Sony VAIO VPC-SE16FX/S

The Sony VAIO VPC-SE16FX/S ($1,249.99 direct) is a 15-inch laptop that will appeal to shoppers tempted by sleek, thin chassis and high-end parts like a Blu-ray player and AMD discrete graphics. With a lustrous design, a gorgeous high-definition display, and a potent combination of processing and graphics hardware that would put the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) ($2,199 direct, 4 stars) to shame, the Sony VAIO offers itself up in a light 4.4 pound package, without the Apple price tag. Those seeking the same rich feel and polished design of an Apple product, however, will be left a bit disappointed, with details like the keyboard and mouse feeling oddly unrefined.

Design
The VPC-SE16FX/S utilizes what Sony calls a "full flat" design, meaning that the laptop is flat with no degree of slope and no hint of a wedge shape in the profile. With a magnesium alloy skeleton inside and brushed aluminum covering the lid and palm rest, the VPC-SE16FX/S uses a combination of metal and plastic to keep the weight down to 4.4 pounds. It's actually a hair thinner than the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) , which is 1-inch thick and weighs 5.5 pounds. Even with the optional sheet battery attached, the VPC-SE16FX/S is still a close match in weight, coming in at 5.6 pounds. The enviable slimness disappears, however, as that battery adds nearly half an inch to the laptop.

One of the key features of the VPC-SE16FX/S is the 15.5-inch screen that displays in 1,920 by 1,080 HD resolution. The quality is better than what either the Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft) ($999 direct, 4 stars) or Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch have to offer, and looks great whether you're watching HD movies via the Blu-ray drive or streaming shows on Netflix. An anti-glare coating also provides a slightly matte finish to the screen, reducing reflections and improving visibility indoors and out. An ambient light sensor measures the light in the room and adjusts the display brightness accordingly, without the user having to give it any attention at all.

The keyboard is done in the same chiclet style we've seen on other laptops like the HP Envy 14 (Sandy Bridge) ($1,079.99 direct, 4 stars), but it can't quite match the comfortable feel of the Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft). The keys on the keyboard and adjacent numeric pad have a platinum silver finish that used throughout the laptop. The keyboard is backlit but, like the display, the backlight brightness is automatically adjusted according to the lighting conditions of the room. And while the self-adjusting backlighting is a great concept, in practice it's less than perfect. When the backlight is off, the letters are a dull grey that is nearly washed out against the keys' silvery finish. With the backlight on, a fair amount of light seeps out from around the keys, proving to be more distracting than helpful. And though you can rely on the ambient light sensor to turn it on and off, it would still be nice to have a control on the keyboard to turn it on and off as needed. The accompanying multitouch trackpad features two oversized mouse buttons, but the surface of the touchpad tends to stick, and I found myself wishing that the trackpad had some texture to it.

Features
Sony didn't hold back when it put together the feature set of this laptop. The VPC-SE16FX/S is filled to the brim with top of the line features, like a speedy USB 3.0 port, a Blu-ray player, and WiDi 2.0, Intel's wireless technology that lets you stream HD content to any HDTV, provided you have a Netgear Push2TV ($99) reviver. HDMI and VGA outputs are also available for those who want to take the wired route.

The VPC-SE16FX/S also features a fair amount of security, with a case lock slot, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) available, and the new Semantic VIP Access, which allows secure VPN connections without requiring any sort of security token. Two card readers let you pull files from most any form of flash media (SD, SDHC, MMC, MS/Pro, HG, MagicGate), and two more USB 2.0 ports are available for any peripheral devices you want to use. The integrated webcam uses an Exmor HD image sensor?a little goodie picked up from Sony's camera and imaging department?and Bluetooth Stereo means that you can use a variety of devices wirelessly, including a Bluetooth stereo headset or sound system. The Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi can be turned on and off with a physical switch, and a Gigabit Ethernet port provides wired network access when there's no Wi-Fi available.

The VPC-SE16FX/S is equipped with a 640GB 5,400rpm hard drive, and while it's not as big as the 750GB one in the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt), it's larger than the 500GB drive found in the Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft), and the typical user should find 640GB to be more than enough storage space. There are a few programs that come already installed on the hard drive, like Microsoft Office Starter 2011, a 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security, and a few free programs, like Skype, Evernote, and a Bing branded toolbar. Sony does throw in several proprietary VAIO utilities, but overall, there's little bloatware on the VPC-SE16FX/S.

Performance
The VPC-SE16FX/S is equipped with a 2.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-2430M. It's more agile than lesser iterations of the Core i5, scoring 2.6 points on Cinebench R11.5 and completed our Handbrake video encoding test in 1 minute 51 seconds. Compare this laptop with systems utilizing the Core i5-2410M version, like the HP Envy 14 (2.24 in Cinebench; 1:57 in Handbrake) and Dell XPS 15z (2.53 in Cinebench; 2:02 in Handbrake), and you can see the results vary ever-so slightly. The VAIO VPC-SE16FX also performed well in overall productivity, scoring 1,881 points in PCMark 7 and media creation, scoring 4 minutes 5 seconds in Photoshop CS5.

A physical switch on the laptop lets you manually flip between Intel's integrated graphics and AMD Radeon HD 6630M discrete graphics processor. Though it isn't being billed as a gaming laptop, the VPC-SE16FX/S definitely has the graphics horsepower to support demanding games. It pumped out some strong 3DMark 06 scores, scoring 8,010 points at default settings and 1,024 by 768 resolution. By comparison, the Acer Aspire TimelineX 5830TG-6402 ($799.99 direct, 3.5 stars) scored 2,252 points, and the HP Envy 14 (Sandy Bridge) scored 2,009 points. The Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft) edged it out with 8,610 points, and the Apple MacBook Pro leads the desktop replacement category with 10,878. In actual gaming tests, cranked out 64.7 frames per second (fps) in Crysis, and 49.7 fps in Lost Planet 2, beating out every comparable system except the MacBook Pro.

We tested the VPC-SE16FX/S's battery-life with the optional sheet battery attached, which Sony has boasted will provide up to 12 hours of battery-life, but we only squeezed out 10 hours 33 minutes in MobileMark 2007 with the discrete graphics card and keyboard backlight disabled. With the standard 6-cell 63Wh battery and all the graphics hardware and lights turned on, it barely broke the four-hour mark (4:11), putting it alongside the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (4:40), but falling behind the Dell XPS 15z (7:13). If you use the optional sheet battery and carefully manage your power consumption, this laptop will last you through a full day of work or very long flight.

Based on its hardware specifications alone the Sony VAIO VPC-SE16FX/S is a tempting deal, with its Intel Core i5 processor, AMD graphics, and all those excellent HD features. While there are a few points that don't feel as refined compared to the Editors' Choice Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft), like the backlit keyboard and the sticky trackpad, it's still a solid desktop replacement and a smart buy.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Sony VAIO VPC-SE16FX/S with several other laptops side by side.

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