The Vaio series from Sony is known all over the world mainly for their design and construction. Usually, they are build using better materials than other brands. It’s also true that the price is equally “superior”.
Sony Vaio Y is the portable of the series. It’s dimensions, weight ( only 1.78 kg’s ) and decent autonomy makes the Vaio Y a great portable. What we have tested is the VPCY 11S1E silver.
Construction and Design
We said that, usually, The Sony Vaio laptops makes a very good impression regarding construction, design and the quality of the used materials, and Vaio Y is no exception. The magnesium case makes it very rigid, and the closing and opening of the screen is done very precisely.
Another obvious characteristic is elegance, you will feel very good while buttoning this laptop. It looks like a business laptop…
Screen, Keyboard, Touchpad
Sony Vaio Y comes with a 13,3 inch LED screen. Viewing angles are not very impressive. However, visibility is obviously better compared to other new laptop models made by other manufacturers.
The standard resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels. This is enough for most users, but also for viewing a 720p format movie.
The keyboard has distanced keys. The quality of the construction is beyond any doubt, and writing using this keyboard is indeed a real pleasure. This comes from someone that spends a lot of time writing. The Touchpad is also very easy to use. It’s not placed in the center of the laptop, but a bit in the left side. The Touchpad supports gestures, like two fingers for vertical scrolling.
Technical specifications and performances
Vaio Y VPCY 11S1E has the following technical specifications:
- Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor
- 4 GB DDR3 800 MHZ ram memory ( which can be extended up to a maximum of 8 GB )
- SATA 320 GB, 5400 rpm hard drive
- Connection: Wireless b/g/n, BlueTooth, Ethernet, Firewire, HDMI, VGA, 3 USB ports, Express Card, headset, microphone.
- Card Reader: Memory Stick, SD
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit operating system
We have to notice the lack of the optical drive, which should be present even on this low dimensions device. Also, we noticed that fact that ports are pretty fixed. At least when the laptop is new, entering and removing the jacks, USB or HDMI, will be a bit difficult than normal.
Windows 7 gave it a 3.4 mark for performance. The mark reflects the weakest component of this laptop, and that component is the video card. The processor received 4.1 and RAM Memory 4.8.
Vaio Y can play without too much trouble 720p and 1080p format movies. Eventually, using a video player without hardware acceleration the processor use varies between 50% and 70%. Obviously the processor will be less used if you are using a video player with hardware acceleration, a video player like VideoLan ( VLC ).
We have also appreciated the very effective cooling process, but the fan is pretty loud.
Autonomy
The model we tested came with a 54Wh battery. The autonomy is not very impressive, but it’s better than average.
When using it for office work, especially for browsing the Internet via a wireless connection, the autonomy reached approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes. When viewing 720p movies the autonomy was 3 hours.
Being objective, this means ignoring the exaggerated price, Sony Vaio Y is an excellent laptop. It would have been even better if it had a better autonomy and an optical drive. On the other hand, the construction and design is totally worth it and makes the Vaio name very proud.
Pluses and Minuses of the Sony Vaio Y model:
+ construction and design
+ great keyboard
+ good visibility
+ doesn’t get too hot
+ Wireless N
- the lack of optical drive
- high price
