Sony Vaio E17 review: Windows 8 laptop without the touch

Windows 8 isn’t all about flipping, touching, and transforming, although to most people it might end up being the defining feature of new Win 8 hardware. Despite the crazy-looking laptops and tablets you’ve been getting glimpses of, there will be indeed be regular, plain-old normal Windows 8 laptops and desktops, too.

6.9

Sony Vaio E17

The Good

The <b>Sony Vaio E17</b> has an affordable base price, a lot of upgrade options, and a bright 1080p screen.

The Bad

The small and uncomfortable touch pad is hard to use with Windows 8 gestures. Graphics performance isn’t up to snuff compared with other game-playing laptops.

The Bottom Line

If you want a reasonably priced desktop-replacement big-screen laptop, the Vaio E17 is worth a look. But it’s not a good Windows 8 showcase machine, and it lacks any touch interface other than a small touch pad.

Sony’s Vaio E171290X is just such a machine. A 17-inch expansion to Sony’s midrange E-series line, this is a high-end desktop replacement computer in a pleasingly curved white-and-black plastic body. It’s not overly heavy (7 pounds), or overly expensive (base configurations start at $650 for a Core i5 processor, 320GB hard drive, 1080p screen, and 4GB of RAM). In its upper echelons, like our review sample, it’s packed to the gills: a quad-core Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 750GB hard drive, AMD Radeon HD 7550M graphics, a Blu-ray drive, and a 1,920x1,080 display, costing $1,020. That’s actually a pretty good price, considering what’s under the hood.

That’s enough to cement the E17 as a very good computer, but as a Windows 8 laptop, it falls short. It lacks a touch screen, and its included touch pad just isn’t up to the task for Windows 8’s gestures. The battery life is also very short, although that’s common for big-screen laptops. However, if you’re looking for a good value in a full-featured laptop with plenty of upgrade options, the E17 is a solid bet. It’s the other side of Windows 8: the conventional one.

I have no real fault with the E17’s design from a distance: it looks sleek, its wraparound white outer shell curving into the keyboard surface, as if it was a folded-over piece of candy. The two-tone look with its black plastic underpinnings is striking, although you can opt for an all-black version, too.

It’s not actually all that sleek, though. At up to an inch and a half thick at its thickest point, this doesn’t have any of the design savvy of an ultrabook or any of the futuristic convertible Windows 8 laptops you’ve been reading about. This is meant to sit on a desk, although it’s just portable enough to slide into a very large backpack.

The upper lid is weirdly thick, although it affords the E17 a solid feel. The screen hinge opens smoothly and doesn’t wobble. Inside, a wide silvery-white expanse of palm-rest space surrounds a smallish touch pad.

Above, the island-style backlit keyboard has tall, square, solid keys with just a bit of flex. An adjacent number pad doesn’t crowd the main keyboard.

The multitouch clickpad below, however, I have serious issues with. The amount of space afforded by the pad’s real estate isn’t all that bad, but it’s small compared with a MacBook’s trackpad, and feels tiny in its off-center, to-the-left alignment. The pad is finicky and not all that responsive, based on the time I spent with it. The clicking action happens on a slight lever, so clicks register better on the bottom than the top. The touch pad is also inset, just slightly. That’s the difference-maker.

On Windows 8, gestures made off the edge of the touch pad are a big deal. Swiping off the right side brings up Charms, which helps swap between the tile-based App view and the old-fashioned style of Windows interface underneath. I found it hard to pull off on the E17, especially compared with other systems. Is it a deal killer? It depends on how much you’re planning on taking advantage of the Windows 8 experience. The E17 already lacks a touch screen, so the touch pad takes on greater importance. It isn’t ideal. You can access Charms and flip between tile and old-school Windows 8 using physical buttons or by pointing the touch pad at the top of the screen, but the point is that this touch pad isn't all that fun to use.

The big, crisp display is a bright spot. The E171290X comes standard with a 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution, and off-axis viewing angles are very good. Whether watching Blu-rays (I looked at "Sucker Punch"), streaming video, or playing games, this Vaio reproduces vibrant color. It’s one of the better Vaio screens I’ve seen on a laptop.

Stereo speakers above the keyboard are also loud and have decent definition, enough to make a movie feel alive. They’re not enthusiast-level, but they’re definitely a step above standard.

The Vaio E171290X comes preloaded with a bunch of software: some of it Windows 8 app demoware, the rest of it being largely a suite of Sony media software (Sony Imagination Studio) that amounts to a nice value. Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, ACID Music Studio, DVD Architect Studio and Sound Forge Audio Studio plus PlayMemories Home are like Sony’s version of iLife, with lots of useful features.

You’d expect a large-screen mega-laptop to have all the necessary ports and features, and the E171290X has them, although there’s only 1 USB 3.0 port to 3 USB 2.0 ports. Like most Sony laptops, there are separate card slots for SD cards and Memory Stick Duo media. This Vaio also has Bluetooth 4.0 and a 1.3 megapixel Webcam.

The 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7-3632QM CPU in our configuration is top of the line, and will handle just about anything you throw at it. There are several other pricing configurations as well, if you choose to customize. The base $650 Vaio E171290X on Sony’s Web site starts with a Core i5-3210M processor. From there you can get a slightly faster Core i5-3320M for $50 more, or go all the way to this quad-core for $120. RAM starts at 4GB, but can be upgraded to 8GB for $80. Upgrading the base 320GB hard drive to our 750GB costs $50, or you can go up to 1TB for $70 (all 5,400rpm). The base system starts with only Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, but you can add 1GB or 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7550M graphics for $50 or $80. You can even upgrade the optical drive from DVD to a Blu-ray player ($50) or BD player-burner ($150).

That’s a lot of upgrades, but even with all those upgrades selected, our unit came to a little over $1,000, which isn’t bad at all.

However, in our benchmark tests, neither the quad-core CPU or AMD graphics performed up to snuff when compared with recent high-end competitors. Particularly in terms of gaming, the E17 was sluggish, even with the highest-end AMD graphics configuration. Street Fighter IV ran at 30.3 frames per second at native resolution. Metro 2033, a more demanding game, ran at only 12.3 fps at 1,366x768 pixels and graphics settings on high. DIRT 3 anecdotally tested at 26.3 fps at 1,920x1,080 pixels and high graphics settings. Games will be playable, but hardly beautiful.

The base 4,000mAh battery in the Vaio E171290X lasted only 2 hours and 45 minutes in our video playback battery drain test. Sony only estimated 2 hours and 30 minutes using this battery, so credit it for honesty. Larger batteries can be added at purchase (5,300mAh for $20 or 7,950mAh for $120), but we didn’t test those. You’ll want to keep that charger handy; I had to plug in pretty quickly after some movie playing and gaming.

Sony offers a standard one-year warranty with the Vaio E17, but it can be extended to three years for $179, or three years plus accidental damage protection for $279. Sony’s Web site does a good job of handling service needs and pointing the way to needed drivers and software.

Is the Vaio E17 a good laptop? As a budget-esque big-screen machine, yes. As a laptop to show off the wonders of Windows 8, no. It depends on what your needs are. This 17-inch machine isn’t for everyone, and I think Sony already knows that. This is a good computer at a good price with lots of upgrade options, but it won’t be a top-notch Windows 8 experience, unless you don’t plan on using the new Windows 8 apps and features much.

Street Fighter IV
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Native resolution, 2X AA, V Sync Off

Maingear EX-L 15

162.4 

Digital Storm P170EM

138.2 

Razer Blade

100.8 

Dell Inspiron 17Rse - 2051BK (7720)

87.6 

Samsung NP700Z7C7-S01

86.8 

Sony Vaio E17

30.3 

System configurations
Sony Vaio E17
Windows 8 (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-3632QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz; 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7650M / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Western Digital 5400rpm

Maingear EX-L 15
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-3820QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Seagate 7200rpm

Samsung NP700Z7C7-S01
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3615QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 1TB Seagate 5400rpm

Dell Inspiron 17R SE - 2051BK (7720)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000;; 1TB Western Digital 5400rpm

Digital Storm P170EM
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz; 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7970M / 2GB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Seagate 7200rpm

Razer Blade
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-3632QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 500GB Hitachi 7200rpm