This review is from: Sony VAIO SVE1711X1EB.CEK 17.3-inch Laptop (Black) – (Intel Core i7 2.10GHz Processor, 8GB RAM, 750GB HDD, Windows 7 Edition Home Premium) (Personal Computers)
Don’t listen to the previous reviews. The trackpad is very usable. In fact the Sony Vaio E series offers one 0of the best trackpads on the laptop/notebook market. Same can be said for the keyboard. The keys are very stable, firm and comfortable to press so if you are someone who types thousands of words regularly this is a good laptop to have and the keyboard being backlit is a nice touch.
It is a replacement for a desktop PC and it is certainly built like one. It is one powerful machine which runs very smoothly and never lags. The 3612QM may not have as high a clock rate as the 3610QM but you don’t need that extra bit even if you are a gamer. The point of the 3612QM is that it uses less power than the other high performance core i7 ivy bridge processors. This laptop is definitely one for battery life as are most Vaio’s. My battery lasts 3-3.5 hours. It can last 4.5 hours if I am stingy with the battery.
The full HD screen (1600 x 1080) is amazing. Whether you’re watching movies or playing games, the screen delivers bright, vibrant colours with the full 1080p resolution. The graphics card is more than capable of handling any recent game. Radeon HD 7650M much better than a GeForce graphics card. Radeons are better for laptops and notebooks. It also comes with a Blueray player.
Connectivity is not an issue on the laptop either. This laptop offers 3 USB 2.0 ports and a USB 3.0 port which is better than most other laptops or notebooks. Bluetooth 4.0 is offered as standard. The laptop’s design is also very nice. It looks sleek and professional as do most Vaio laptops.
The only two minor problems I can see with this is the weight (but like I said it’s meant to be more of a PC replacement than an on-the-go device) and the sound. The sound isn’t bad by any means in terms of quality and volume, but it lacks bass.
In conclusion, you can’t go wrong with this laptop. It’s good for movies, games, office work, student work. It is good for just about every situation and it’s specifications mean that for £860 this is a bargain. A similar macbook by Apple would be more than £1300.
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This review is from: Sony VAIO SVE1711X1EB.CEK 17.3-inch Laptop (Black) – (Intel Core i7 2.10GHz Processor, 8GB RAM, 750GB HDD, Windows 7 Edition Home Premium) (Personal Computers)
Wow, this laptop is truly amazing. Where to start? The screen is clear, nice and bright, the keyboard has a nice backlight on it so you can type in the dark (it looks cool in the day too). The keyboard actually has a nice subtle bounce to it when you type, it really makes for comfortable typing. I have no idea what other reviewers problems are with the touchpad, mine is excellent. It’s a gesture supported touch pad with no visible buttons (but they are there). The left button is the whole touchpad and the right-click button is where the right-click button usually is. You can scroll in the conventional way or you can use two fingers anywhere on the pad to scroll. You can pinch-zoom, rotate and I believe there are options for three finger left/right swipe etc. It feels nice, it’s NOT over sensitive, I have never caught it whilst typing. Based on previous reviews and comments, I suspect that Sony either sent out some laptops with broken touchpads or these people just don’t know how to use them.
Now, on to performance. The i7 3612QM processor in this beast is not for noobs! It will handle anything (mostly!) that you can throw at it. The installed RAM is 1600mhz too which is real nice. I have been using this now for 2 weeks and it hasn’t even coughed at what I have asked it to do.
I’m not big into my games, but I have played a couple games and the graphics settings have all defaulted to max and the games play +60 FPS easily. I don’t know how it would do running the latest graphics intensive games.
The battery seems Ok. It seems to last for about 1.5-2 hours with all settings max and about 3 hours on the ‘balanced’ setting. No idea what the ‘Battery Saver’ would be as I have had no reason to need to save my battery yet.
The sound is good, it is loud, but as another mentioned, it’s not very bassy but then would you expect it to be?? I don’t really make use of the speakers myself, I plug in headphones.
When I was shopping around for my laptop, I had 3 requirements: Intel Core i7, 17″+ screen and a respectable make. I didn’t expect to find this and much more near top spec items for £850! It’s great value for money. I love the size of the screen and this beast has a nice bit of weight to it. Probably not the best for carting around on the train etc but if you want to do that, don’t buy a 17″ laptop!
Now, onto the negatives… There are 2, 1 quite severe but it is fixable. The first is the amount of crap that is installed, another reviewer noted this too, there is a lot. Personally, it didn’t bother me as I had always planned to install a clean win 7 pro on it anyway, but for people that aren’t going to do that, be prepared to remove a lot of programs. The 2nd is the hard drive. It’s pretty bad. Whilst it is a Western Digital, it’s 5400RPM and it is slow. As a result, you have a fantastic processor, memory, graphics… all being held back due to a poor HDD. Fortunately, you can fix it if you are willing to spend an extra £100 and you don’t care much for your CD drive. I have purchased a Corsair Force GT 90GB SSD (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005HG4T0E/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers) and I have just ordered an Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy, this will let me put the existing Western Digital HDD in the Optical Bay and use it as a secondary HDD. But obviously I am going to lose my CD/DVD/Bluray drive (Not a problem for me, I don’t use it anyway). With the SSD inside, this laptop boots in just over 10 seconds and the performance is sick! If you can afford a bigger SSD then you probably won’t need to lose the optical drive. My windows index score is now 6.7 (7.9 is max), that lowest score is the Graphics!! and the Graphics are awesome!! If you don’t replace the HDD, I believe it was 5.9 but can’t remember. (The complete score from top to bottom is 7.4/7.7/6.7/6.7/5.9?)
We have new desktops at work, they are meant to be performance desktops, they cost a fortune. THIS LAPTOP IS BETTER! I need say no more.
So in summary, this laptop as is, I think is 4/5 (maybe 4.5/5) but replacing the HDD it makes it 5/5. Now that I have perfected my laptop, it is truly perfect.
Hope this has been helpful.
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This review is from: Sony VAIO SVE1711X1EB.CEK 17.3-inch Laptop (Black) – (Intel Core i7 2.10GHz Processor, 8GB RAM, 750GB HDD, Windows 7 Edition Home Premium) (Personal Computers)
Having read not only the reviews on Amazon and other sites, I decided to buy this about 10 days ago; I am not disappointed!
This is my third Vaio and really is the best one of all. There are a few niggles but in regard to the track pad, its just a question of getting use to something which is perhaps, unfamiliar. I use this for 8-10 hours a day and it has become very easy to get to grips with its unusual design. The screen is superb but what really impresses me is the weight, lighter than most 17.3″ laptops and although I would rarely carry it around, I don’t think it would be too cumbersome.
The pre-loaded software is mostly useless to me so like others, I have uninstalled most of it. It fires up very quickly and the illuminated keyboard is really excellent and not just a gimmick. I looked at various alternatives including those form Toshiba and Acer but at this price and with all the features of full HD, a massive HDD, Blu-ray and an i7 processor, it was the best value and Sony do have the edge when it comes to style too with the sleek black, wrap around design.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Best laptop I’ve ever owned.,
Don’t listen to the previous reviews. The trackpad is very usable. In fact the Sony Vaio E series offers one 0of the best trackpads on the laptop/notebook market. Same can be said for the keyboard. The keys are very stable, firm and comfortable to press so if you are someone who types thousands of words regularly this is a good laptop to have and the keyboard being backlit is a nice touch.
It is a replacement for a desktop PC and it is certainly built like one. It is one powerful machine which runs very smoothly and never lags. The 3612QM may not have as high a clock rate as the 3610QM but you don’t need that extra bit even if you are a gamer. The point of the 3612QM is that it uses less power than the other high performance core i7 ivy bridge processors. This laptop is definitely one for battery life as are most Vaio’s. My battery lasts 3-3.5 hours. It can last 4.5 hours if I am stingy with the battery.
The full HD screen (1600 x 1080) is amazing. Whether you’re watching movies or playing games, the screen delivers bright, vibrant colours with the full 1080p resolution. The graphics card is more than capable of handling any recent game. Radeon HD 7650M much better than a GeForce graphics card. Radeons are better for laptops and notebooks. It also comes with a Blueray player.
Connectivity is not an issue on the laptop either. This laptop offers 3 USB 2.0 ports and a USB 3.0 port which is better than most other laptops or notebooks. Bluetooth 4.0 is offered as standard. The laptop’s design is also very nice. It looks sleek and professional as do most Vaio laptops.
The only two minor problems I can see with this is the weight (but like I said it’s meant to be more of a PC replacement than an on-the-go device) and the sound. The sound isn’t bad by any means in terms of quality and volume, but it lacks bass.
In conclusion, you can’t go wrong with this laptop. It’s good for movies, games, office work, student work. It is good for just about every situation and it’s specifications mean that for £860 this is a bargain. A similar macbook by Apple would be more than £1300.
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|Almost perfect but you can make it perfect 🙂,
Wow, this laptop is truly amazing. Where to start? The screen is clear, nice and bright, the keyboard has a nice backlight on it so you can type in the dark (it looks cool in the day too). The keyboard actually has a nice subtle bounce to it when you type, it really makes for comfortable typing. I have no idea what other reviewers problems are with the touchpad, mine is excellent. It’s a gesture supported touch pad with no visible buttons (but they are there). The left button is the whole touchpad and the right-click button is where the right-click button usually is. You can scroll in the conventional way or you can use two fingers anywhere on the pad to scroll. You can pinch-zoom, rotate and I believe there are options for three finger left/right swipe etc. It feels nice, it’s NOT over sensitive, I have never caught it whilst typing. Based on previous reviews and comments, I suspect that Sony either sent out some laptops with broken touchpads or these people just don’t know how to use them.
Now, on to performance. The i7 3612QM processor in this beast is not for noobs! It will handle anything (mostly!) that you can throw at it. The installed RAM is 1600mhz too which is real nice. I have been using this now for 2 weeks and it hasn’t even coughed at what I have asked it to do.
I’m not big into my games, but I have played a couple games and the graphics settings have all defaulted to max and the games play +60 FPS easily. I don’t know how it would do running the latest graphics intensive games.
The battery seems Ok. It seems to last for about 1.5-2 hours with all settings max and about 3 hours on the ‘balanced’ setting. No idea what the ‘Battery Saver’ would be as I have had no reason to need to save my battery yet.
The sound is good, it is loud, but as another mentioned, it’s not very bassy but then would you expect it to be?? I don’t really make use of the speakers myself, I plug in headphones.
When I was shopping around for my laptop, I had 3 requirements: Intel Core i7, 17″+ screen and a respectable make. I didn’t expect to find this and much more near top spec items for £850! It’s great value for money. I love the size of the screen and this beast has a nice bit of weight to it. Probably not the best for carting around on the train etc but if you want to do that, don’t buy a 17″ laptop!
Now, onto the negatives… There are 2, 1 quite severe but it is fixable. The first is the amount of crap that is installed, another reviewer noted this too, there is a lot. Personally, it didn’t bother me as I had always planned to install a clean win 7 pro on it anyway, but for people that aren’t going to do that, be prepared to remove a lot of programs.
The 2nd is the hard drive. It’s pretty bad. Whilst it is a Western Digital, it’s 5400RPM and it is slow. As a result, you have a fantastic processor, memory, graphics… all being held back due to a poor HDD. Fortunately, you can fix it if you are willing to spend an extra £100 and you don’t care much for your CD drive. I have purchased a Corsair Force GT 90GB SSD (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005HG4T0E/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers) and I have just ordered an Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy, this will let me put the existing Western Digital HDD in the Optical Bay and use it as a secondary HDD. But obviously I am going to lose my CD/DVD/Bluray drive (Not a problem for me, I don’t use it anyway). With the SSD inside, this laptop boots in just over 10 seconds and the performance is sick! If you can afford a bigger SSD then you probably won’t need to lose the optical drive. My windows index score is now 6.7 (7.9 is max), that lowest score is the Graphics!! and the Graphics are awesome!! If you don’t replace the HDD, I believe it was 5.9 but can’t remember. (The complete score from top to bottom is 7.4/7.7/6.7/6.7/5.9?)
We have new desktops at work, they are meant to be performance desktops, they cost a fortune. THIS LAPTOP IS BETTER! I need say no more.
So in summary, this laptop as is, I think is 4/5 (maybe 4.5/5) but replacing the HDD it makes it 5/5. Now that I have perfected my laptop, it is truly perfect.
Hope this has been helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Vaio at its Very Best!,
Having read not only the reviews on Amazon and other sites, I decided to buy this about 10 days ago; I am not disappointed!
This is my third Vaio and really is the best one of all. There are a few niggles but in regard to the track pad, its just a question of getting use to something which is perhaps, unfamiliar. I use this for 8-10 hours a day and it has become very easy to get to grips with its unusual design. The screen is superb but what really impresses me is the weight, lighter than most 17.3″ laptops and although I would rarely carry it around, I don’t think it would be too cumbersome.
The pre-loaded software is mostly useless to me so like others, I have uninstalled most of it. It fires up very quickly and the illuminated keyboard is really excellent and not just a gimmick. I looked at various alternatives including those form Toshiba and Acer but at this price and with all the features of full HD, a massive HDD, Blu-ray and an i7 processor, it was the best value and Sony do have the edge when it comes to style too with the sleek black, wrap around design.
Was this review helpful to you?
|