The VAIO S Series introduces a smart new battery concept that lets you keep working day and night without a pause. Overall thickness shrinks to less than 24mm, while weight is a travel-friendly 1.75kg (approx.). There’s also a cleverly concealed hinge mechanism that doesn’t distract your view of what’s on screen. The slim, light VAIO S Series features a stylish new ‘full flat’ design that’s crafted in magnesium with a wide aluminium palmrest for strength, lightness, usability and looks. Power, design and mobility come together beautifully with the new VAIO® S Series of 13.3″ slim notebook PCs from Sony. * VAIO “everywair” 3G WWAN (selected models) * Backlit keyboard and ambient light sensor * Fast Boot and quick web access for increased productivity * Dynamic Hybrid Graphic System for balanced stamina and performance * Work and play longer with new smart battery concept * Thin and light with elegant new ‘full flat’ design for enhanced mobility and superior robustness
Slim, stylish 13″ notebook PC by Sony packs greater stamina with less to carry (I have to admit, though, that the last VAIO I owned had the headphone jack located on the front of the machine, which is a lot more annoying.Power in Motion: boost your productivity with new VAIO S Series The headphone jack is located all the way toward the back of the computer–which means that if your headphone wire is particularly short, you may have to maneuver around a bit. The very smooth left side has only a headphone jack and an optical drive. Ports-wise, the VAIO S Series is fairly basic. The touchpad, which supports multitouch gestures, is smooth and sensitive its two discrete buttons are big and easy to press, if a little light on feedback. The keyboard is backlit and easy to type on, and it comes with a ten-key number pad. From left to right, the controls include a physical eject button (though the DVD-RW drive is tray-loaded), a switch for changing between the Intel integrated graphics and the AMD discrete graphics, an “Assist” button (which opens the Help screen), a Web button, and a VAIO button (which you can program to open different VAIO multimedia programs). Several buttons and switches sit above the keyboard, however–and when you turn the laptop on, it also has a lot of lights to go with those buttons and switches. The interior is also pretty simple, consisting of a matte-black wrist rest, a black Chiclet-style keyboard, and a smooth touchpad with two discrete buttons. The rest of the exterior is simple, and exudes a minimalist aesthetic. The hinge–which sticks out of the back of the machine by about a quarter of an inch–is plastic with a dark mirrored finish, and it feels a little flimsy. The cover is a plain matte black, with a medium-size mirrored VAIO logo in the center. The VAIO S Series has a thin, squared-off chassis with sharp corners. The VAIO S Series’ most desirable trait might be its portability: The 15.5-inch version weighs 4.3 pounds (5.2 pounds with accessories), and measures 14.9 inches wide by 10.1 inches long and just about 1 inch thick. The 15.5-inch model also comes in silver, while the 13.3-inch model comes in black, blue, pink, red, or white. Our review unit was the 15.5-inch VAIO S Series in black. In our Far Cry 2 graphics tests, the VAIO S Series managed a frame rate of 50 frames per second at the lowest quality setting (800 by 600 resolution), and a rate of 24 fps at the highest quality setting (same resolution). The system does have switchable graphics, which is a benefit for people who want to use this laptop for consuming multimedia and performing basic, nonintensive tasks (switching to integrated graphics will conserve battery life). In our graphics tests, the VAIO S Series’ performance was acceptable. While the VAIO S Series should be fine for most basic work tasks and streaming video, it’s by no means a graphics powerhouse or a gaming laptop. This is a decent, but not excellent, score that puts the VAIO S Series right around the middle of our Top All-Purpose Laptops list. In our WorldBench 6 benchmark tests, the VAIO S Series earned a score of 112.
This model runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium.
It also has a 640GB hard drive, a DVD-RW optical drive, and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. Our review model, priced at $1000 (as of December 14, 2011), sports an Intel Core i5-2430M processor, an AMD Radeon HD 6470M graphics card, and 4GB of RAM. Although the VAIO S Series offers mediocre general performance and modest graphics speed, it’s also light, thin, stylish, and very portable. The Sony VAIO S Series isn’t the most powerful all-purpose laptop, but I like it–and not just because I have a soft spot for Sony.