The Sony Vaio E series of computers from Sony are pretty new – as far as I’m aware they were only released this month in the UK, and announced worldwide in February. This is as far as I’m aware. I have always been interested in the Vaio computers from Sony because they include a nice kind of keyboard called a “chiclet keyboard”, which means the keys are isolated into their own separate bracket; which means better and easier typing. I must say, especially for those that touch type with all their fingers, you’ll feel right at home with this keyboard – it definitely means precise and comfortable typing. Because they’re isolated keys, typing isn’t as loud as conventional laptop keys, which is a bonus all the same.
The model I have is VPCEB1E0E/WI which I purchased in Comet, priced at £549.99, but to be honest if you ask the right way (with interest in the laptop) you’d probably find yourself able to get some form of “manager reduction”, I got a £20 discount on the laptop since I bought 3 years accidental damage cover. If you’re going to buy it from Comet, as far as I’m aware you can pay the accidental damage cover on a monthly interval for 4 months instead of paying upfront – so for instance if its £200 then it’d be £200 / 4 – that is what you’d pay month over month till you’ve paid the full amount for the accidental damage cover. This Vaio is full-rounded, has everything you’d need; webcam, good amount of memory and hard drive space, 15” widescreen display, Windows 7, very nice keyboard and everything in between.
This Vaio comes with every port I think you’ll ever need, quite a few I’d never use but may be of good use to others depending on the situation. Firstly it comes with 3x USB ports all on the right-hand side – with the optical drive being on that side too, HDMI port (for TVs, etc), eSATA/USB combination port, VGA port (for connecting to VGA monitors – also known as analogue monitors – for cheaper monitors they may well be VGA-based), SD card slot, and an ExpressCard slot. I honestly don’t *need* any of the other ports except the USB, but the specs of the machine, the size (screen) and keyboard all matched my requirements that I went for this machine, but it’s a nice thought that these ports were included for any situation throughout the laptops lifespan.
Because the Vaio E series is new, it makes sense Sony has included the latest Intel processor – called Intel Core i3, its nothing too special but it’s a processor that’ll do well with multi-tasking, which is word for having plenty of programs open at once, like doing Office Word work, chatting via IM while listening to music – that sort of thing. I’d think this laptop is good for general everyday use, as well as being good at multi-tasking.It also comes with 3GB of memory, 320GB hard drive space (most laptops are coming with bigger and bigger hard drives – personally, for everyday use I’d consider this to be absolutely fine).
The keyboard is really nice to type on and is quite quiet during use. It has a dedicated numeric keypad on the side, too – like you’d see on desktop keyboards. You don’t normally see numeric keypads on laptops so I was surprised to see one on this Vaio, as the previous Sony Vaio’s did have the same keyboard, without the numpad.
The touchpad is *really* weird and different, I’ve never felt such a different touchpad before. Let’s just say that I don’t think the touchpad will ever wear down and become shiny! When I first saw this laptop in Comet, and I had a go on the touchpad – it felt like some form of fabric-feeling material was over it, and you can clearly see this in a bright room. Sony has put some form of material over the touchpad surface for some reason I don’t know. But I can surely say this will prevent the touchpad from ever wearing down, as far as I can see. Because Sony added this material to the touchpad it adds a bit of friction to the touchpad during use, but doesn’t really affect the use of the touchpad; in-fact in most cases for me it feels really comfortable to use. The palmrest area is the area around the touchpad, below the keyboard. On the touchpad, touchpad buttons and palmrest area there is what I can only describe as a glitter-shiny effect embedded in the plastic. This looks really nice and I loved the effect straight away! Aesthetics aside, I still think besides the glitter-effect, it’s still a unisex product, and you can only see the great glitter effect under light. I’m sorry to say but it makes the product look that little bit extra with this glitter effect!!
The model I have is VPCEB1E0E/WI which I purchased in Comet, priced at £549.99, but to be honest if you ask the right way (with interest in the laptop) you’d probably find yourself able to get some form of “manager reduction”, I got a £20 discount on the laptop since I bought 3 years accidental damage cover. If you’re going to buy it from Comet, as far as I’m aware you can pay the accidental damage cover on a monthly interval for 4 months instead of paying upfront – so for instance if its £200 then it’d be £200 / 4 – that is what you’d pay month over month till you’ve paid the full amount for the accidental damage cover. This Vaio is full-rounded, has everything you’d need; webcam, good amount of memory and hard drive space, 15” widescreen display, Windows 7, very nice keyboard and everything in between.
The ports included with the laptop
This Vaio comes with every port I think you’ll ever need, quite a few I’d never use but may be of good use to others depending on the situation. Firstly it comes with 3x USB ports all on the right-hand side – with the optical drive being on that side too, HDMI port (for TVs, etc), eSATA/USB combination port, VGA port (for connecting to VGA monitors – also known as analogue monitors – for cheaper monitors they may well be VGA-based), SD card slot, and an ExpressCard slot. I honestly don’t *need* any of the other ports except the USB, but the specs of the machine, the size (screen) and keyboard all matched my requirements that I went for this machine, but it’s a nice thought that these ports were included for any situation throughout the laptops lifespan.
The specs of the machine
Because the Vaio E series is new, it makes sense Sony has included the latest Intel processor – called Intel Core i3, its nothing too special but it’s a processor that’ll do well with multi-tasking, which is word for having plenty of programs open at once, like doing Office Word work, chatting via IM while listening to music – that sort of thing. I’d think this laptop is good for general everyday use, as well as being good at multi-tasking.It also comes with 3GB of memory, 320GB hard drive space (most laptops are coming with bigger and bigger hard drives – personally, for everyday use I’d consider this to be absolutely fine).
The keyboard
The keyboard is really nice to type on and is quite quiet during use. It has a dedicated numeric keypad on the side, too – like you’d see on desktop keyboards. You don’t normally see numeric keypads on laptops so I was surprised to see one on this Vaio, as the previous Sony Vaio’s did have the same keyboard, without the numpad.
The touchpad / palmrest area
The touchpad is *really* weird and different, I’ve never felt such a different touchpad before. Let’s just say that I don’t think the touchpad will ever wear down and become shiny! When I first saw this laptop in Comet, and I had a go on the touchpad – it felt like some form of fabric-feeling material was over it, and you can clearly see this in a bright room. Sony has put some form of material over the touchpad surface for some reason I don’t know. But I can surely say this will prevent the touchpad from ever wearing down, as far as I can see. Because Sony added this material to the touchpad it adds a bit of friction to the touchpad during use, but doesn’t really affect the use of the touchpad; in-fact in most cases for me it feels really comfortable to use. The palmrest area is the area around the touchpad, below the keyboard. On the touchpad, touchpad buttons and palmrest area there is what I can only describe as a glitter-shiny effect embedded in the plastic. This looks really nice and I loved the effect straight away! Aesthetics aside, I still think besides the glitter-effect, it’s still a unisex product, and you can only see the great glitter effect under light. I’m sorry to say but it makes the product look that little bit extra with this glitter effect!!
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