Sony VAIO S Series: All Day Consumer Computing
by Dustin Sklavos on September 9, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- AMD
- Intel
- Sony
- Sandy Bridge
- 6000M
- VAIO S
- Switchable Graphics
Conclusion: A Lot to Like...For Enthusiasts
The headline of my conclusion is probably leaving a few of you scratching your heads, but hear me out. Sony has engineered a very small, light, and capable notebook for a reasonable price. Most of the upgrade costs on their site are fair, too; they're not charging Apple prices on memory or hard drives.
Sony's VAIO S offers tremendous battery life alongside a mainstream processor and a clunky but workable switchable graphics solution. They've also opted for matte screens (someone out there is listening!) and they're one of the only consumer vendors that will provide a high resolution notebook screen. Plastic is kept to a minimum, too, and the whole notebook looks both stylish and professional. Even their pricing on the extra battery slice is good, for those of you that want to use your computer for twelve hours in one sitting.
The biggest problem with the VAIO S is, ironically, Sony, and this is where enthusiasts come in. While we can't do much about the fan whine (which may or may not be tolerable, depending on your point of view), we have it within us to fix the crucial problem: in its stock configuration, and probably even with any mechanical hard drive that has Sony's stock drive image, the VAIO S is far too slow. Sony bogs the poor machine down horrendously, and almost all of that mess is their own software. This notebook demands a clean Windows installation, but that may be a problem because while Sony's support site has been cleaned up substantially since my own experience back in the day with a Sony VAIO TR2A (I still miss that little thing), it's still not the friendliest one in the world.
Sony has also elected not to be a member of AMD's mobile driver program, so you're going to be relying on them (never a good thing) unless you feel like digging up drivers elsewhere on the internet. Oh, and that switchable graphics thing? It means more likely than not you won't be finding publicly available GPU drivers other than what Sony provides. Of course, it's unlikely most users will be gaming on the VAIO S, outside of older/less demanding titles where the HD 6470M doesn't fall flat. (If you're thinking of upgrading to the 6630M GPU, the driver situation definitely becomes more problematic.)
Because of that initial bloat I have a hard time recommending the VAIO S to any end user that can't fix it (including but not limited to just plain physically upgrading the hard drive) or doesn't know someone who can. This is an otherwise fantastic notebook with a lot of potential just looking for the right user, but if you're not comfortable getting elbow deep in cleaning it out (or preferably doing a clean Windows 7 installation), it's not going to be the notebook for you. For those of you who are willing and able to put in the time, though, you'll likely be very well served by the Sony VAIO S.
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Malih - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
a Sony VAIO S with Llano in it would be awesomeKPOM - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
This compares pretty favorably to the 13" MacBook Pro, and since it's a Sony it should hold up pretty well. That they can cram a discrete GPU into this is small package is impressive and ought to get the engineers at Apple motivated to do the same for the next MacBook Pro, unless the Ivy Bridge chip is substantially better in the graphics department, in which case I wouldn't be surprised to see the 13" Pro dropped.hardwareguy - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
The 13" MBP already doesn't have discrete graphics. I think they keep it around for people who need a little more connectivity or hdd space than the Air offers.Roland00Address - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
I am still baffled why sony sent the 160 shader version and not the 480 shader version. The price between the two is barely anything.JarredWalton - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
I'd guess the SA is going to run pretty damn hot/loud as the major issue. I've actually got an Acer TimelineX 3830TG; run a game and the CPU throttles after about a minute because the CPU+GPU overwhelms the HSF. Part of that is Acer's BIOS, no doubt, but GT 540M and HD 6630M should generate comparable heat so unless Sony has better ventilation....waldojim42 - Saturday, September 10, 2011 - link
Heat was never really an issue when I had the 6630 version. In reality, the machine would turbo up to about 3.2Ghz in most games, and be quite happy to run there all day. Doesn't change the fact that the fan can be annoying though. Nor does it change Sony customer service... or lack thereof.nutral - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
I actually have this laptop, with the sheet battery.I also got in the amd 6630, wich is actually pretty good for gaming, i can run call of duty or deus ex on it pretty well. It does get hotter with the amd,, but it's not that bad.
The bloat is kind of bad, i reinstalled windows 7 right when i got it and also put in a intel 80gb ssd, in the cd drive i put in the 500gb harddrive and i also exchanged the 1000wifi for a 6200 and put in 4gb extra.
Right now it is a power machine, works very long on a battery and still very light and thin. i usually don't even have to take the charger with me.
with the 6630M this does become a pretty good road notebook, with some gaming.
waldojim42 - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
You guys really needed to test the SA. I did purchase the SA, with the Intel 2620 i7 and the AMD 6630. It did not get that warm, and still ran all day. The fan is still annoying though. I really do think you guys would have a totally different view of the machine though, if you considered the amount of portable power the i7/6630 delivers.I no longer own it though, as that fan died within 30 days. They then took over a month waiting on a motherboard to arrive. I finally coerced them into a refund, but was without a machine or my money for over 2 months.
OCedHrt - Saturday, September 10, 2011 - link
Sony provides a Fresh Start option for free (for the most part) for all their CTOs without the Sony bloat. Not sure if them not sending a unit configured like that is a good thing or bad thing.I am as mad as hell - Saturday, September 10, 2011 - link
First off, we don't own any Apple products in my household, except an old iPad Nano.Now to the rant: All of those Windows PC based OEM's are spineless and make super boring products. The notable exceptions are ACER and Samsung.
Gosh, can any of them make a decent laptop that puts Apple to shame?
It's not that hard. There is just lack of creativity and commitment to excellence.
A good PC Laptop should have the following mandatory specs besides the obvious ones:
High Quality NONE GLOSSY! IPS or better LCD display
Non-Glossy Bezel
1x SSD boot drive with at least 64GB Ram
1x HDD with at least 500GB capacity
Back-lit Keyboard
Built-in Logitech/Microsoft Mouse
Wireless RF Headset receiver for Sony, Sennheiser, etc... wireless RF sets)
Built-in 3D cameras (1 one the front, 1 on the back)
External SATA port
HDMI port
One Laptop model option with optional external Blu-ray burner (don't need to use an optical drive all the time)
High Quality Speakers (making good use of the saved space, by not having an internal optical drive)
External Speaker port on the backside
USB ports away from the left/right front side of the base. They should be placed more to the back left/ right side of the laptop (2 on each side)
Paint that won't wear off!
Dear Windows OEM's,
Got that, good!