Sony Vaio Y-series 11.6inch review
Sony looks to rival MacBook Air with its scaled down ultraportable netbook version. Let’s find out more about this high-performance netbook
Following on from Apple’s release of an 11inch version of the MacBook Air, Sony has announced 11.6inch version of its Vaio Y series. Powered by a new AMD E350 Fusion dual core processor, the Vaio Y feels very snappy and it’s fast enough for working in a multitasking environment.
One area where the E350 processor is superior to an Atom is graphics performance. Its on-board graphics chip, which shares system memory, is far quicker at rendering 3D graphics, managing around 12fps in a 3D game.
Though the Vaio Y supports 4GB of RAM, it only comes with the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, thereby limiting the available space to only 3.5GB of RAM. This may annoy the user, as the operating system can’t be swapped out for a 64-bit version, or Windows 7 Professional for that matter, when ordering.
As a result, users still have to retain the older apps that aren’t 64-bit compatible. One area where the E350 processor scores over Atom is graphics performance. Its on-board graphics chip, which shares system memory, is far quicker at rendering 3D graphics, managing around 12fps in a 3D game. We wouldn’t want to use it for strenuous work in a GPGPU-accelerated program, but it’s also capable of playing 720p high definition video so it’s not without its uses.
Previous AMD laptop and netbook processors have been power hungry, resulting in short battery life, and produced lots of excess heat. The latter lead to laptops with loud cooling fans fruitlessly attempting to reduce lap-scorching temperatures. Thankfully the underside of the Vaio Y never became uncomfortably warm, even when churning through our demanding benchmarks. The fan is always audible though, but never loud enough to be a nuisance and we soon got used to it.
The Vaio Y is heavier than most netbooks and some other ultraportable laptops at 1.44kg, but it’s still very light and easy to carry around. The plastic chassis is a little creakier than we would like, but it feels sturdy enough. All of this would be for naught if the battery doesn’t last for a long time on a single charge, but it lasted six hours and 45 minutes in our light usage web browsing battery test. This is good for such an inexpensive laptop and long enough to last a transatlantic flight.
If the Vaio Y looks familiar, it’s because it’s essentially a smaller version of the larger 13.3inch Vaio Y series laptop which has now been discontinued. That model used ultra low voltage Intel processors and also had the benefit of an ExpressCard slot and a four-pin FireWire 400 port. This 11.6inch version keeps the three USB2 ports, memory card slots, HDMI and VGA ports, Gigabit Ethernet connection and 320GB hard disk. Most people won’t miss the FireWire port, but the ExpressCard slot would’ve been useful for adding a 3G modem since one isn’t built in.
One area where the 11.6 Vaio Y differs from its larger predecessor is that both its keyboard and touchpad are necessarily smaller. The keyboard is still comfortable to type on though since its responsive keys give plenty of feedback when pressed. Only the cursor and shift keys are smaller than we’d expect. The touchpad is large enough and feels smooth and accurate. The touchpad buttons feel great, giving just the right amount of feedback when pressed.
The 11.6inch screen is very bright with good levels of contrast thanks to its glossy finish. The glossy sheen does mean that the screen reflects overhead lights, such as fluorescent strip lighting, easily leading to glare. This can look distracting, but it’s not as bad as other glossy displays we’ve seen.
The 1,366x768 pixel resolution is the same as that found on most 13.3inch screens. It is much easier to use most programs on this screen than it is on the cramped 1,024x600 resolutions of most 10.1inch netbook screens. However, some may find text hard to read compared to using the same resolution on larger 13.3inch screens.
Following on from Apple’s release of an 11inch version of the MacBook Air, Sony has announced 11.6inch version of its Vaio Y series. Powered by a new AMD E350 Fusion dual core processor, the Vaio Y feels very snappy and it’s fast enough for working in a multitasking environment.
One area where the E350 processor is superior to an Atom is graphics performance. Its on-board graphics chip, which shares system memory, is far quicker at rendering 3D graphics, managing around 12fps in a 3D game.
Though the Vaio Y supports 4GB of RAM, it only comes with the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, thereby limiting the available space to only 3.5GB of RAM. This may annoy the user, as the operating system can’t be swapped out for a 64-bit version, or Windows 7 Professional for that matter, when ordering.
As a result, users still have to retain the older apps that aren’t 64-bit compatible. One area where the E350 processor scores over Atom is graphics performance. Its on-board graphics chip, which shares system memory, is far quicker at rendering 3D graphics, managing around 12fps in a 3D game. We wouldn’t want to use it for strenuous work in a GPGPU-accelerated program, but it’s also capable of playing 720p high definition video so it’s not without its uses.
Previous AMD laptop and netbook processors have been power hungry, resulting in short battery life, and produced lots of excess heat. The latter lead to laptops with loud cooling fans fruitlessly attempting to reduce lap-scorching temperatures. Thankfully the underside of the Vaio Y never became uncomfortably warm, even when churning through our demanding benchmarks. The fan is always audible though, but never loud enough to be a nuisance and we soon got used to it.
The Vaio Y is heavier than most netbooks and some other ultraportable laptops at 1.44kg, but it’s still very light and easy to carry around. The plastic chassis is a little creakier than we would like, but it feels sturdy enough. All of this would be for naught if the battery doesn’t last for a long time on a single charge, but it lasted six hours and 45 minutes in our light usage web browsing battery test. This is good for such an inexpensive laptop and long enough to last a transatlantic flight.
If the Vaio Y looks familiar, it’s because it’s essentially a smaller version of the larger 13.3inch Vaio Y series laptop which has now been discontinued. That model used ultra low voltage Intel processors and also had the benefit of an ExpressCard slot and a four-pin FireWire 400 port. This 11.6inch version keeps the three USB2 ports, memory card slots, HDMI and VGA ports, Gigabit Ethernet connection and 320GB hard disk. Most people won’t miss the FireWire port, but the ExpressCard slot would’ve been useful for adding a 3G modem since one isn’t built in.
One area where the 11.6 Vaio Y differs from its larger predecessor is that both its keyboard and touchpad are necessarily smaller. The keyboard is still comfortable to type on though since its responsive keys give plenty of feedback when pressed. Only the cursor and shift keys are smaller than we’d expect. The touchpad is large enough and feels smooth and accurate. The touchpad buttons feel great, giving just the right amount of feedback when pressed.
The 11.6inch screen is very bright with good levels of contrast thanks to its glossy finish. The glossy sheen does mean that the screen reflects overhead lights, such as fluorescent strip lighting, easily leading to glare. This can look distracting, but it’s not as bad as other glossy displays we’ve seen.
The 1,366x768 pixel resolution is the same as that found on most 13.3inch screens. It is much easier to use most programs on this screen than it is on the cramped 1,024x600 resolutions of most 10.1inch netbook screens. However, some may find text hard to read compared to using the same resolution on larger 13.3inch screens.
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