This review is from: Sony VAIO E Series SVE11113FXW 11.6-Inch Laptop (Seafoam White) (Personal Computers)
**Initial Ruminations**
I only had a few, meagre requirements when purchasing a new laptop/netbook…
It must be:
1) Compact and lightweight 2) Excellent battery life 3) Powerful enough for photo/graphic editing, and programming IDE’s 4) Low cost
The line between netbooks and laptops is quite blurred these days. The only real difference between a netbook and a laptop is usually if it has an optical media device (such as a DVD burner/drive). I never use optical media these days so that is not an issue for me.
This net/lap/ultra book blurs the line completely; call it what you like. I would consider it to be a laptop since it has 4 gigs of ram (upgradeable to 8). Maybe it is really a lower end ultrabook.
Regardless,there are not too many laptops/netbooks that fit my needs as specified above! In order to get a small, powerful laptop you generally have to pay out the wazoo for an ultrabook. Not any more, the Sony Vaio E2-1800 fits the bill perfectly!
**Stock Windows Benchmark**
I took a snip of the Windows Experience Index:
[...] Most bloatware was disabled when I ran this. I am currently trying to unlock the BIOS which could help the processor speed if I can overclock it a bit. I would like to upgrade to 8 gigs of RAM but it will probably be bottle necked by the CPU.
I should mention I have the Canadian version of this – it is for all intents and purposes identical but it has a slightly larger battery (for up to 7.5 hours of use) and larger hard drive.
**Real-life Usage/Features**
I can run jdownloader, browse the web with many tabs open, run photoshop, watch a movie with no lag at all.
**Look and Feel**
The tactile feel of the keyboard soft and quiet, feels well built overall.
Another plus is the “gesture” touch pad… I don’t need to use the touchpad mouse buttons at all.
The white colour is a glossy, sparkly white on the outside. The screen bezel is glossy black. The screen is glossy. The keyboard, touch pad and keys are silvery white with chrome accents. The sides and bottom are black.
**Integrated Peripherals**
The webcam seems to be a generic quality laptop cam, but with HD resolutions. With the bundled software the picture rez goes to 2560×2048 and has a digital zoom. The video goes to 1280 x 1024.
It’s got a bunch of software features for the webcam including the “Gesture Control”: if you use Media Gallery you can wave your hand in the air to change songs, pause adjust volume and what not, kind of like a remote. This works poorly in the dark even when your hand is visible. Seems mostly gimmicky but it’s kind of a neat idea. It also comes bundled with lots of (optional) cloud software to organize your media, and the camera has various “face-tracking” abilities (Sony calls it an “Exmor Sensor” camera) along with plenty of ways to use this (ie. making an avatar move with your facial movements). I don’t know if these features are common to most webcams, as I don’t know much about them. The actual picture in low-light mode is quite good compared to my past laptops.
**Speaker Quality**
For a netbook / laptop the sound is what you would expect, no bass, however it goes much louder than other laptops I have had. Quote from Sony “xLoud technology enhances speaker volume without sacrificing quality.”. I am sure if you left it cranked up it would affect the battery life quite a bit. It’s nice to have the option of loud sound though, in case you want to watch a movie or stream music for friends.
**Conclusion**
This little ‘book packs a punch in a small package. It may be even better if I can unlock the BIOS and give it more juice. However, even at stock it is a light weight solution, packs a bit of oomph without sacrificing battery life, so if this is what you are looking for don’t hesitate to try it out!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Sony VAIO E Series SVE11113FXW 11.6-Inch Laptop (Seafoam White) (Personal Computers)
so far…. so good……love the chicklet keyboard,do not have any qc issues with the track pad like others have stated. build quality seems very good,and the e2 1800 processor is doing surprising well.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
Excellent battery life, power and size for the price.,
**Initial Ruminations**
I only had a few, meagre requirements when purchasing a new laptop/netbook…
It must be:
1) Compact and lightweight
2) Excellent battery life
3) Powerful enough for photo/graphic editing, and programming IDE’s
4) Low cost
The line between netbooks and laptops is quite blurred these days. The only real difference between a netbook and a laptop is usually if it has an optical media device (such as a DVD burner/drive). I never use optical media these days so that is not an issue for me.
This net/lap/ultra book blurs the line completely; call it what you like. I would consider it to be a laptop since it has 4 gigs of ram (upgradeable to 8). Maybe it is really a lower end ultrabook.
Regardless,there are not too many laptops/netbooks that fit my needs as specified above! In order to get a small, powerful laptop you generally have to pay out the wazoo for an ultrabook. Not any more, the Sony Vaio E2-1800 fits the bill perfectly!
**Stock Windows Benchmark**
I took a snip of the Windows Experience Index:
[...]
Most bloatware was disabled when I ran this. I am currently trying to unlock the BIOS which could help the processor speed if I can overclock it a bit. I would like to upgrade to 8 gigs of RAM but it will probably be bottle necked by the CPU.
I should mention I have the Canadian version of this – it is for all intents and purposes identical but it has a slightly larger battery (for up to 7.5 hours of use) and larger hard drive.
**Real-life Usage/Features**
I can run jdownloader, browse the web with many tabs open, run photoshop, watch a movie with no lag at all.
**Look and Feel**
The tactile feel of the keyboard soft and quiet, feels well built overall.
Another plus is the “gesture” touch pad… I don’t need to use the touchpad mouse buttons at all.
The white colour is a glossy, sparkly white on the outside. The screen bezel is glossy black. The screen is glossy. The keyboard, touch pad and keys are silvery white with chrome accents. The sides and bottom are black.
**Integrated Peripherals**
The webcam seems to be a generic quality laptop cam, but with HD resolutions. With the bundled software the picture rez goes to 2560×2048 and has a digital zoom. The video goes to 1280 x 1024.
It’s got a bunch of software features for the webcam including the “Gesture Control”: if you use Media Gallery you can wave your hand in the air to change songs, pause adjust volume and what not, kind of like a remote. This works poorly in the dark even when your hand is visible. Seems mostly gimmicky but it’s kind of a neat idea. It also comes bundled with lots of (optional) cloud software to organize your media, and the camera has various “face-tracking” abilities (Sony calls it an “Exmor Sensor” camera) along with plenty of ways to use this (ie. making an avatar move with your facial movements). I don’t know if these features are common to most webcams, as I don’t know much about them. The actual picture in low-light mode is quite good compared to my past laptops.
**Speaker Quality**
For a netbook / laptop the sound is what you would expect, no bass, however it goes much louder than other laptops I have had. Quote from Sony “xLoud technology enhances speaker volume without sacrificing quality.”. I am sure if you left it cranked up it would affect the battery life quite a bit. It’s nice to have the option of loud sound though, in case you want to watch a movie or stream music for friends.
**Conclusion**
This little ‘book packs a punch in a small package. It may be even better if I can unlock the BIOS and give it more juice. However, even at stock it is a light weight solution, packs a bit of oomph without sacrificing battery life, so if this is what you are looking for don’t hesitate to try it out!
Was this review helpful to you?
|very good sony e series,
so far…. so good……love the chicklet keyboard,do not have any qc issues with the track pad like others have stated. build quality seems very good,and the e2 1800 processor is doing surprising well.
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|