Sony’s candidate in the thin and light category is the Vaio Y. Introduced in the Philippines last February, the Sony Vaio Y is a 13.3″ notebook powered by an Intel 1.3GHz CULV.
The is painted matte silver all-over with a black base (the one is actually an engineering unit) and a somewhat textured palm rest. The body is, as expected, thin and light with added design accents pretty common to most high-end Vaio laptops.
There are a couple of buttons Sony added on top of the full qwerty keyboard — an Assist button for out-of-the-box customer support and a Vaio button that triggers Transfer Support (for when you want to migrate your content/documents from one Vaio laptop to another).
The full-sized keyboard features chiclet-type keys that are very well spaced and comfortable to use. The multi-touch trackpad,, slightly shifted to the left, is wide and a bit textured with the left and right clickers separated at the middle.
The 13.3″ screen is a good 1366×768 pixel resolution and glossy which makes the display bright and crisp but is prone to glare when used outdoors or against bright light sources. What’s a bit annoying is the Vaio Gate (a shortcut bar that docks on top of the screen) that messes up a portion of the screen and blocks off the tabs when using the browser of full screen. Fortunately, you can either hide that or completely turn that off on start-up.
As for performance, we got a pretty nice results from the Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 @ 1.3GHz and the 2GB DDR3 RAM (upgradeable to 8GB DDR3 RAM). Windows Experience Index gives it a base score of 3.4 (from the Intel GMA 4500MHD) while the CPU gets a nice 4.1 sub-score. Video playback on YouTube HD is smooth at 720p but a little choppy on 1080p.
Complete benchmarks and CPU/GPU screenshots are posted in the PC Labs. The numbers are as expected of a CULV system and within range of other SU7300 we’ve tested before.
The complete specs are on the higher end of the spectrum as well, starting with WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity. Storage is provided by a 320GB Toshiba SATA HDD. Aside from 3 USB 2.0 ports, its got an HDMI port, an ExpressCard slot, and SD Card/Memory Stick reader.
The 6-cell battery is rated at 5,000mAh or 54Wh (BatteryBar shows 57,240mWh @ 10.8V). I get an average 5 to 6 hours on balanced settings and BatteryBar gives it a nice rating of just under 6 hours (close to the promised 8 hours by Sony).
That’s already a good balance between performance and battery life.
As expected of any Sony line of laptops, the Sony Vaio Y comes with a premium price of Php54,999. It’s probably the only thin-and-light CULV model around that’s priced above the 50k range. Now that’s what it means when they say you’re paying for the Sony brand.
With this price I was able to get an F series in Hong Kong. Core i5, 4GB RAM exp to 8GB, 500 HDD. may 3 years warranty pa! W/ no warranty? 49k lang. Gosh, I hate customs taxes!
Talaga panget ang service nila? Naku, ang Macbook ba maganda ang service?
san po pwedeng bilhin at magkano po ang bayad at presyo
When i bought my Dell vostro earlier this year, it had a dead pixel and i returned the laptop the following day. Once they confirmed the defect, they issued a replacement right there and then. I was pleased with the service considering that it is not Dell’s service center but Silicon Valley. I thought i’d consider vaio for my next purchase but thanks to nob’s tip i eliminated it with my options.
sony bulok ang service. I bought a sony vaio about a year may dead pixel and lcd but did not replace it even though 1 week lang sa akin. ayaw palitan ang unit. They referred me to sony service sa may Ermita. pagbalik same pa din nandun pa din ang dead pixel, sana man lang they replace the LCD. Don’t buy their vaio laptops ang mahal na MADE in CHINA lang pala. Later I sold mine and bought a Fujitsu. Damn, sana nung umpisa Fujitsu na kinuha ko. Tama lang ang price and made in Japan pa.
Sorry, typo there.
“Not only are you paying for the Sony brand, but you are also paying for the huge customs taxes here. Price at Sony Style website = USD799 (approx. Php35,600).”
Not only are you paying for the Sony brand, but you brand but you are also going to pay for the huge customs taxes. Price in USA = $799 (around P35,600).
@gamerumble
True. Here in the Philippines, parang double yung Sony tax haha
@Gams – Mahal na pagdating dito satin. If you have a relative in the US, and you have cash then that’s a better option. :)
I always dreamed of owning a Sony Vaio laptop, but it’s quite expensive.Just like other sony products…Ahh, that’s the price of being a quality brand.
sometimes we tend to forget that the prices for the thin and lights are bordering full laptop territory; even exceeds it.
Saw this one last easter Sunday, It’s a nice entry for the category. build is definitely Sony.
you know you should stop accepting for review units that you have to return and demand promotional units that you can give away after testing. You’re being taken advantage of :) and they sure better not be paying to do reviews :)
Awesome.But still can’t par my old desktop.
How about some Sony VAIO P series next? :D
steep price, vat and sony tax included!
sir yuga,, alin po mas maganda?? eto poh o ung MacBook?? tnx,,poh!
master, how bout the camera? is acer’s still the best in the market?
-dale
Ok naman ang price ah. Most C2D laptops are about that range, maybe 5k less. And this VAIO has DDR3. And Sony has the best laptop screens in the market. Screens are the most expensive part of a notebook computer.
@jd – 3.9lbs
nice. gaano kabigat?
first! :)