Sony Vaio S Series SVS1511AGXB review

Juice box
Sony Vaio S	Average watts per hour
Off (60 percent)	0.23
Sleep (10 percent)	0.78
Idle (25 percent)	8.49
Load (5 percent)	45.8
Raw kWh	40.55
Annual power consumption cost	$4.60

Midsize laptops can run the gamut from disappointing battery life to outstanding, because of the wide variety of prices, components, and battery capacities available. The Vaio S landed right in the middle of the pack, running for 4 hours and 31 minutes in our video playback battery drain test. That's acceptable, but not especially impressive. A MacBook Pro can run 2 hours or more longer, while a specialized gaming laptop may only run 2 hours total, or even less. The Vaio S is thin and light, so looking for some extra battery time for on-the-go use isn't out of the question.

The Sony Vaio S is backed by an industry-standard one-year mail-in warranty. Support is accessible 24-7 via a toll-free phone line, an online knowledge base, and a Web site with driver downloads. Sony's support sites are clean and easy to navigate, but upgrades can be a bit steep, running $249 for a three-year mail-in plan, or $399 for a three-year plan that includes accidental damage protection.

Sony makes great multimedia laptops, and produces one of only a handful of high-end product lines that can compete with Apple in design and marketing savvy. That said, there's a lot of competition right now in thin midsize laptops, especially from new HP and Dell systems, and the Vaio S is more expensive than many of them.

Street Fighter IV (in fps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Native Resolution, 2X AA, V Sync Off

Maingear EX-L 15

162.4 

Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435

96.4 

Dell XPS 15

73.1 

Sony Vaio S1511AGXB

51.5 

Find out more about how we test laptops.

System configurations:

Sony Vaio S1511AGXB
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.1GHz Intel Core i7-3612QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M / 128MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 500GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Maingear EX-L 15
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-3820QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M + 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch w/ Retina Display (June 2012)
OS X 10.7.4 Lion; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M + 512MB Intel HD 4000; 256GB Apple SSD

Dell XPS 15
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.1GHz Intel Core i7-3612QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M LE / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Toshiba 5,400rpm