Sony Vaio F (Complete Review) – Part 2

The system’s silhouette is very distinctive; the body and lid are both wider at their tops, narrowing below. The effect, as seem from the side, is of two trapezoids stacked on top of each other. Also note that the base has a larger overall footprint than the lid, so the two halves don’t clamshell together tightly.

As a 16-inch laptop, the Vaio F Series is at the larger end of the midsize category of systems, which have 14, 15 or 16-inch displays. Anything bigger would be considered a desktop replacement, designed to sit permanently in one spot and take the place of a desktop computer, home entertainment center, or other gear. As it is, this Vaio is large, even for 16-inch laptops, and next to a comparable full-featured 15-inch, such as HP’s Envy 15, the size difference is notable. While I could see lugging the Envy 15 or a Dell XPS 15z (or a 15-inch MacBook Pro, for that matter) around a few times per week, the Vaio F is just too big for all but very occasional travel.

The very bright backlit keyboard is of the traditional island style favored by Sony (and Apple) for years. It’s since become the industry standard for nearly everybody, even appearing on many Lenovo laptops. The large keys and full-size number pad work well, but the volume controls are relegated to alt functions of the F keys, which is not optimal. HP’s recently revamped Envy 15 does it right, offering a separate volume wheel and mute button. Above the keyboard are touch buttons for play/pause and rewind/fast-forward, as well as quick-launch buttons for Sony’s Vaio help tools, which are handily built into a single app.

The touch pad, demarcated by a pattern of textured dots built into the raised wrist rest, is adequate but small for such a large laptop, and the plastic feel is no match for the glass touch pads that are becoming more common in other brands. Finally, the left and right mouse buttons are squeezed into a thin rocker bar–for more than $1,000, I’d expect two separate buttons.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Feb 1 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.