My wife and I have been using Acer 1410 laptops for almost three years. I like these because they are small (11.6") with a reasonable keyboard. They have dual core celerons (SU2300) that are fast enough for browsing, and we could play Diablo II on them. I put an SSD in mine along with 4GB ram, and it was fast enough. They weigh about 3lbs 2oz.
I have three gripes about these laptops. I dislike the glossy screen with a fiery passion. I fixed it by using a matte screen protector. My second gripe was the low resolution screen, 1366x768. I hate it, but it is far more suitable for the 11.6" screen that the 15.6" laptops that have the same resolution. My wife found it hard to read, so she wanted a slightly bigger screen. The final gripe I have was the cpu. While it was powerful enough to run some games, it is still a slow celeron from three years ago.
With that in mind, I determine that these were the key features I was looking for:
- Resolution greater than 1366x768 (bleh)
- Non-glossy screen
- Discrete graphics to be able to play casual games (think Diablo II, Torchlight II)
- Bigger than the 11.6" machines that we have now
- Light
- Decent battery, 4+ hours
I knew that my wife wouldn't go for the Sager. It was too small for her, weighed too much, and had poor battery life (my biggest issue). I had always avoided Sony in the past because I felt that they were overpriced. However, I could not find anything suitable in the 13" and smaller size. I started reading up on the new Sony. They had all the features that I thought were important:
- 1600x900 screen (yes!)
- Anti-glare screen (wtf? It's not matte, but it's better than the glossy screens)
- Discrete graphics - not only discrete, but they are one of the few to use the new nVidia Kepler core graphics cards
- 13.3" screens - It's about 2" wider and 1" deeper than our 11.6" Acers
- Light - they are about 3lbs 8oz, so not too much heavier
- Battery - I don't check, but it seems to get 4+ hours if not gaming
Thoughts on SVS13A
I got the i5-3320M cpu (middle choice) and the 2GB GT 640m (Kepler core). I am happy with the wight and thickness. After using an 11.6" laptop for several years, I find the laptop and screen to be too large. I am happy with the resolution, though. The anti-glare screen is also very nice, although it is not IPS. I've read that people are not happy with the color reproduction or tint. I haven't noticed anything, but I'm coming from a crappier screen. The Sony screen seems fine to me.The keyboard is backlit. I wasn't looking for this feature, but it is useful to have. It is a chiclet style, and I am used to that from the Acer. I don't notice any flex, although that has been a complaint on the forums. The keys are a nice size.
The trackpad sucks in my opinion. I've always hated trackpads and much prefer the trackpoint found on some IBM/Lenovo laptops and some Dell's. One thing that I liked about the Acer was that the trackpad buttons went along the front bevel, so you could click them easily with your thumb. The Sony has a big trackpad with the buttons hidden inside of it. I guess it looks nicer, but I want functional buttons. I would much prefer to have buttons along the front edge so that I could easily hit them with my thumb. I also hate the tap-to-click function of trackpads, so I need good buttons. Gestures are also iffy. I can't state how much I hate trackpad gimmicks; I really want two solid buttons. It is so bad that I bought a lapdesk with a mouse area so I can always use a mouse with the laptop. It is so bad that I almost would prefer the older model with trackbad buttons over the newer model. I hate the trackpad, but I'll probably get used to it eventually.
The laptop runs great. It has Optimus, so it should switch between the Intel HD 4000 graphics and the nVidia GT 640m LE as needed. It plays games fine. It is easy to type on. It has great connectivity: GB lan, dual-band wireless N, bluetooth, Intel Wireless Display, two USB ports, hdmi, SD slot, and even an optical drive. I'm not sure that we need the optical drive. I wish the USB 3 ports were on the left, so they wouldn't interfere with using a mouse on the right.
I haven't reinstalled windows yet, but I will soon. I have added 8 GB of ram and will install to a 256 GB SSD. I am currently reviewing all of the applications buried in the recovery partition to see if there is anything that I need. I'll document that process in another post.
So far, I really like the laptop. I bet I'll like it even more with an SSD. One issue that might pop up is that the SATA ports appear to limited to SATA II unless you buy SSDs from Sony. If this is true, it is a shitty, shitty, shitty move by Sony. I don't know why companies do that crap. I do know - money - but it doesn't mean that I care for it.
Thoughts on VPC13A
My wife loves her S13. It is the previous model. It is almost identical to my laptop other than Sandy Bridge, a Radeon, and a different trackpad. In my mind, the cpu is about the same, the Radeon is definitely slower, and the trackpad is much better because it has buttons. It was also more than 33% cheaper and came with a docking station. The trackpad is a different brand and has less gesture capability. I like it better.Graphics Comparison
Because the two laptops are so similar, I wanted to see how much of an impact the newer graphics card made. I ran 3DMark 11 on both computers right after I started them up. The SVS has a Ivy Bridge i5-3320M at 2.6GHz, while the VPC has aSandy Bridge i5-2450M at 2.5 GHz. The SVS has a nVidia GT 640m LE (2GB), and the VPC had a Radeon HD 6630M (1GB.SVS 3DMark 11 scores:
P1339 3DMarks
Graphics score: 1225
Physics score: 3419
combined score: 1108
VPC 3DMark 11 scores:
P990 3DMarks
Graphics score: 876
Physics score: 3513
Combined score: 905
I don't benchmark much, but I do know that benchmarks can and will be manipulated by hardware manufacturers. Take the results with a grain of salt, but it looks like the newer model is anywhere from 20-50% faster according to 3DMark. I think both will be able to play the games we want to play, and I'm happy with the screen, resolution, keyboard, speed, and connectivity of these laptops. Firewire would have been nice, but I'm pretty happy with them.
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