Vizio Thin+Light CT15: Something New and Edgy
by Vivek Gowri on February 14, 2013 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- IPS
- Ivy Bridge
- Vizio
- Ultraportable
- Ultrabook
At the $900 price point, it’s hard to not look at the Vizio’s 1080p IPS display, i7 CPU, 256GB SSD, fully aluminum body and just say it’s awesome for the price. Admittedly, that’s because it really is phenomenal value for money, but that’s almost a cop out. This is essentially a first generation piece of hardware, and Vizio did a pretty good job on it. Their commitment to providing systems with excellent displays and zero bloatware is absolutely admirable, and their industrial design is clean and elegant. Build quality is a bit of a question mark, and obviously the input devices have had their fair share of issues, but those are easy to get used to. The CT15 ends up being a very pleasant system to use, even with the keyboard issues, because the display and responsiveness are just so great.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the next generation Vizio Thin+Light has already debuted and should reach market sometime in the next eight weeks. The top level SKU that replaces the CT15-A5 will bring four big things: multitouch display, quad-core IVB processor, a much improved keyboard, and a bigger battery. It’ll likely retail in the $1199-1249 range, similar to the CT15-A2 and A5, making the real question: is the extra money worth it?
The answer depends on how much the touchscreen experience entices you. The new generation of Vizio notebooks are clearly much improved, and between the multitouch display, quad-core CPU, larger battery, and better keyboard, I think they’re clearly worth the extra money. But that’s still a big gap—the competing notebooks at the $1200 pricepoint are very different from the types of notebooks you can get at $800.
If you cross-shop the CT15 with the rest of the notebook establishment, you’ll find stuff like Samsung’s Series 5 Ultra Touch, the ASUS VivoBook S400, and the Sony VAIO T15. All of those play in the $700-900 range, and come with the low end of the Ultrabook spec—i3 and i5 ULV processors, mechanical hard drives and 16-32GB mSATA SSD caches, multitouch 1366x768 displays with mediocre TN panels, plastic chassis, etc. The only reason I can think of to go with one of those over the CT15 is if you’re really desperate for a touchscreen notebook; otherwise I’d almost unhesitatingly recommend the Vizio. At this moment, for this amount of money, the current CT15-A5 simply cannot be topped if you're looking for a traditional notebook PC.
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tipoo - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
More cache too I believe.Death666Angel - Friday, February 15, 2013 - link
3MB on i5 vs 4MB on i7, yes.xaml - Saturday, February 16, 2013 - link
In a Freudian slip of sorts, Dell put an i5 sticker on my XPS 14 (2012) powered by an i7.StephaneP - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
It's all in the subject. I'm surprised that these informations are not in this review.tipoo - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
With the Windows 8 multitouch driver, I have zero problems with the touchpad on my 3 year old Dell Studio 15, actually it's pretty good. It's not Mac good, but I'd say something like 80% as good which is good enough for me. The bad input rejection is just right, there is smooth scrolling throughout the OS, good pinch to zoom, etc etc.So would all Vizios you could order now have a Synaptics pad instead of the horrid old one? How can we make sure?
VivekGowri - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
All of the Windows 7 ones came with Sentelic touchpads (CT15-A0, A1, A2), while the Windows 8 ones have Synaptics touchpads (A4, A5). A small, but very important, hardware update that came at the same time as the Windows 8 refresh.tipoo - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
Awesome, thanks.PEJUman - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
I have the following systems: 48GB in x58 970, 16GB on H77 3770, 8GB on P45 Q9650, 8GB on Hudson (AMD C-60) and 4GB on QM77 3217 @ Acer W700. the only way I can use more than 4GB on serious use is by disabling PF. (It is disabled on the 8GB+ systems). the 48GB system is actually used for Ramdrives and VMs. I cannot tell the difference between responsiveness under load (simultaneous encodes/virus scans + browsing/word/excel/ppt/matlab) across these devices; with the exception of the C-60, and that thing got 8GB.To the ultrabook point, I found 4GB is sufficient for occasional power use (even encoding/rippings via DBpowerAmp, quicksync or handbrake). I think the 4GB + SSD IOPs for PF is a good combo and I can't think of any usage pattern that would need more, esp. when the CPU speeds and/or cores counts less than 4. I actually rather take the $20 discount on price than additional 4GB for my mobile devices, they simply become obsolete way too fast nowdays to held any kind of monetary value. I much rather get them cheap & offload them quickly when I upgrade the next year.
My mobile devices are mostly throttled (thermally) on loads that can use 4GB+. so I think present ultrabook thermal constraints is the weakest link in their performance, not RAM or PF speeds.
Huge database on excel, CADs or matlab might cross the 4GB line, but for those you'll probably will be working on a 1600p or multiple 1080p screens (AKA desktop) anyway.
Netscorer - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
I owned briefly their first-gen Thin+Light that was available in October for $600 (talk about value!). same form factor, just slightly downspecced with core i5 and 14" 1600x900 display. Loved form factor! Best ultrabook design right after leaders in ASUS and Apple. The three biggest complaints from the users for that generation were (in order)- keyboard
- battery life
- lack of ports.
When I read this review it's like deja vu all over again. Same lackluster keyboard, same disappointing battery life and again no ports beyond bare minimum. Now, if these factors are not critical to you, I would recommend this laptop heartily. It's very sharp looking, has great IPS display and specs that would satisfy all but gamers and developers.
VivekGowri - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
No, the absolute number one worst thing about the first-gen system was the touchpad, without question. And I mean, this is the same laptop, just with Windows 8 and a new Synaptics touchpad.Keyboard and battery are getting fixed with the touchscreen ones, and you can cry about lack of ports all day long but on an ultrabook you're just not going to get any semblance of decent port selection. The only thing I feel like could be a reasonably expected addition is an SD card slot. Just be happy it has a full-size HDMI instead of this smartphone-grade micro HDMI stuff that ASUS is using on the Zenbook Prime.