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Sony Vaio EE2E1E/WI review

Sony Vaio EE2E1E/WI
Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £497
inc VAT

The Vaio EE2E1E/WI looks great, but it's underpowered for this price.

Specifications

15.5 in 1,366×768 display, 2.5kg, 2.1GHz AMD Athlon II X2 P320, 3.00GB RAM, 320GB disk, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk

The horribly named EE2E1E/WI is one of the few laptops in Sony’s Vaio range with an AMD processor. At £500, it’s easier on the pocket than many of Sony’s 15.5in notebooks. However, we were immediately sceptical about whether the dual-core Athlon II X2 P320, 3GB of RAM and Mobility Radeon HD 4200 would match Intel-based laptops at this price.

Unfortunately for Sony, our doubts were bourne out by the results of our benchmark tests. An Overall score of 54 is particularly poor for a laptop of this size and price. It also failed to impress in our Call of Duty 4 test, producing a frame rate of just 3.5fps. Even battery life was a disappointment at two hours and 44 minutes.

This is a pity, as in every other respect, this is a great laptop. The glossy display, although rather reflective, is bright and clear. Its resolution of 1,366×768 gives plenty of desktop real estate and you can use the HDMI output if you want to watch 1080p video on a suitably equipped HD TV. Sound from the built in speakers is generally clear and loud, although the underpowered bass (as with all laptops) means that some tracks sounded a bit empty.

The keyboard lends itself to swift, accurate typing thanks to its flat, widely spaced keys. The trackpad is positioned below the spacebar, set slightly to the left of centre. There’s plenty of space for your wrists and the trackpad won’t get in the way of your typing. Although the EE2E1E/WI’s silver lid and white keyboard look good, dirt shows up easily on white plastic, and we noticed that the buttons below the trackpad had already begun to look a little grubby after minimal use. The wrist rest quickly became warm, although it wasn’t hot enough to make typing uncomfortable.

Usually, we wouldn’t complain about a 320GB hard disk, but it’s capacity is stingy given the corners cut on the processor and GPU. The laptop’s other features are as we’d expect at this price, with a DVD re-writer and two memory card reader slots that between them can handle SD and Memory Stick Pro Duo cards. We were pleased to find four USB ports, but you’re out of luck if you need FireWire or eSATA. Networking support is provided a Gigabit Ethernet port and 802.11n WiFi.

Although it looks good and is comfortable to use, the Vaio EE2E1E/WI is underpowered for its price. The dual-core Athlon processor can’t compete with similarly priced Core i3 and Core i5 laptops. Although the display and build quality are up to Sony’s usual high standards, there’s just not enough here to justify the price. Samsung’s R530 is even cheaper, with an equally good screen but better performance.

Basic Specifications

Rating **
Processor AMD Athlon II X2 P320
Processor clock speed 2.1GHz
Memory 3.00GB
Memory slots 2
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 4GB
Size 30x372x250mm
Weight 2.5kg
Sound Realtek HD Audio
Pointing device touchpad

Display

Viewable size 15.5 in
Native resolution 1,366×768
Graphics Processor ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200
Graphics/video ports VGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory 256MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 320GB
Optical drive model TSST TS-L633C
Optical drive type DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 4
Bluetooth no
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11b/g/n
PC Card slots none
Modem No
Supported memory cards SD, SDHC, Memory Stick Pro/Duo
Other ports none

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option burn own restore disc
Software included ArcSoft Magic-i Visual Effects 2, ArcSoft WebCam Companion 3, Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 LJ
Optional extras none

Buying Information

Warranty one year collect and return
Price £497
Details www.sony.co.uk
Supplier http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk

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