Sony VAIO SE1 Series VPCSE13FX/B 15.5-Inch Laptop (Jet Black)

I’ve had this laptop for about a week now and I couldn’t be happier with it.

Pros:
1. Gorgeous 15.5″ LCD screen. It’s got great resolution, brilliant colors, and it’s very bright. The 15.5″ screen may not be huge, but there is so much workspace because the resolution is so impressive. Great viewing angles as well.

2. Light but sturdy chasis. The chasis may be metal (which gives it a very modern look), but it’s still so light you can pick up the laptop with one hand with relative ease.

3. Great battery life. As with most manufacturers Sony exaggerated a bit when they said you get 6 hrs on this machine, but it does come close. If you’re on 50% screen brightness and you’re only doing browsing the web you will get about 5 hours.

4. Great performance. The laptop comes with a 2nd generation i5 2.4GHz processor, which is significantly faster than the i3. Everything about the laptop is quick, including the boot-up, which takes well under a minute.

5. Doesn’t pick up fingerprints. The finish on this laptop is matte, which means it resists fingerprints really well. The only truly glossy part of this laptop is the VAIO logo on the front.

6. Speed/stamina option. Sony includes a button that allows you to switch between using the Radeon graphics card (speed) and the less powerful, integrated Intel graphics (stamina). I thought this was pretty pointless at first but if you’re not working with graphics intensive stuff and you’re trying to conserve battery life, switching to the Intel graphics actually adds up to an 1 hour.

7. Relatively quiet. For people who are concerned about the fan noise, don’t be. It’s really not that noticeable, even when I’m gaming. Oddly enough, my roommate has the 13.3″ version of this laptop and the fan on that is extremely loud at times.

Cons:
1. The touchpad takes a little time to get used to.

2. The speakers are pretty weak and barely have any bass.

3. The headphone jack is towards the back, which is annoying if your headphone cord isn’t that long.

4. It’s pretty easy for stuff like dust to get under the keys. Unfortunately it’s a lot harder to clean…

Bottom line: The price might a setback but if you are looking for a laptop that balances performance, battery life, reliability, and aesthetics, this laptop is definitely worth it.

Keep in mind also, that at the time of me writing this, Amazon is offering a free $50 gift card and free sheet battery (which attaches to the bottom of the laptop, doubles the battery life, and retails for $130). $930 – $50 – $130 = $750.

For those of you who are searching for a new laptop and don’t really know what you want yet: the other laptop I had considered was the Toshiba Portege. It’s similar to this laptop in many ways but it is cheaper by $100 or so. There are a few minor drawbacks, like a weaker graphics card (Intel integrated graphics), no backlit keys, and a non-HD screen. Depending on what you want that may be a better option.

Very happy with this purchase. It’s bigger than I originally wanted….was searching for 13.3 inch laptop. However, most 13.3 in screens I’ve seen in person have a VERY poor viewing angle….move the screen slightly up or down and the screen either fades or the color washes out. This may not bother some, but is very annoying to me when viewing photos or watching videos.
The screen on this model is much better than any laptop I viewed in the stores.
True 1080p. Brilliant colors and excellent viewing angles from either horizontal or vertical.

I like the keyboard layout. It feels more like a desktop keyboard with the dedicated number pad.
There have been many complaints about the loud fan when doing heavy graphics or gaming, but Sony just released a new BIOS that remedies this.
You can still hear the fan spin up, but not as loud as other laptops. Also, it is very thin, and there is not much room in the chassis…you WANT the fan to do its job to prevent overheating. If the sound of the fan is too distracting, you should opt for a larger laptop with a thicker case.
Overall I think it’s in the top 5 in the price range.

Battery life could be better, but it is only a 4 cell. With the sheet battery I can get around 7-8 hours while surfing, email, etc with a brighter setting on the screen in Stamina mode.

I have had this for two weeks now and feel I finally have found a keeper. (I am picky with laptops — have bought and returned two other laptops this year before settling on this one as my fullsize option.)

The overriding pro here is the incredible screen/display — a combination of the high resolution as well as the perfectly tuned contrast, make this supremely comfortable to stare at for hours. It’s even qualitatively better than other high-end Sony Vaio laptops (at a BestBuy, I was originally impressed by the 16.4″ high-end/high-resolution Vaio F, but later went to another local retailer and saw that this 15.5″ blew that other Vaio away). On a scale of 1-10 I’d rate the average laptop screen as a 3 (you know, that “digital” glowing look, sometimes with the cross-lattices), some HP laptops as a 6 or 7, the Vaio F as a 7, most Samsung laptop screens as a 7-8, IPS screens (at least the ones I’ve seen) as an 8, and this Vaio S as a 10. My eyes hurt easily when doing work (no matter how much I fiddle with Cleartype, contrast and gamma settings), and this has been a revelation.

Other positives: an excellent backlit keyboard, good keys and trackpad; included Bluetooth; very light weight for a 15.5″; a clean, good-looking minimalist look (reminiscent of the black slab in 2001: A Space Odyssey); and acceptable battery life even with just the base battery. As a bonus, Amazon is also throwing in the sheet battery — which I think is a good idea (i.e., you choose the tradeoff between more battery life and more weight/thickness). The Speed/Stamina physical switch also turns out to be useful — much more convenient than fiddling with settings — and it really works, not just a gimmick. The i5 processor and discrete Radeon 6470M graphics work great. I’m not a “gamer” but tried a recent game (Skyrim) just for kicks and this handled the 1080p (highest resolution) setting with aplomb.

The rumored fan noise was also a concern of mine (I returned an MSI notebook this year mainly because of the excessively loud fan). I needn’t have worried. The fan is always running (it is never 100% silent) but during everyday tasks, the fan is very quiet and not overbearing at all — you have to listen for it and it sounds like a smooth airstream (and NOT like a “wind tunnel” effect nor a pitchy whine, both of which I despise). When running demanding programs/processes,the fan will increase in intensity but again, I don’t find it bothersome.

There are two negatives: one is the utterly middling sound/speaker quality. It gets the job done in a pinch, but most cell phone speakers sound better, to give you a basis of comparison. It is weak and there is no midrange, bass, or even high-end (I’m not sure what’s left). I’m okay with this because these days, there are excellent ultra-tiny/portable speaker options (I use the Satechi IPOP which can be charged via USB) that punch way above their grade (not to mention the option of headphones). However, if one is categorically against having to bring an extra speaker along, then this will be a problem. Secondly, the hard drive is slow and especially can’t compare to an SSD. That said, it’s fine for what it is, it’s quiet (no clicking noises!), and can be replaced with an SSD in the future if I ever wanted.

I don’t dock off any stars (i.e. each star is “worth” 20% of the rating) for these two issues because 1) in the case of the hard drive, it can be upgraded to an SSD in the future if desired, and 2) they’re not deal-breakers for me; the overall experience remains high. Hence 5 stars.

****THE GOOD****

1) Sleek, stylish and very light. The internal batteries will last you 3+ hours with surfing/browsing and Word Processor. If you use the Sheet battery, you’ll get maybe 7+ hours.

2) Not a lot of bloatware. I did a fresh install all the same.

****THE BAD****

Speakers are *very* poor quality. Sounds lack bass and any definition. You might as well listen to music via cups and strings. They are that bad.

***UPDATE ON BATTERY ISSUE***
Turns out this is a known issue in Win7/Vista. One solution is to modify the “Balanced” power option to run the wireless adapter at full power. This is what I did and my problem is resolved. Details can be found here: [...] . I’ve upgraded my rating to four stars.

I was nearly ready to send this laptop back. I am so happy to find a solution because except for the network issue, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this laptop.

I also ordered a hard disk caddy to replace the DVD drive with a second hard drive; unfortunately, Amazon.com doesn’t sell these (that I could find), but they are out there. Google for “vaio newmodeus” and you’ll find it.

*** END UPDATE***

I’m mixed on this machine. I suspect something is wrong with the internal battery. Most of the time when I’m running from the internal battery I have unexplainable problems with the wireless network; really slow page load times, for example. I replaced the internal drive with an SSD and had no problems of any kind while I was plugged into AC power, but totally wacky behavior while running from the internal battery (the drive freezes, for example). I have the sheet battery, and when I’m running with this battery I don’t have any issues- BUT… when the sheet battery is depleted and the internal battery picks up, the problems start. I can reliably (about 75% of the time) reproduce these problems by going back and forth from the internal battery to AC power.

When I’m running from AC power, I have no problems whatsoever. I don’t intend to run from the internal battery often, but I’d like to be confident that if I need to, I can. I don’t have that confidence now.

On the other hand, the screen is awesome. Vivid colors, ultra-high resolution for a screen of this size. It’s the main reason I bought it.