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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Rookierookie - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
$200 is 10 times $20, and yes I do need more than 120GB of space.On desktops I'll gladly do a boot SSD + storage HDD. On laptops I'm not quite ready to do that.
JNo - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
You might well be able to do boot SSD + storage HDD on this (and other) laptops too, so long as you don't mind losing the ODD.One solution I'm becoming aware of is to google/ebay "optical hard drive bay" for your laptop model and you can usually then get a bay to slot in to the lappy's optical bay which can hold a mechanical HDD instead...
Then bingo - fast SSD + spacey HDD in a laptop
tmensonides - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
I was thinking of ordering a Sony because there one of the only manufacturers that offers what they call a "fresh start" option when cto... it is supposed to be vaio/sony, demo, game free....Looks like it is still in the cto options....
Do you know anything more about that option?
hp79 - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
You have to upgrade your Windows to a Professional version and pay more in order to be able to select "fresh start" which really sucks. Other manufacturers business lines such as Dell's Latitude or Lenovo's Thinkpad lines doesn't come with demos and stuff.tmensonides - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
Yeah but you still get that thinkvantage stuff (dells got their own suite of junk..i have both a thinkpad and latitude at work)...at least the option is there....Zoomer - Saturday, September 17, 2011 - link
Yeah, they have had that option for some time. I guess they need to make money somewhere.Think of it as a "can't fix my own computer" tax. ;)
docp - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
Dustin,Thanks for awesome review as always clear and very well detailed.
brought back my old memories of sony crapware.
I have been vaio FZ user right when vista came out and this new series got announced,
I have been formatting the any new laptop that comes in family,Install clean windows 7 and then update essential programs to make all extra utilities working and security software that all and performance is amazing after this ritual.
Regarding HDD also,I got 200 gb Toshiba 4200 rpm HDD(that times biggest HDD) to 7200 rpm hitachi 500 GB and its running as it is supposed to.fast and quiet.
I dont know why sony installs so much of crap and why bog down pretty good hardware with stupid software.
Its hurting their own business .
Just plain stupid of sony .
docp - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
their is this little program which does backup and restore your windows 7 activation .it came out for vista and it works beautifully for windows 7 as well.this is completely legal and no shady grey tricks for activation.
Saidas - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
ABR?docp - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
yes ABR,awesome software.on side note,sony does allow you to debloate your laptop for additional 50 $ in form of windows 7 business upgrade.
so only home premium version targeted at home users is bloated most.
wrong strategy.