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Sony Vaio E Series 11 charges your phone even when it's off

The Sony Vaio E Series 11 is an 11-inch laptop that can charge your phone -- even when it's switched off.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
Richard Trenholm
2 min read

Getting to 11 series is quite the achievement. M*A*S*H did it, and -- inexplicably -- so has comedy-free sitcom My Family. Friends managed just 10 series, which is empirical proof that Friends is officially not as good as My Family or Sony laptops, which hits its own series 11 with the latest Sony Vaio E Series.

Actually, the 11 just means it's an 11-inch laptop, so it's not better than Friends at all. What were we thinking? We were probably distracted by the 'wrap-around' design of the Series 11, which it shares with the E Series 14-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models.

Underneath that sleek exterior is an AMD Dual-Core E2-Series accelerated processing unit, with AMD Radeon HD 7340 Graphics.

Other bits of kit include xLOUD and Clear Phase, which boost the sound to levels of quality that would make Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker's ears shoot off and fall out of the window.

Being a giant technology octopus with octopus arms in almost every technology ocean, Sony gets to make use of technology from other gadgets. In the E Series 11, the Exmor camera processor borrows technology from Sony snappers to power the high-definition webcam for crystal clear video chat.

Connection-wise, there's a USB 3.0 port, Bluetooth 4.0 wireless to talk to other technology, and HDMI out. It's also a handy charger for your smart phone, as the USB port charges your phone even when the computer is asleep, or turned off completely. Imagine that!

Sony claims that the Vaio E Series 11 has a battery life of up to 6 hours. It comes in spiffy white or black colours, and you can only by it from Sony Centres, online from Sony, or from Dixons. Right, we're off to bust out the My Family box set.