Sony EE34: Sony Makes Budget AMD Laptops?
by Dustin Sklavos on February 22, 2011 4:43 PM ESTMiddling Gaming Even at 720p
The 720p resolution should really be the low-ball target for graphics hardware at this point, but virtually no integrated parts are really there yet. While Intel's HD graphics largely had their way with the Sony EE34's Mobility Radeon HD 4250 in Futuremark, actual gameplay promises to be an improvement.
The situation is pretty dire when even the GeForce 310M is running wild. That said, while Intel's HD graphics certainly look to fare reasonably well against the HD 4250 it's important to keep in mind that AMD's graphics hardware has vastly superior drivers and much better compatibility. The HD 4250 is probably fine for gaming at 800x600 in a pinch and at least the CPU can handle the load (unlike the E-350), but really no integrated part except maybe the delayed Sandy Bridge hardware can promise a good gaming experience on recent titles. Set the way-back gaming machine for 2005 or so and you'll be a lot happier.
Unfortunately, updating the HD 4250's drivers is going to be an exercise in futility. Much like Toshiba inexplicably chose to, Sony has also opted out of AMD's mobile graphics driver program. That leaves you stuck trying to update the video drivers for a laptop Sony seems terrified of even acknowledging on its website. If you happen to have another notebook with AMD mobile graphics in it, you can use that to download the driver package and it'll install fine on the EE34, but that seems like a silly step to even have to take.
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piroroadkill - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
You don't always need to buy cheap junk. Lenovos aren't too bad though.Quick example, my main laptop is a Dell Latitude D800, which still works perfectly now with a new hard disk and 2GB RAM upgrade, and Windows 7, alongside the existing 2GHz Pentium M and Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo (128MB).
That must be 6 years old. It has a nicer screen than anything I could get now (1920x1200).
I don't need to upgrade it unless I wanted to play 1080p video or new games.
Stuka87 - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
I too had no clue Sony made a budget laptop period, much less a laptop with an AMD in it. And it actually looks like a pretty nice machine for the price.And it was a nicely written review at that.
roko98 - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
"I've been paid to fix those computers. I don't like doing it anymore. There are bargains, and then there's getting what you pay for. When my dad's girlfriend complains because the illegal immigrant she paid a paltry eight bucks an hour to take care of her front yard didn't do a very good job, she sounds dense."Maybe you are right, maybe not. Please keep it for yourself. This comment doesn't fell right for a very professional site like Anand's. If you skip this... good review.
Jumangi - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
Oh noes!!! Here comes the PC police!We all know its supposed to be "undocumented immigrant"...don't want to make the progressives angry...
Nfarce - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
Exactly why does the phrase "illegal immigrant" get liberals so upset? What part of illegal and immigrant in the phrase "illegal immigrant" is not hard to understand? It is what it is whether one is from South America, Europe, or Indofreakingchina. Get over yourselves.7Enigma - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link
I'll be honest, I could care less about PC comments (see the other comments below), but I also agree it just didn't fit in the piece. Seemed to me like an extra paragraph was needed for the article and this fluff was thrown in to pad the page. Not all of us have a great deal of free time and I doubt the target audience of this piece needs/cares about someone complaining about yard work.Stick to the substance, and we'll be happy.
RaistlinZ - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
So basically, they got all the cheapest components they could find and wrapped them around a Blu-Ray player for $600. This thing offers netbook performance for a higher cost. Why put a Blu-Ray with a crappy screen to watch it on?13x7 resolution? 5200 rpm HDD? 10 fps average on games? I don't see a market for this thing. Maybe at $400, but not at $600.
Calabros - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
I prefer budget notebooks, cause if it lost or stole or dropped, I loose $600 not 1.5KHHCosmin - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
nice to see sony making an... ahem... less expensive lappie.first thing is i think people over value the cpu power. laptops are more about mobility: weight, autonomy, durability and less about horse power. don't like much the optical drives. there a lot of ways to carry data besides optical drives: sticks, online, nas etc.
runtime... this is one of the things that plagued amd.... but you see notebooks are not made by amd but by integrators: acer, asus, sony etc. so the runtime is not the cpu runtime but the platform runtime. well the platform is the integrator business. since amd was mostly for cheap builds then the integrators cared very little for making a good platform with good runtime. my point is that we get a laptop with same battery, same cpu, same ram amount, comparable hdd, same igp we will get the same perfromance.... but bingo!... not the same runtime. in fact we may get big differences and this is the case with intel too. my hunch is that the lame runtime under idle - low, video play usage of a laptop is the integrator's fault. and the driver makes also.
so congrats for sony on making a good build and caring about runtime.
the cpu power is enough, the runtime is at last ok as sony cared about it, the price is ok
jabber - Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - link
Indeed. Folks cant get their minds out of the turn of the century CPU power struggle that you always have to have more.As soon as we got dual core CPUs the power struggle came to an end for 80% of users.
The needs of the many have long since been met.
I've been using a 1.3GHz CULV laptop for the past year and its been superb. Never once have I found it wanting. I cant tell the difference performance wise to some of the i3/i5 laptops I've worked on. Its no different in 95% of tasks other than video encoding.
Oh and did I mention that I get nearly 7 hours running time from it?
In fact my 3.5GHz quad-core crossfire box has pretty much been relegated to video encoding.
More power to the low power revolution.