If there was a prize for the best-looking
laptop on test, Sony’s S Series would emerge victorious. This delicately
proportioned 13.3in laptop is slim, lightweight and very attractive.
The recent crop of Ultrabooks might make
the VAIO S13 look a little flabby, but at 1.72 kg, it’s still highly portable.
Sony has also found room to accommodate a slot-loading DVD writer, two USB 3
ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and both D-SUB and HDMI video outputs.
The all-white chassis houses an Intel dual-core
Core i5 CPU allied with 4GB of low-voltage DDR3 RAM. Performance lags behind
the quad-core machines elsewhere in this group, but the overall result of 0.72
sees the Sony punching well above its weight. Stamina is a high point, too,
with the result of 8hrs 43mins in our light-use battery test topping the table.
It isn’t all rosy for Sony’s little one,
however. The build quality feels lightweight, with more flex than we’d like,
and the display is another low point. Brightness reaches a modest 204 cd/m2
and the vertical viewing angles are quite narrow.
It looks great, but this petite portable
laptop needs a better display for us to recommend it.
Sony
VAIO S Series 13
|
Information
Price: $938
Verdict
Performance: 3/6
Battery life: 5/6
Features & Design: 3/6
Value for money: 4/6
|
