Sony VAIO S Series

It's sad to say, but most of you who are going back to school have probably already returned by now -- though if you're in class right this moment you should probably be paying attention. If you managed to get back to campus without bringing a new laptop along, you might just want to keep reading -- Sony's just released a 15.5-inch addition to its VAIO S Series that not only adds a crucial bit of extra display acreage, but also bumps things up to a full 1080p.

Yes, this is a laptop that can not only be configured with a Blu-ray drive but has enough pixels to do the resulting footage justice, meaning it could make a passable player for movie night. But, does it have the chops to do your workload justice? Is it worth the $1,000 minimum asking price, at least a $100 premium over Sony's 13-inch models? Join us as we find out.

Look and feel

The new 15-inch S Series definitely carries a lot of design DNA from its smaller SA and SB siblings. If it were closed and you were standing far away, or perhaps aren't so very good at judging the size of things, you'd have a hard time telling them apart. It shares the same thickness as the 13.3-inch SB we recently reviewed and shares the same angularish design, same magnesium alloy case, and same gigantic, swoopy VAIO logo in chrome on the back of the lid. Proud of your brand choice? You best be.

Open things up and you start to see some differences, most notably in the keyboard area. The extra footprint meant Sony had room to stuff a full number pad in here. This of course will be a boon for future and current CPAs, but the result is an offset QWERTY portion that some may find is not quite worth the compromise. Indeed, sitting slightly off-center from your laptop's display can leave everything feeling slightly askew.

Build quality in general left us with some misgivings, as with the SB. Sony touts the durability of its magnesium alloy case, but it makes an even bigger deal of its lightness. Indeed the 4.4-pound weight is more than acceptable for a laptop this size, but with this comes a feel that, to us, doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence.

Press on the keyboard and it flexes inward, and when you lift the screen open it bows precariously. Sony indicated this was by design, arguing that flexibility ultimately offers more strength than rigidity when it comes to protecting the hinge, but it's still not a perception that leads to a high-end feeling device. We'd rather Sony just built a better hinge.

The company did see fit to offer a satisfying array of connectivity options that includes a full three USB ports on the right side, one of them offering the unmistakable blue hue that can only mean USB 3.0. You'll also find a full-sized HDMI port for some digital video, a VGA port for those who like to keep it analog, Ethernet, and a pair of card readers: SD and the separate MagicGate. On the left you'll find the optical drive, a BD-ROM in our case, but purchasers will be bale to choose between a selection of readers and writers.

Keyboard and trackpad

As mentioned above, moving up to the 15.5-inch model nabs you a numberpad to the right of a full-sized, backlit Chiclet keyboard. The island-style design is basically unchanged from the SB in terms of key layout and feel, which means matte keys that match the overall design of the device stylistically. They also have the weight and springy feel that we felt on the SB, meaning they do require a bit more force to hit, but not enough to be a bother. The typing experience is simply a bit more alive than on, say, a MacBook Pro.

The trackpad is quite different-feeling than the usual Apple offerings as well, most notably by eschewing the clickpad trend. Indeed the touchpad does not depress, that functionality handled by a pair of buttons below. The buttons have good weight and feel, but we can't find anything positive to say about the trackpad. For normal dragging and moving of the cursor it does just fine, but two-finger scrolling and other gestures were more often ignored than obeyed, no matter how we tweaked settings.

Display and sound

When it comes to displays, more pixels is almost always better than fewer pixels, and if we're all in agreement there we can start by saying the 15.5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 display here is better than the 1,366 x 768 unit on the 13.3-incher. That's 1080p, or Full HD as Sony likes to call it, and it'll give you plenty of room whether you're multi-tasking with a few spreadsheets or mono-tasking with Akira on Blu-ray.

Regardless of duty we found the contrast ratio and viewing angles to be very good, only dipping slightly when we went off axis vertically, but delivering good viewing angles from the sides. It's a matte display, for which we're thankful, and this is the single, standard offering on the 15.5-inch S Series models. You won't need to pay extra to step up to 1080p. You can also stream video wirelessly courtesy of the integrated Wireless Display 2.1 tech from Intel, which manages 1080p sans cabling -- though you'll probably need to buy an adapter for your TV.

We do wish you could pay extra to get better sound, though. For a laptop this size we'd have expected a decent audio experience, but like the SB we're left feeling really disappointed. The speakers are loud enough to fill a modest size room, but even though you can hear it you won't necessarily like what's making its way through your ears. Sound is tinny and it simply sounds like the speakers built in here are struggling -- which they are.

Battery life

As usual, Sony thoughtfully includes a little switch right above the keyboard that lets you toggle instantly between "Stamina" and "Speed" modes, automatically re-configuring Windows to different settings and, as you'd expect, disabling the dedicated graphics card. We did our testing in Stamina mode, as this is probably the state you'll be in when roaming far away from power ports.

In this mode, and during our video rundown test with WiFi on and the display brightness set to 65 percent, the laptop managed one minute short of four hours. Not bad, but not great. With the $150 optional sheet battery slapped on the bottom we more than doubled that. The slice adds a considerable amount of thickness to the device but, it must be said, not a great amount of extra weight, making it a solid accessory choice for anybody whose flights are the type that usually entail more than one connection -- and whose carry-on or personal item is big enough to accommodate this thing.

Handily, that slice can be charged on its own, even when not attached to the laptop, but you'll need to pack a matchbox-sized adapter to do so.

Wrap-up

The 15-inch VAIO S Series from Sony is a solid step forward compared to the 13-inch models in many regards, but not enough so that we can say it's the conclusively better buy. Yes, having a bright, clear 1080p screen is a huge advantage, but the increase in footprint is of course not for everybody, nor will the hour you lose in plug-free running.