Business laptop winner
Sony VAIO S Series (2011)
Verdict
After a dramatic redesign, the VAIO S Series emerges fitter, faster and with better battery life than before
Review Date: 15 Apr 2011
Price when reviewed: £792
Overall Rating
Alternative products
Lenovo ThinkPad T520i
A typical ThinkPad: well built, with excellent design and a fair price, even if the internals aren’t quite so impressive
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Comparison
| Product |
Lenovo ThinkPad T520i
|
Sony VAIO S Series (2011)
|
| Details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Part Code | ThinkPad T520i | VPCSB1V9E/B.CEK |
| Review Date | 18 Aug 2011 | 15 Apr 2011 |
| Price ex VAT | £680 | £791 |
| Price inc VAT | £816 | £949 |
| Overall rating |
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| Features & Design |
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| Value for Money |
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| Performance |
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| Warranty | ||
| Warranty | 3 yr return to base | 2 yr return to base |
| Physical specifications | ||
| Dimensions | 374 x 246 x 40mm (WDH) | 331 x 225 x 24mm (WDH) |
| Weight | 2.900kg | 1.690kg |
| Travelling weight | 2.9kg | 2.1kg |
| Processor and memory | ||
| Processor | Intel Core i3-2310M | Intel Core i5-2410M |
| Motherboard chipset | Intel HM65 | Intel HM65 |
| RAM capacity | 2.00GB | 4.00GB |
| Memory type | DDR3 | DDR3 |
| SODIMM sockets free | 1 | 1 |
| SODIMM sockets total | 2 | 1 |
| Screen and video | ||
| Screen size | 15.6in | 13.3in |
| Resolution screen horizontal | 1,366 | 1,366 |
| Resolution screen vertical | 768 | 768 |
| Resolution | 1366 x 768 | 1366 x 768 |
| Graphics chipset | Intel HD Graphics 3000 | Intel HD Graphics 3000 / AMD Radeon HD 6470M |
| Graphics card RAM | 512MB | |
| VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 1 | 1 |
| HDMI outputs | 1 | 1 |
| S-Video outputs | 0 | 0 |
| DVI-I outputs | 0 | 0 |
| DVI-D outputs | 0 | 0 |
| DisplayPort outputs | 0 | 0 |
| Drives | ||
| Capacity | 320GB | 500GB |
| Hard disk usable capacity | 298GB | 466GB |
| Spindle speed | 5,400RPM | 5,400RPM |
| Internal disk interface | SATA/300 | SATA/300 |
| Hard disk | Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 | Hitachi HTS545050B9SA00 |
| Optical disc technology | DVD writer | DVD writer |
| Optical drive | Optiarc AD-7930V | |
| Battery capacity | 4,400mAh | |
| Replacement battery price ex VAT | £31 | £125 |
| Replacement battery price inc VAT | £37 | £150 |
| Networking | ||
| Wired adapter speed | 1,000Mbits/sec | 1,000Mbits/sec |
| 802.11a support |
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| 802.11b support |
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| 802.11g support |
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| 802.11 draft-n support |
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| Integrated 3G adapter |
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| Bluetooth support |
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| Other Features | ||
| Wireless hardware on/off switch |
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| Wireless key-combination switch |
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| Modem |
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| ExpressCard34 slots | 1 | 0 |
| ExpressCard54 slots | 0 | 0 |
| PC Card slots | 0 | 0 |
| USB ports (downstream) | 3 | 2 |
| FireWire ports | 1 | 0 |
| eSATA ports | 1 | |
| PS/2 mouse port |
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| 9-pin serial ports | 0 | 0 |
| Parallel ports | 0 | 0 |
| Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 0 | 0 |
| Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 | 0 |
| 3.5mm audio jacks | 2 | 1 |
| SD card reader |
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| Memory Stick reader |
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| MMC (multimedia card) reader |
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| Smart Media reader |
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| Compact Flash reader |
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| xD-card reader |
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| Pointing device type | Touchpad, trackpoint | Touchpad |
| Audio chipset | Realtek HD Audio | |
| Speaker location | Above keyboard | |
| Hardware volume control? |
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| Integrated microphone? |
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| Integrated webcam? |
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| Camera megapixel rating | 1.3mp | 0.3mp |
| TPM |
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| Fingerprint reader |
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| Smartcard reader |
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| Carry case |
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| Operating system and software | ||
| Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit | Windows 7 Professional 64-bit |
| OS family | Windows 7 | Windows 7 |
| Recovery method | Partition | Recovery partition |
| Software supplied | Lenovo ThinkVantage | N/A |
| Battery and performance tests | ||
| Battery life, light use | 6hr 26min | 6hr 49min |
| Battery life, heavy use | 1hr 58min | 1hr 6min |
| 3D performance (crysis) low settings | 26fps | |
| 3D performance setting | Low | |
| Overall Real World Benchmark score | 0.57 | 0.74 |
| Responsiveness score | 0.69 | 0.79 |
| Media score | 0.58 | 0.71 |
| Multitasking score | 0.43 | 0.72 |
Printed from www.pcpro.co.uk