Review Sony Vaio VPCF11M1E / H Notebook

    Official photo

    Introduction


    I want to talk about the impressions of buying a laptop Sony Vaio VPCF11M1E / H. I bought it in the Czech Republic.
    In Russia, Sony offers the VPCF11S1R / H with the same filling, and its appearance coincides with the VPCF11M1R / H. More details can be found on the official website . The only difference I have discovered is the lack of 802.11n sold in Russia.
    I plan to talk more about my own impressions of using a laptop, rather than the results of performance measurements with specialized software.
    I will also dwell on the software part of my purchase, because "a computer without software is a useless piece of hardware."
    However, first things first.

    The choice


    Decent performance was a prerequisite for the laptop you bought, all other parameters could be sacrificed to others.
    My love of HD video, as well as some experience with operating ATI video cards, insisted on choosing a laptop with a Nvidia graphics card.
    Before, the whole experience of my long-term communication with laptops was limited to Dells: several generations of Latituds, now the family also has a Dell 1555, bought in the fall, it is with him that I will make comparisons from time to time.
    I initially focused on Intel Core i7 720QM, 620M or Core i5 520M. Laptops with processors from the Arrandale family just started appearing in the Czech Republic, and in general there wasn’t much choice, the Core i5 is mainly represented by the 430M.
    As an alternative, I considered Dell 1557 and 1558, but I did not like the video card (ATI Radeon HD4570). In favor of Dell, they said a good guarantee (next buisness day), a screen, and indeed my positive experience of use.
    Only two configurations of the Sony F-series 520M + 4GB and 720QM + 8Gb are sold in the Czech Republic - however, the second is almost 40% more expensive.

    Configuration


    OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Chipset - Intel PM55 Express
    Processor - Intel Core i5-520M
    Memory - 4Gb DDR3 1066
    Hard Drive - 500 Gb (5400)
    Optical Drive - CD, DVD (read and write), BR (read)
    Video card - NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M (1Gb GDDR3)
    Screen - 1920x1080
    Network - 10BASE-T / 100BASE-TX / 1000BASE-T, 802.11 a / b / g / n
    Weight - 3.1 kg
    Content box with laptop


    Visual inspection



    Appearance

    The surface of the laptop is matte, both the lid and the inside, the surface in front of the keyboard is rough (the older model has “rubber-like” plastic). Basically, the ports are located on the sides of the laptop, in front there are only card readers and a switch for wi-fi. The camera is located in the middle, which increases the chance of its “sticking” during the opening of the laptop. The start button during operation glows green, during sleep it flashes orange.
    End view

    End view

    First launch


    I bought a laptop in the Czech Republic, in connection with this I was a little afraid of being tête-à-tête with Czech Windows, and the fact that you can only change the language in the Ultimate edition of Windows 7 gave cause for concern. However, in vain. At the first start, you are asked a language that is no longer possible to change. In general, a wizard without a back button is stupid, however, here we have the opportunity to contemplate it. Also, I was disappointed with the request to enter the settings for the wireless network, because in case of impossibility to connect (as was the case in my case, because before it was necessary to register an address unknown to me so far on the router), the entered data is lost.
    The installation process at the end was amused by the phrase: “Another Vaio is born!”
    This is how Windows evaluates its performance:
    Rating from Windows


    Software


    The first impression was: "and not everything is so quick." However, after disconnecting / uninstalling some of the pre-installed programs from Sony and its partners, everything became somehow more alive. In general, the amount of preinstalled software is impressive, unfortunately, not a lot of it can be called very useful. For example: Vaio Gate - the panel at the top of the screen with a brace under the Mack's dock.
    Chrome of the third version was preinstalled, but it was not possible to update it.
    The official site of Nvidia does not yet offer drivers for the GeForce 330M (as well as the three-hundredth mobile series in general); at the same time, I was not able to display the image on the TV (it needs to be slightly reduced, but I did not find such functionality in the installed drivers). Ubuntu also has a problem with video drivers - after installing and activating a proprietary driver, the video does not work.

    Impressions and operating experience


    • Screen: movies look great. In office applications, at first it seemed a little worse than on Dell, but with careful comparison I can call them different, but worthy of each other. However, in favor of Sony - the light sensor - is immensely convenient.
    • Keyboard: the presence of the digital part pleased me, the location of Insert \ Delete \ Home \ End \ PageUp \ PageDown is quite convenient (unlike Dell, they are on top and not on the side), the left shift is somewhat small and I regularly miss, the cursor keys are a bit small, also not familiar with their location (not in the corner). Ctrl + F4 is not very convenient to press.
      Keyboard

    • Touchpad: much more convenient than Dell's, slightly rough to the touch.
      Touchpad

    • Weight is significant, however, more or less acceptable to me. In general, the impressions of the assembly are not bad, comparing with Dell’s 1555, I can note the advantage of Vaio, it reminded me of my old Latitude, which could also be taken with one hand by the edge and could not detect any significant backlash. What Sony is clearly inferior to is the inconvenience of opening a laptop with one hand.
    • Very tight insertion / removal of usb devices and power wires.
    • The location of the ports is not the best, in my opinion: they are too close to the front, so in the case of limited space, when working with the mouse, what is stuck in usb, connected headphones, etc. interferes.
    • Noise: in general, acceptable, although in the case of intensive work of the video card, the sound becomes somehow buzzing, this is somewhat annoying.
    • The exit from sleep is instant, my home wi-fi is also detected without delay.
    • Sound: the sound card seemed quite satisfactory, there is a difference with my old Audigy 4, but not so significant.
    • HD video plays perfectly, including the one that had some problems with the old desktop (AMD 4850e + ATI HD 3200)
    • Work without charging: about 250 minutes - surfing the Internet via wi-fi, 200 minutes - listening to the radio with the screen on, again with wi-fi
    • From the curious: the monitor off button; in other things, it doesn’t turn off completely - and there you can look closely to see traces of the picture
    • The camcorder is weak (0.3 MPix)
    • The speed of copying files over the network is up to 70 MByte / sec, I have not observed more than 30 on other hardware.


    findings


    The overall impression of the laptop is positive, I got a lot of what I wanted. The pros and cons I discovered are described above. Perhaps the ideal solution for me would be a laptop with a similar filling from the Z series, with only a 13-inch screen, and weighing about four hundred kilos, however, the cost is almost twice as much as what was bought.
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