Sony VAIO Fit 15E Review

The Sony Vaio Fit line-up of laptops that launched recently looks quite convincing—the laptops employ ultra-low voltage processors that are used in Ultrabooks, but sport a conventional design. Going by the specs on paper, you may expect a good balance of power and battery life, and that too at much lower price points than Ultrabooks. But the “value for money” aspect is a question mark, which we shall find out in the later part of the review.

A good mainstream laptop that looks very elite

Design and features
The Vaio Fit series comprises 14 and 15-inch models available in a slew of different configurations. The entry-level models run an Intel Core i3 processor along with a very basic set of hardware. The more powerful models are powered by Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and feature touchscreen and discrete graphics. So, you have a wide range to choose from depending on your power requirement and budget.

All the laptops in the Fit series feature the same design, just that the guts inside the chassis vary based on the configurations. What we recieved from Sony was a review unit of the most basic variant with a 15.5-inch display (SVF15212SN). This laptop is powered by Intel Core i3-3227U processor, which is a dual-core part with four logical processors ticking at 1.9GHz. While this sounds good enough to handle Windows 8 with ease, 2GB of RAM could cause hiccups with slightly more demanding applications. Most mainstream laptops in the Rs 35,000 range come with 4GB of RAM. It’s really odd that Sony decided to stick in half the amount even though memory isn’t very expensive. Thankfully, it’s easy to add more RAM by accessing the slots covered with a removable lid fastened with a screw on the bottom of the chassis. Similarly, the 500GB hard drive can be upgraded to a higher capacity or replaced with an SSD should you need more storage space or speed.

Chiclet-type keyboard with a separate numeric pad

The Vaio Fit 15E offers a good selection of ports, all of which are placed on the side for easy access. Half the area on the left side is taken by the exhaust vents and the rest is taken up by a cluster of ports that include a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI port and jacks for headphone and mic. The right side has only two USB 2.0 ports and a tray-loading DVD writer. The card reader is placed on the front alongside indicators for power, charging status and drive activity.

A useful cluster of ports and exhaust vents on the left side

The chassis of the Fit 15E is slightly large courtesy the 15.5-inch display that has a resolution of 1366 x 768. This has paved way for a numeric pad to the right of the keyboard. That said, the keyboard is of the chiclet type with flat keys. The touchpad is about 4 inches wide and like in most of the latest laptops, the entire pad is clickable with no separate buttons for left and right click.

Looks wise, the Vaio Fit is as simple as it can get. The body is all-black with matte finish devoid of any texture, except for the glossy LCD bezel. The exterior of the lid sports a large Vaio logo in chrome, which is the only shiny thing. Despite the simple design, the Vaio Fit looks very elite—it comes across as a serious machine that’s apt for a work desk.
Build quality and ergonomics
The overall build quality of the Vaio Fit isn’t par excellence and leaves much to be desired. The only thing that takes away the charm from this good-looker is the screen bezel, which would have looked pleasing if it had matte finish like the rest of the body. Also, it’s flimsily fastened to the lid. We noticed that the lower part was a bit lifted and looked uneven. The hinges too could have been better. The ones here lack stiffness due to which the lid wobbles easily—you wouldn’t want this while you’re on the road. Even more annoying would be using the touchscreen in certain variants, wherein the lid would wobble with the slightest touch.

All-black exterior with matte finish

The keyboard of the Vaio Fit is very good. You will find typing comfortable even if you have large hands. The keys don’t have much travel, but the tactile feedback inspires good confidence. On the other hand, the touchpad feels a bit clumsy. It’s oversensitive and tapping doesn’t register as a click along the borders (around 1 cm) of the touchpad. You would be more comfortable with a separate mouse.

Performance
The configuration of the SVF15212SN won’t feel weak so long as you stick to the basic apps such as office suites, web browsing and media playback. However, you will find stutter if you do multitasking or run demanding applications. The remedy to this problem is upgrading the RAM to at least 4GB by adding a 2GB stick. This laptop scored 2272 points in PCMark 7 and the sequential read and write speeds hovered around 90MB/s—similar to the performance of any mainstream laptop and a tad slower than a Core i5-powered Ultrabook with a hard drive.

ClearAudio+ amplifies sound to a good extent

What we particularly like in the Vaio Fit are the speakers. There is a tiny subwoofer driver on the bottom of the chassis, which adds good warmth to the sound. The stereo speakers are placed on the front towards the corners and reside behind metal grilles. One of the key features of the Vaio Fit is Sony’s ClearAudio+ setting, which amplifies the audio for Music and Videos and allows customising the equaliser settings.

The battery life of the SVF15212SN is just about average. For an entry-level configuration with an ultra-low voltage processor, we expected the 4-cell battery to last for at least 2.5 hours in the Classic test of Battery Eater Pro. This laptop survived for two hours, which isn’t too bad considering it will last for around 3.5 hours with light usage.

Verdict and price in India
The Sony Vaio Fit SVF15212SN is priced at an MRP of Rs 34,990, which we feel is a bit expensive because it comes with only 2GB of RAM. The price of a 2GB module is roughly around Rs 1,400, and pushes the total to a little more than Rs 36,000. For that price you can buy a laptop with discrete graphics and 4GB of RAM or a more powerful configuration with Intel Core i5 processor. The only forte of this laptop is the brilliant sound quality, but that alone doesn’t justify the premium.