Monthly Archives: July 2012

Sony VAIO T Ultrabook Review

Disclaimer

This unit has been tested partially as a factory unit and partially as a modified unit. I tried my best to wait until the end of the review process to modify the unit but this was beyond my control when my Windows partition became unbootable and inaccessible via Linux. I could not find the cause of the problem as my Recovery partition worked properly. I used the Vaio Rescue/Recovery feature from the ASSIST button but took hours to reach 50%. This is where I decided to attempt the modification I will detail later in this review.

Sony Vaio T: base configuration + 500GB (5400 rpm) HDD

Introduction

Ironically, it started with the PlayStation 3. Initially wanting to buy a PS3, I heard about the free PS3 offer that Sony was honoring with the purchase of a new laptop. I have been considering getting a new laptop, since all of my previous laptops were used goods, except my netbook. I knew that I would be limited to Sony Vaio laptops and so I made a decision to buy the cheapest unit I could afford, which happened to be the Vaio T.

At the time of my purchase, I considered the Vaio S but the MobileTechReview’s overview of the Vaio T sold me on its portability and work-centric setup. Although, I did end up installing Fallout: New Vegas, strictly for real-world benchmarking of course. I have also brought the Vaio T with me to a conference where I was able to utilize its very quick boot from sleep and hibernation features. This is with the laptop’s factory setup. The problem I had with laptops in the past is that they not only booted too slow but provided very little processing power for basic to mid-range tasks like video processing using Microsoft Movie Maker 2.

Why the Vaio T?

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