Conclusion
I have little nice to say about the Sony Vaio Y. Its best traits, like the keyboard, are only on par with what the competition has to offer. Its worst traits, like the battery and the touchpad, are outstandingly bad. I don’t understand how a company can ship a modern ultraportable with a touchpad this bad or a battery this small and think that it’ll be okay.
The biggest problem, however, is the price. The Sony Vaio Y has an MSRP of $549.99. To put that into perspective, that’s more expensive than most of the AMD Nile-platform ultraportables on the market, and also more expensive than several Intel Core i3 CULV powered laptops, such as the 11.6” Acer TravelMate Timeline. Even when on sale, the Sony Vaio Y is usually $60 more than its competition.
So the Sony Vaio Y is a no-go, and now we must render a verdict on the AMD E-350 that powers it. After benchmarking the E-240 in the Toshiba Satellite, which disappointed me, I received the Sony Vaio Y with fingers crossed. My conclusion, however, isn’t much different from the one I reached when I tested the single-core version APU. The good news is that AMD’s Fusion processors are better than Atom – but the bad news is that they’re only slightly better, and almost all of the advantage stems from the integrated graphics.
The E-350 simply isn’t powerful enough to offer what I think can be considered “mainstream” performance. Although the integrated graphics is quicker than what is offered on many ultraportables, the processor isn’t even as quick as what was offered in previous dual-core AMD thin-and-light such as the Toshiba Satellite T235D. The Intel Core series is in an entirely different league.
Still, with that said, I don’t want you to think the E-350 is bad. Unlike the single-core E-240, which was too slow to offer performance that felt responsive even when performing basics tasks like web browsing, the E-350 has some kick to it. As a processor for netbooks and budget ultraportables, the E-350 has legs. It just isn’t worthwhile at Sony’s price.
When crammed into a netbook with a $450 price tag – as is being done by several other manufacturers including ASUS, HP and Acer – AMD’s E-350 looks to be an excellent choice, offering performance that is well above your typical netbook at a price that keeps Fusion out of direct competition with more powerful Intel Core processors. If you want a netbook with reasonable power and the ability to play some 3D games and watch some HD video, an AMD E-350 may well be in your future.
This (and all other) articles
This (and all other) articles are not rendering properly on Firefox 4. I am using Ubuntu btw so not sure about FF4 on Windows.
Here is a screenshot: http://imgur.com/3ZBju
As you can see, everything is aligned WAY to the right.
Not for me sir. FF4 displays
Not for me sir. FF4 displays correctly: I’ll show my add-ons because I bet that’s whats causing your issue.
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9476/unledto.jpg
Do me a favor and try hitting
Do me a favor and try hitting Ctrl+0 and see what happens.
I tried hitting Ctrl+0 but
I tried hitting Ctrl+0 but nothing changed.
I can confirm that things are broken for me (as shown in screenshot above) on FF4 + Ubuntu but are working on FF4 + Windows. I also tried disabling all the extensions but that did not fix it.
For now, I am viewing articles using Chrome which shows everything correctly.
Okay, I haven’t tested under
Okay, I haven’t tested under Linux, thanks.
Am I the only one who thinks
Am I the only one who thinks that the pathetic HDD score might represent a non-cosmetic design issue of Sony’s.
Not necessarily a design error or anything – I mean, it’s not like the drive suddenly failed mid test – but (very) generally speaking, HDD performance normally increases with density.
Here however, the faster machine’s 500GB HDD score much lower than even comparatively hobbled C655D’s 320GB drive.
Bottleneck by design? Sub-par HDD? Was there just THAT much bloatware?
Interesting question; I’ll
Interesting question; I’ll have Matt post a reply.
I’d love to have a definitive
I’d love to have a definitive answer for this, but I don’t. It isn’t something I looking further into during my time with the machine, and that time is now over.
I do not believe it to be a bloatware problem. Bloatware still hurts boot times, but generally doesn’t heard performance once booted. Although I suppose a bloatware antivirus could kick in at the wrong time and skew a benchmark.
FF 4 seems to have issues in
FF 4 seems to have issues in general.
I’ve got a Thinkpad X120e, I
I’ve got a Thinkpad X120e, I ordered it with an E-350, 2Gb RAM, a 320Gb 7200RPM drive, plus the extended battery, in one of those Gottadeal specials for $349. I added 2Gb, and a 128Gb SSD from one of the Newegg deals, and got out for $529 total.
Performance is actually quite good, most day to day things are really drive IO limited, at least for perception. 720p works fine, the little trackpoint nubbin actually is really nice on something this small, to the point I wish they’d just not have the trackpad. Battery life is a solid 5 hours when on power optimized mode. The keyboard is very good, not “for a notbook”, just good, better than most island keyboards.
Quibbles, backlighted keyboard, it’s not the only one, I just think it should be standard. The plastic isn’t as solid as a Tseries, the Google CR48 coating is fantastic, it’s trackpad is better too, but overall its a slow POS, terrible OS, but those two thinks would be nice to steal. HiCap batter sticks out the back, and it’s a bit thick, really that’s about it. I really like it.
I’ve got a 2008 MBP that I still use as a main laptop, the trackpad just works, that’s the killer app for me, and the Thinkpad isn’t noticeably slower than the 2.6ghz C2D, mostly because apple used a SATA I connector, so getting faster than a 7200 drive doesn’t make that much difference, I still may throw an old 64Gb SSD in it for kicks. My wife has a 11″ macbook air, and the thinkpad and it run neck and neck. Sexiness isn’t a comparison, but for actually use and travel it’s fundamentally just as portable and performs the same. For a full time ultraportable I’d probably go X220, or just bite the bullet on a 15″ MBP. I new white macbook with a core i3 mobile, would be compelling too, only add a pound, bigger screen and stay at $999. But overall it kicks the crap out of any Atom system.
The Sony version is not bad either, neighbor has one, but loading a fresh copy of windows on an SSD is key, and the trackpad is awful, but only apple and oddly Google have gotten that right at this point. I’d like to see one with a non customer replaceable battery, a la macs, just go get it slim and sexy, while keeping the price under $700, that might be pretty killer. But then you get into the price of something like a Thinkpad E220, so pay more get more.
I own sony vaio and i just
I own sony vaio and i just love it……
I think it would be second most loved brand after apple….
Sony BDP-N460
Am I the only one who
Am I the only one who *prefers* a smaller trackpad? The bigger they are, the easier they are to bump when typing. Just increase the sensitivity option, and it’s perfect (aside from the cheap noisy plastic buttons). The huge trackpad size (and lack of sensitivity) on my MacBook makes it unusable IMO.
One thing the Fusions have over the Atoms is the max. ram capacity – 8gb works fine in the Sony (aside from Windows being a 32-bit version).
AFAICT, the Vaio is the only readily-available E-350 processor-based netbook in Australia at this time. I couldn’t find anything with more grunt than this in a smaller and lighter form-factor available off-the-shelf.
Also not don’t see the problem you describe with the viewing angle. Must only be an issue under very bright natural light?
And 29fps on YouTube is “uncomfortable”? Aren’t most videos there 24fps or less? This review seems too harsh…
Cons:
– No shortcut/switch to control wireless/bluetooth.
– Not Bluetooth 3
– legacy VGA port instead of something more useful (eg. firewire/esata)
– slow HDD
– bad mouse buttons.
Pros: closest thing to meeting my requirements I could easily find in a store.
The hinge cover area at the
The hinge cover area at the back is very weak. The hinge cover on one side broke off as I put the laptop into my bag. It has exposed the circuit board for the on/off switch.
Also once you have one or two apps open it is glacially slow. I have gotten rid of all the Sony Bloatware and even close down the virus checker in standalone mode.
It takes FOREVER to open a folder with lots of contents, open a new application.
Can’t wait to get rid of it.
My old single core netbook outperformed this.
By the way … you can see
By the way … you can see the weak point in the hinge in the photo of the back that shows the green power on light in the review above. See how it is not quite aligned with the back of the body? That can catch on things and break the two little plastic pins that hold the two halves together and then it will rip off when you put the ‘puter in a bag.
Perhaps the flimsiness of these thin plastic pieces should have been discovered in the review. You can wobble them around with light finger pressure.
The hinge cover area at the
The hinge cover area at the back is very weak. The hinge cover on ones side broke off as I put the laptop into my bag. It has exposed the circuit board for the on/off switch. The plastic is thin, not well connected to the chassis and has two little plastic pins that work as a snap together.
Have a feel of the area around the hinges … it is really thin and fragile
Also once you have one or two apps open it is glacially slow. I have gotten rid of all the Sony Bloatware and even close down the virus checker in standalone mode.
It takes FOREVER to open a folder with lots of contents.
Can’t wait to get rid of it.
id like to know if this
id like to know if this laptop is good for games.For example games like diablo and minecraft.