Sony VAIO Pro 13: Exceptionally Portable
by Jarred Walton on October 16, 2013 12:00 AM ESTConclusion: Road Warrior
What makes for a good laptop is going to be a somewhat subjective discussion. Some users want high performance, others want the ability to play games, and some want excellent mobility – meaning, good battery life and low weight. The Sony VAIO Pro 13 falls firmly in that last category, with some of the best battery life results we've ever seen – especially for a Windows laptop.
The integrated battery isn't particularly large, so managing roughly eight hours on a 37Wh battery is nothing short of impressive. Add in the external sheet battery for double the battery life and you can literally run from the time you wake up until you go to bed without losing power (provided you're not doing anything too computationally intensive). Along with the battery life, Sony has created what is almost certainly the lightest 13.3” laptop I've ever encountered. 2.34 pounds is only about 50% more than a typical 10” tablet that has far less performance.
A lot of the credit for this has to go to Intel's Haswell ULT processors, which have improved low-power states, faster transitioning in and out of those states, slightly lower TDPs, as well an integrated voltage regulator. All of those combined result in improved battery life, and we've seen that on virtually every Haswell platform we've tested. But as much credit as Intel gets, Sony deserves some as well. They clearly put in a lot of work in optimizing the firmware to deliver on the mobility front, and it pays off.
Along with the excellent mobility, Sony includes a good 1080p IPS display and the keyboard is comfortable to type on as well. I decided to try something different for this review, and the entirety has been produced on the VAIO Pro 13 (using Open Office 4.0.1 and GIMP 2.8 for the text and images, if you're wondering). For the most part, I have no major complaints using the laptop for this sort of workflow. The biggest issue I have is with the touchpad, where press-dragging things is a bit difficult (e.g. I find I inadvertently release the press while moving something); adding a mouse or using the touchscreen gets around the problem, and really it's not all that bad to begin with.
It's rare that we find a product that can please everyone, and the VAIO Pro 13 isn't going to do that. For all the good areas, there are a few items that will cause some people to look elsewhere. Build quality is less rigid than I like, thanks to the thin construction and the use of carbon fiber. WiFi range is also more limited than on many other laptops, and the dropoff is pretty steep when you leave the suitable range – I could transfer data at 20Mbps just inside my front door, 3Mbps just outside the front door, and I lost connection a couple steps away from the door.
I could live with the build quality and limited WiFi range if it weren't for the price: $1250 is just too much for a laptop with these specs in my book. With the Surface Pro 2 coming out in less than ten days, $999 will get you similar specs to the VAIO Pro 13, with the addition of an active stylus and in a tablet form factor. Add in the keyboard and you're still $100 less than the VAIO Pro 13. But it's not a clear win either, as the smaller size and smaller keyboard aren't going to be ideal for everyone. Really, I have to say that nearly all Ultrabooks are simply overpriced right now (outside of clearance sales on older Ivy Bridge models).
What I really want to see is a good Ultrabook that includes at least a 240/256GB SSD with 8GB RAM and a good display, for around the same $1250 price point of the VAIO Pro 13 reviewed here. Sony could kill off the 4GB RAM models and it would barely hurt their profit margins, and I'd love to see 256GB SSDs become the baseline (because I can easily more than fill 256GB and 128GB is positively cramped, especially when you have to account for the Windows swapfile and Hibernation files). That would simplify the line but it would also remove artificial market segmentation, so that's not in the cards right now. There are sales on occasion, however, so if you're interested I'd suggest keeping an eye out for a good sale.
Ultimately, the Sony VAIO Pro 13 is a good Ultrabook, and if you're looking for something extremely lightweight and portable I can definitely recommend it. You'll pay for the privilege, but outside of the lack of gaming potential, there are no major flaws that should keep you away. If you want something a bit more rigid and with faster graphics, I'm hoping to get one of the new ASUS UX301 Ultrabooks with i7-4558U in for testing, but they haven't begun shipping yet. Meanwhile, Sony's Haswell update is just what the mobile road warrior needs.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
I don't know about the Tri-luminos tech confusing my colorimeter, but I have verified on a couple laptops that the calibration just looks really off, so I've held off doing any more potentially flawed testing.As for build quality, I noted that it's by design, but I disagree with the design. Yes, it should hold up reasonably well, but laptops like the ASUS U-series, MacBook Air, heck even the Acer S7 all feel better (though the keyboard on the Acer is not at all good in my book). It's a sacrifice of rigidity in favor of being ultra lightweight, and that's fine -- I can live with it and not complain too much. Still, I wish Sony would reinforce the chassis just a bit more. Carbon fiber is not at all heavy, so another layer or two bonded on there would do wonders.
SSD performance is good, and really maximum transfer rates start to become meaningless past a certain point. I would rather have a somewhat slower 256GB SSD than a faster 128GB SSD, simply because I need more capacity. But the VAIO Pro 13 does boot and load programs very fast (other than Windows 8 Apps, which as usual take far too long to load).
teiglin - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
My 256GB unit has a Samsung, and I got 1GB/s sequential read and 825MB/s sequential write just now, if you're curious. Is the Toshiba worse?As for the build quality, I didn't think Jarred was too harsh on it--he mentioned that he liked a more "solid" feel as a matter of preference and not that there's anything inherently wrong with the flexible chassis. I can get a noticeable amount of flex even when mine is closed though, if I squeeze it--again not problematic necessarily, but I can understand if people would like a more rigid design better. Obviously increasing rigidity isn't going to keep the laptop at 2.3lbs.
juhatus - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
When I was ordering, I picked the free 256gb option. I just checked the sony webstore again and now they are offering msata and pci-e options for SSD atleast in Europe. (256gb pci-e upgrade is free btw).I remember the Toshiba being very similar to 840pro speeds, maybe its the msata version. But anyhow its plenty fast. SSD is just something that people should make note because there are alot of different versions Sony ship with these.
SetiroN - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
You really need to re-think your benchmark suite.Who gives a crap about how far an ultraportable goes below 20fps in games.
We need to know how its SSD performs, how long it takes to elaborate files, zip them, copy them. How fast network transfers are. REAL WORLD USE, not freakin' cinebench.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
The PCMark scores more or less encapsulate all of the data points you're after. I noted that the SSD is quite fast, and has very good boot times. The CPU results are there just as reference points, and the gaming tests are there to show that, no, this is not a gaming laptop. You'll notice how much time I spent discussing the benchmarks, and that's because for the most part the benchmarks (outside of battery life) simply aren't important. It's more than fast enough. If you have to know how much faster it is than other laptops, you're probably going to want something with a quad-core CPU and a dGPU. Ultrabooks for the most part target the mainstream user that values mobility over performance, so that's the focus of the review.piroroadkill - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
ASUS UX301: with the desired i7-4558U (which is also what I'm interested in) is available in Germany.http://www.amazon.de/Zenbook-UX301LA-Ultrabook-Int...
Since it's publicly available, there's no NDA. I say buy one from Germany and get it shipped. You know people want an indepth review on it.
piroroadkill - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
Also, I mean the i7-4558U is what I'm interested in. The Asus Zenbook Infinity (UX301) does look good, too. I'd love to see it released properly so I could play with the available configurations.However, pretty much any laptop with this CPU that is 13" is worth reviewing.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
Now if only I had the money to buy things and have them shipped to me for review....Fatality - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
Great review, But where is the mention of bloatware? Does this thing come with lots of it? I ask this because specs and presence of Bloatware are the primary factors I base my buying decision on. I know a lot of people who do that as well. Has Bloatware? no buy.juhatus - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
I think win8 has generally reduced bloat, but on this vaio pro 13 Sony has put few modern app's and mcafee virus protection (witch i instantly uninstalled and went with win8 defender) Also i think there was the office365 trial included, have not even started that. But id say very little bloat.