Impressive, very! The Vaio S-series really is one of the few laptops that are worth this much money. For starters, there is no shortage of power. The battery life is by far the best among all laptops we tested in 2012, and almost closes in on ultrabook territory. But really why you should buy this laptop is because of the 15.5-inch Full HD
IPS display, something that is a rather unique proposition. All in all, this one is rather powerful, with a brilliant display and yet remains surprisingly slim.
Features & Specifications
We will get to the more interesting bits in a moment, but first, the customary run through the spec sheet. The test Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB unit that we received was powered by an Intel Core i5–3210M processor, clocking at 2.5GHz. Turbo Boost will take it to 3.1GHz. To help it along, there is 4GB of RAM, and quite frankly, we expected more memory. For around the same price, you have the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 that is powered by a Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM. We will compare the performance in the next section, but at least on the spec sheet, the Sony Vaio does seem to have a fairly run-of-the-mill setup.
We will get to the more interesting bits in a moment, but first, the customary run through the spec sheet. The test Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB unit that we received was powered by an Intel Core i5–3210M processor, clocking at 2.5GHz. Turbo Boost will take it to 3.1GHz. To help it along, there is 4GB of RAM, and quite frankly, we expected more memory. For around the same price, you have the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 that is powered by a Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM. We will compare the performance in the next section, but at least on the spec sheet, the Sony Vaio does seem to have a fairly run-of-the-mill setup.
For your storage needs, there is a 640GB hard drive on the Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB. The Lenovo IdeaPad Z580, on the other hand, has a 1TB drive. The machine comes preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), but both are very much upgradable to Windows 8 under the current heavily discounted upgrade scheme.
Graphics capabilities of both machines are rather robust. The Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB has an Nvidia GeForce GT640M (2GB) and switches between this and the Intel HD4000 during performance and stamina modes respectively.
The island keyboard has a dedicated number-pad as well. That real estate was afforded because of the 15.5-inch display. Surprisingly, it took me some time to get used to the layout. That usually doesn’t happen with most laptops with a dedicated number-pad on the right, but this one is apparently slightly differently laid out. The big touchpad will be very helpful if and when you do upgrade to Windows 8.
