in Google Earth, the notebook felt extremely snappy, and our benchmark tests only confirmed that impression. 

On PC Mark Vantage, a test that measures overall performance, the VAIO E scored a whopping 5,449, well above the mainstream notebook category average of 3,587 and the 4,918 returned by the Core i3-powered Toshiba Satellite L505. 

The 7,200-rpm, 500GB hard drive booted Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) in 56 seconds, which is just a tad faster than the category average of 59 seconds and 5 seconds better than the Satellite L505.

The hard drive took 2 minutes and 55 seconds to complete the LAPTOP Transfer Test, in which we copy 4.97GB of mixed media files. That’s a rate of 21.7 MBps, which is a little bit better than the category average of 20.4 MBps or the 20.9 MBps turned in by the Satellite L505.

Though it’s not marketed as a gaming system, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 card inside the VAIO E gives it a lot of graphics muscle. On 3DMark06, which measures overall graphics prowess, the VAIO E scored an impressive 4,112, way better than the 3,185 category average, miles ahead of the Satellite L505 with integrated graphics (1,743), and even better than the discrete graphics-powered ASUS UL50VF (3436).

With a 15.5-inch screen, powerful Core i3 CPU, and discrete ATI graphics, we didn’t expect the VAIO E Series to last very long on a charge. On the LAPTOP Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi, the notebook lasted only 2 hours and 44 minutes. This is 45 minutes less than the category average of 3:29, and 23 minutes less than the Toshiba Satellite L505. The ASUS UL50VF, which uses an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and Nvidia Optimus Technology, lasted a whopping 7 hours and 50 minutes. 

The Sony VAIO E provides a strong mix of style, performance, and multimedia features, but it’s not for everyone. If you’re looking for the best possible multimedia system, you may want something with better sound. You also might want to hold out for the 1920 x 1080 screen configuration of the VAIO E. If graphics performance isn’t paramount, you should be fine with the base integrated graphics configuration, though you might want to look at Toshiba's Satellite L505: both are available for $699. However, if you want a colorful centerpiece for your living room/office that the whole family can enjoy for gaming, work, and more, the VAIO E is a compelling choice.