Sony of course creates distinctive-looking laptops. And in a marketplace jam-packed with cookie-cutter dull boxes (or now, unending MacBook Air knockoffs), that's more critical than it may appear at first. Even better, Sony moreover happens to make really great laptops, and we can probably tally the number of actual lemons found in the Sony Vaio line over the past five-plus years on the fingers of a hand.
The Vaio F Series, represented here by the VPC-F236FM/B configuration, is a 16-inch multimedia machine. It's a not really familiar in-between size--a bit too large to be mainstream, but too tiny to be a desktop replacement. That said, with a Blu-ray drive, Nvidia GeForce 540M graphics, and a full 1080p fortitude display, it's a tricked-out movie-and-gaming appurtenance (perhaps the 'F' stands for full-featured--Sony's Vaio fixing conventions are amid the many infuriating in all of laptop-dom).
But it's moreover a premium-priced system, at $1,459 (different configurations from Sony's online emporium beginning at $1,049). The look is of course distinctive, with pointy angles and a lifted wrist rest, but HP's 15-inch Envy 15 offers a identical blend of power and type in a slimmer chassis, starting at around the same price. If you wish a shade that's only a little larger, and the on the whole size of this Vaio happens to be precisely what you're seeking for, it's of course a well-made, well-polished machine, and is a great follow-up that, in reserve from Apple, Sony is normally the "reach" brand laptop shoppers actively look for out.
Next to Apple, Sony's Vaio line is probably the easiest to collect out of a lineup. Even even though many Vaio pattern features have altered over the years, such as the spherical hinges with built-in power buttons that were typical for a long time, there's still a simple Vaio "look." In this case, that is manifested in an angular, kindly leaning body, chrome Vaio trademark opposite the back of the lid, and unmatched turn quick-launch buttons only on top of the keyboard.
The system's conformation is really distinctive; the body and lid are both wider at their tops, dwindling below. The effect, as appear from the side, is of two trapezoids built on top of any other. Also note that the bottom has a incomparable on the whole footprint than the lid, so the two halves do not clamshell together tightly.
As a 16-inch laptop, the Vaio F Series is at the incomparable finish of the midsize difficulty of systems, that have 14, 15 or 16-inch displays. Anything bigger would be deliberate a desktop replacement, written to lay henceforth in a mark and take the place of a desktop computer, home entertainment center, or other gear. As it is, this Vaio is large, even for 16-inch laptops, and next to a comparable full-featured 15-inch, such as HP's Envy 15, the size disparity is notable. While we could see lugging the Envy 15 or a Dell XPS 15z (or a 15-inch MacBook Pro, for that matter) around a couple of times per week, the Vaio F is only too large for all but really infrequent travel.
The really splendid backlit set of keys is of the normal island type adored by Sony (and Apple) for years. It's since become the attention typical for scarcely everybody, even looming on many Lenovo laptops. The large keys and full-size number desk pad work well, but the volume controls are relegated to alt functions of the F keys, that is not optimal. HP's not long ago revamped Envy 15 does it right, gift a well-defined volume circle and tongue-tied button. Above the set of keys are hold buttons for play/pause and rewind/fast-forward, together with quick-launch buttons for Sony's Vaio help tools, that are handily built in to a singular app.
The hold pad, demarcated by a pattern of textured dots built in to the lifted wrist rest, is competent but tiny for such a large laptop, and the cosmetic feel is no tie in is to potion hold pads that are apropos more familiar in other brands. Finally, the left and correct rodent buttons are squeezed in to a gaunt rocker bar--for more than $1,000, I'd expect two well-defined buttons.
Sony does, however, fill up a decent amount of additional program in to the system, and different formerly years where Sony was well-noted as a bloatware king, there are a couple of apps on here that are actual gems. They are easiest to find by the Vaio Gate by-pass club that floats along the top corner of the screen, and from there, you can access network collection and extras, such as Remote Play for joining to a PlayStation 3, and a gold containing Sony's Vegas video-editing program, in addition to Sound Forge and Acid, both glorious audio apps for recording, editing, and multitracking. we used Acid for many years to prepare drum loops and samples since its glorious time-stretching capabilities.
The 16.4-inch manifestation has a 1,920x1,080-pixel local resolution, that is what we'd expect in a high-end laptop of this size. By way of comparison, many 15-inch laptops have a descend 1,366x768-pixel display, and even high-end ones lend towards to top out at 1,600x900. The value of having a 1080p laptop shade is that HD video, such as from a Blu-ray disc, may be displayed at its local resolution. As a would righteously expect from a Vaio laptop, the manifestation is coherent and bright, with decent off-axis viewing. While it's not technically a matte screen, this is a of the smallest glare-prone ones I've seen on a multimedia laptop in a long time.
There are a handful of surprises to be found in the ports and connections. This is a of the initial laptops I've seen where the USB 3.0 ports outnumber the USB 2.0 ports (two to one, in this case). Of course, USB 3.0 peripherals are still not as familiar as they should be. Secondly, it's been a whilst since a laptop landed here with a FireWire port. Sony moreover calls this technology i.LINK, but it's really only used by a handful of cameras and comparison peripherals. But if you've been seeking for a FireWire-enabled laptop, you've found one.
While the assorted preset configurations keep varying and disappearing, Sony now has the customizable chronicle of this network for sale on its website, and it's worth observant that even the $1,049 bottom model includes a quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU. The 1080p shade is moreover standard, and a 3D matching chronicle is moreover available--we reviewed a 3D F Series laptop in 2011 . Our assessment section moreover had an upgraded GPU, the Nvidia GeForce 540M, that is $50 more than the typical 520M.
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