Review Sony Vaio VPC-SB4X9EB Notebook

Here, i would likte to review about Review Sony Vaio VPC-SB4X9EB Notebook because its more nice topic here. Looks like Sony is the motto of a short stick and almost a year after the debut VPC-SB subnotebook that range. Innovations that are now found in the light 13.3 "expressed in our review.

Last year, SB series is bundled some revolutionary idea that Sony made notebook to mainstream the range
of their future so as to make the package very attractive affordable. These ideas inspired by the success of low-cost subnotebooks from the competition, which offers an average speed of the hardware side by side with a long battery runtime. However, the graphics performance is not to be completely abandoned in the street either. Sony responded to this with a hardware button that allows users to switch between units of energy efficient than Intel's integrated graphics and dedicated graphics card and faster than AMD, according to the desired field of application. 

Today, when most notebooks to switch between dedicated and integrated graphics fully automatically according to load, Sony remains faithful to itself and the hardware buttons on the VPC-SB4X. It shows how innovative changes rapidly becoming a standard feature in the computer world. This should not be a loss for Sony. This bit can be a purchasing decision - for users who want to decide for themselves how the laptop is supposed to work.

Case

Delicate cases, yet stylish

For starters - nothing has changed in 2012 compared to the 2011 models at this point. Thus, Sony kept all the pros and cons of its predecessor in a new light. Further details about this case can be found in the review of its predecessors. In the following, a summary of the most important facts:

Non-slip and very elegant looking, about 1.7 kg and 2.4 cm in the case of light thin almost know how impressed with the familiar design gimmicks. Processing, smooth metal surface of the plastic in place with a nice wrist rest fingerprint resistance. In contrast, rugged magnesium lid catch every touch, and presents them in bright ambient light (but not too obvious). Stability of the cap was carefully designed not entirely convincing - regardless of whether it is the pressure resistance of a surface or sponge hinge that allows the screen to vibrate. If you do not need a portable rock, you will definitely like the style chassis.

To top

Connectivity

Once again, no new features. As usual, all interfaces found on the right side of the case, almost a bit crowded. Port that has not changed either. Even the placement of ports has been maintained. VGA socket, which is always the standard, can be used for video output. In addition, possible to connect a home theater system, for example, via HDMI. Common SD card and the most exclusive range of Sony standard memory, stick, put in two discrete card reader. In addition to the conventional two USB 2.0 ports, there is also a USB 3.0 port, as has been the forerunner.

Interface can be extended through the docking port, as usual. Other accessories, such as pieces of a battery is known (tied under the device and extend the working time of a standard battery), are also available for Sony's new arrivals.

Rear Vent

Left: Headphone jack and DVD

Home: LED Status

Right: Memory Stick reader, SD card reader, Kensington lock, VGA, HDMI, USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, RJ45, AC

Communication

As in the previous model, Qualcomm Gobi 3000 HSDPA module for mobile broadband, including the mandatory SIM card slot, installed in our configuration, in addition to (W) of conventional LAN interface and Bluetooth 3.0. Sony did not change anything about the SIM card is good, they can still be exchanged under a small rubber flap at the bottom of the device. Solution was questioned at the time because the user may want to remove the SIM card for usage and thus take the damage - or simply lost in the worst case. Of course, the advantage is that you do not have to cover maintenance for the open exchange of cards.

Maintenance

Only two (fairly small) Phillips screws to separate the user experience of the hardware interfaces are interesting in this case. For example, swapping the hard disk, RAM batteries, or done very quickly - which of course if you have a small Phillips head screwdriver in hand. Then just have to push the cover down. It slides very smoothly and the signal transfer point with the clack palpable.

Further details about the connectivity can be found in a comprehensive review of its predecessor.

Nothing has changed here either. Thus, we will briefly explain the examiner's subjective impressions.

Keyboard does not give reason to complain. As with the predecessors, we look at it positively. Backlight automatically turned on and fun.

The touchpad buttons have, it is difficult to determine the point of pressure awkward. This can be most rapid in comparison with the key areas of old phones - so, quick and light pressure remained without effect. Sufficient force must be applied to the unsteady (pounds around on it). However, what bothers us most is the fingerprint scanner refugees located between the right and left touchpad buttons. Including security software that inadvertently triggered because the fingerprint scanner is touched when moving the finger to the touchpad buttons, or just because you let your thumb rest between the regular keys.

The screen can even cope with direct sunlight

Sony also relies on the same screen in the new, small VPC - naturally, made by Sony. Now about 15 cd/m2 bright display with 265 cd/m2 average SNY05FA hide behind a vague name. It is also a bit of a matte screen with a resolution of 1366 768 pixels. This is not a fish or poultry. Although the reflection is not a problem for most of the longer, do not have a full velvety matte appearance on screen counterparts. It can display the content for free without any reflection and remain legible even more significant in the light brightness to ambient media. However, semi-matte screen, as used here, the best count to be read in direct sunlight for a full matte screen tends to show things as through frosted glass.

Distribution of brightness

Looking at our test images, it becomes evident that the test does a good job in the outdoors. Not enough is known of such shining as bright as the MacBook Pro, but it's possible to work with him on almost every light condition. The test image is done in a cloudless conditions shows the most extreme cases. The content is much easier to read if you do not sit with the sun behind you.

Limited opposite qualities. Low-end TN display only manage a poor black values ​​more than 2 cd/m2 for a bright backlight and contrast of 135:1 making. Predecessors did not do a better job here either (138:1). Illumination of 89% is not bad, but this may be a step backward (previously 95%). The colors still look a little pale, but not bad subjective.

Color spectrum also below average and did not come close to covering the standard sRGB. So, if you want to edit images on a professional level, you'll have to buy an external monitor to the right of reproduction, or other laptop soon. The device is designed for portability and low prices to meet this goal very well in our opinion. Screen that rivals some of it even comes less than satisfactory for outdoor use (eg screens, dark glare from Aspire 3830TG).

To top

Performance

Devices last year (pre-series model) is equipped with a Core i5 2520M, which continue to be available on Sony's online configurator, along with other similar processors like the Core i3 (also in review). However, the Core i5 2450M which has become very popular among manufacturers is in our test device. It has set up nearly the same (Turbo Boost is only 100 MHz to 3.1 GHz lower) and promising a fast process with a moderate price. Conventional hard disk 640 GB capacity offers sufficient memory. However, given that at least half a dozen ultrabooks been called off to the world of notebooks last year, and that some of the more than EUR 200 cheaper although they are offering the same configuration and, shock-proof fast SSD drive, it is important to compare and consider before buying a personal preference .

Information systems CPUZ CPU

Information systems CPUZ Cache

Information systems CPUZ Mainboard

CPUZ information system RAM

CPUZ RAM SPD information system

Intel GPUZ information system

Information systems GPUZ Radeon HD 6470M

Information systems: Sony Vaio VPC-SB4X9EB

Processor

The technical specifications of the Core i5 2450M quite sophisticated. Dual core processor 2.5 GHz default clock support and Turbo Increases of up to 3.1 GHz. In addition, Hyper Threading feature which allows to calculate the two processing threads per hour and at the same core. Sony squeezes every last MHz of clock speed of the 2450M. Strict separation of the speed or stamina (= hold) via hardware buttons paid off here. As shown in the Cinebench R10 rendering a single core, dual core Vaio little to achieve a score that can compete with the next fastest processor, 2520M or even entry-level quad-core Intel Core i7 2670 QM.

When flipping a switch, you notice that no compromises are made - when he said the speed, that means speed - at least in terms of CPU power, but more about that later. Obviously in a small Sony Turbo Boost is fully exploited in single-core test, in which only one processor core is loaded. Then calculate the core loaded with 3.1 GHz. However, a score in Cinebench R11 64 bit (about 7% lower compared to the same processor on other devices) shows quite well that the set throttling in both core and stops at 2.2 GHz that is not too hot when the device is hot (test performed on end CPU benchmark) and the two cores are loaded to capacity. In any case, the overall ranking of 65 (of 683 notebook is tested at the time of review) is impressive in the long Shading Cinebench R10 64 bit it. Even the 17 "giant quad core graphics card featuring professional (HP EliteBook 8760W) is lagging slightly behind the Core i5 2450M and AMD Radeon 6470M combined in a test load OpenGL.

System Performance

Logical competitor of a very thin VAIO 13.3 "subnotebooks All ultrabooks currently available may also belong to this category .. However, you would only find cases that are both sleek in the Apple MacBook Pro 13 if you need a DVD drive. Acer Aspire 3830TG will also bundle the total package is very reasonably priced and remain strong, but again without a DVD drive VAIO efficient compared with the two slim subnotebook version is configured with a conventional magnetic hard disk is slower in PCMark Vantage (about 10%) .. However, especially Acer far cheaper here, of course, the processor that is installed is not so expensive. but it is not possible to save EUR 300 by ordering the same processor from Sony. However, you get faster 3830TG is equipped with a Core i7 processors and fast SSD drive for about $ 1100. It also reached a value of approximately 84% better in total PCMark Vantage results of our example VAIO equally expensive. VAIO The lag a bit in PCMark 7 Thus, the. it. SSD version of the Aspire now for about same price faster by 120% overall and reached more than twice the overall height -. because SSD and a faster processor even better cheap alternative Aspire 2% here.

However, no one complained about the subjective. The boot process is not really accelerated since the conventional hard disk. However, this notebook never made the impression slowly - providing speed mode is enabled. This brings with it a loss that the fan is a little harder (VAIO has never really say anything), but you see that the performance of full hardware required immediately. But Sony's attempt to extract all of the 49 Wh battery with all its might in the mode "Stamina" and thus sacrificing much of the perceived speed. But we will go in-depth about it in the battery.

Experience 5.3Windows IndexProcessorCalculations 7 per second7Memory (RAM) memory operations per performance for Windows Aero5.3Gaming second7.5GraphicsDesktop graphics3D business and gaming hardware data transfer diskDisk graphics6.4Primary rate5.9

Mass memory

The 640 GB and slightly slower 5400 rpm hard disk installed in the VAIO comes from Toshiba. Visible only subjective, is not very fast or slow, but very poor scores in benchmark HDTune. With 55 MB / s, it reaches the 30% lower on tests of the average transfer speed compared to the disk spin as fast as Western Digital hard built into the Aspire less expensive alternative. Hard disks are also located in the lower third of the entire test area with poor reading speed 4K (0.4 MB / s), which is especially important for the initial program or operating system - another hard disk to do a better job here.

Solution Graphics

As the first generation of the VPC-SB, Sony installing a dedicated graphics solution (AMD Radeon HD 6470M) in addition to the integrated processor solutions, Intel HD Graphics 3000. It can be activated via the speed button (top left position). Thus, the user can choose between long battery runtime and tools, calm cool or processing power increases. Intel Solution theoretically should have enough processing power for everyday use of multimedia (including YouTube HD video) to present a smooth video playback. However, video playback is struck (especially during the test standard wifi surfing) due to energy saving mode in line with the Intel graphics that turn affects the entire system. But more on that later.

On the other hand, the Radeon HD 6470M makes it all smoothly, as they should. However, the drawback is the rather loud fan noise. Most games (except for guzzlers hardware) usually can be played smoothly on low to medium details.

Gaming Performance

To illustrate the performance of the graphics unit is more clearly assessed, we opted for the latest game of strategy building Anno series (Anno 2070). VAIO few do not even come close to its limits in the low setting (resolution: 1024 x 768 resolution, low details) and always supply a smooth frame rate (40-60 fps). However, this game is very pixelated and quite interesting. So we set the details of the middle and play in native resolution of this slim models (1366 x 768). Here, the frame rate drops to a minimum of 16 frames per second. The game is not completely smooth with an average of 19 fps, but still pretty fun to control over the display screen does not change.

Verdict: A useful speed in low settings, but if you want to play games you need to buy another device. VAIO can not hold a candle to the Aspire 3830TG, often used for comparison here, because of its GeForce 540M installed at least one category higher performance. So, if you play the occasional game and want to be mobile at the same time, you will quickly switch to Acer. But the VAIO was not made for gaming anyway. If you want an overview of the gaming performance of mobile graphics solutions, we will warmly recommend taking a look at our comparative performance gaming notebook.

As often, the noise level depends on the VAIO hardware switch settings. In Stamina mode, so the energy saving mode, the device must be called under control, even if the hard disk is always whirs quietly. Then again, sometimes the fan speed increases to let hot air out of the case. But when the speed mode is enabled, the cooling system of dedicated graphics solutions is now enabled and disabled energy saving mode to take their toll. The fan whirs like a turbine to keep the hardware cool (maximum 46.9 dB for a load).

We also noticed that the cooling system is overtaxed by the use of CPU and GPU heat waste despite extreme fan noise. It has become apparent soon after starting the stress test. GPU temperature is 82 ° C after only 5 minutes of the test load (Prime95 and FurMark) and processor (the temperature was at 93 ° C) has a throttle clock speeds from 2.5 GHz to 2.2 GHz that is not too hot (even 2, 1 GHz after one hour). Graphics-heavy benchmark 3DMark 06, performed immediately after the stress test, indicating that the device is warm also only manage a score of 13% weaker. Thus, for longer gaming sessions with more demanding games can be slowed due to throttling, for example. Rather high-pitched voice reached a level of about 46.8 dB in the stress test. That is too harsh and can not be polished. Sony unfortunately has not made repairs at this point - annoying, even if the target group will never reach such a load.

The maximum temperature was 42.7 ° C on the right third of the keyboard again after the maximum load. That may not be a problem for most users because the fingers should be placed there only when the backspace key or the power button is used. The rest of the top is at about 32 ° C. The maximum temperature in the wrist rest area pleasant 30 ° C. The bottom temperature reaches up to 50.2 ° C (again, in the power button); other areas remain warm to about 35 ° C though. However, the VAIO is unfortunately not made for use on the lap - the ventilation is right outside where they will very likely be borne by the right knee.

When the VAIO is not put under much load, the maximum temperature reached 29 ° C (top) and 32 ° C (below) and thus is pretty cool.

Speaker

Again absolutely nothing has changed here: the speaker is still hissing and high pitched. However, to achieve high volume. Thus, a medium-sized room can still be filled with sound, if necessary, although it's unlikely that anyone would want to expose their audience to a treble-heavy sound. However, good sound achieved with headphones or external speakers.

To top

Battery Life

With a minimum of 6.7 watts even in Stamina mode, Sony treats himself to power more than competitors such as ultrabook. It is therefore not surprising that the lithium polymer battery that is closely measured capacity of 49 Wh dried after only four and a half hours in the test standard wifi surfing, with switched energy saving settings (batteries can be exchanged; located under the cover of maintenance). We also noticed that our HD YouTube videos stuttered so intense that the new framework only appear on the screen about every 3 seconds. Thus, we assume that not only Stamina mode switch graphics cards, such as Sony explains, but also limit the CPU in terms of speed and power input. It is logical that performance should be reduced for energy saving purposes, but this is not feasible. Especially, if we consider that there are cheaper devices that provide stable performance everywhere and at any time, even in energy saving mode - and an even longer for a larger battery. Examples of this would Folio HP 13-2000. Acceptable performance when not watching HD video, though. The energy saving settings on the VAIO is definitely enough to read your favorite e-paper in any case. However, a step backward is seen when compared with the first test. The previous model lasted about 40 minutes longer at the time.

When full power is required from the Vaio thin, it only runs for about an hour (58 minutes) before having to return to the outlet. For example if you want to read e-book with no wifi and the lowest brightness setting, you'll get 6 hours and 48 minutes of battery in the Sony (simulated by the BatteryEater Readers of this benchmark). The predecessor also do a better job here, and lasted nearly two hours longer.

However, it is strange that Sony still supports Windows energy 'plan even in Stamina mode. Thus, Windows High Performance mode can be activated in Stamina mode and Windows' energy saving mode can be activated in a rapid fashion. This could lead to disappointment in terms of battery life or performance of less experienced users. Therefore, it is important to check if the hardware and software settings that are completely compatible.

Well, Sony VPC-SB04 looks very elegant and also feel like it. Is a high-end keyboard and touchpad are also impressive (except for the rather odd position of a fingerprint scanner between the clicks, which lead to unintended activation). That is, a carefully designed matte black case just seem tempting, and Sony has managed to put a lot of light into the device. Not many manufacturers install a DVD drive in such a slim case. And if then even run under Windows, the competition really becomes scarce. Then we will put the match out of the room on the screen above, which should make the price does not reflect on the need.

However, if you start digging a little deeper into the Vaio, you will find the devil in the details. Stamina mode and some limit the performance was not really provide the added runtime (about 4.5 hour practical runtime).

In contrast, reduced speed mode even more battery runtime and thus allow AMD 6470M GPU is too weak for up-to-date game.

Here, too many compromises are made to include all the features it offers ultrabooks apart from the DVD drive. If you buy ultrabook, battery runtime you buy one with a durable, mobile surfing fun. So, what makes it special Sony?

Sony did not reach a clear purchase recommendation, has been frequently criticized for aspects of its predecessor have been retained. However, if you want a subnotebook suited, elegant, lightweight and comes with both open and able to accept these shortcomings, you can take the Sony - it's the whole package impressive and sleek from a portable PC at a reasonable price.