I've had this laptop for about a week now and I couldn't be happier with it.
Pros:
1. Gorgeous 15.5" LCD screen. It's got great resolution, brilliant colors, and it's very bright. The 15.5" screen may not be huge, but there is so much workspace because the resolution is so impressive. Great viewing angles as well.
2. Light but sturdy chasis. The chasis may be metal (which gives it a very modern look), but it's still so light you can pick up the laptop with one hand with relative ease.
3. Great battery life. As with most manufacturers Sony exaggerated a bit when they said you get 6 hrs on this machine, but it does come close. If you're on 50% screen brightness and you're only doing browsing the web you will get about 5 hours.
4. Great performance. The laptop comes with a 2nd generation i5 2.4GHz processor, which is significantly faster than the i3. Everything about the laptop is quick, including the boot-up, which takes well under a minute.
5. Doesn't pick up fingerprints. The finish on this laptop is matte, which means it resists fingerprints really well. The only truly glossy part of this laptop is the VAIO logo on the front.
6. Speed/stamina option. Sony includes a button that allows you to switch between using the Radeon graphics card (speed) and the less powerful, integrated Intel graphics (stamina). I thought this was pretty pointless at first but if you're not working with graphics intensive stuff and you're trying to conserve battery life, switching to the Intel graphics actually adds up to an 1 hour.
7. Relatively quiet. For people who are concerned about the fan noise, don't be. It's really not that noticeable, even when I'm gaming. Oddly enough, my roommate has the 13.3" version of this laptop and the fan on that is extremely loud at times.
Cons:
1. The touchpad takes a little time to get used to.
2. The speakers are pretty weak and barely have any bass.
3. The headphone jack is towards the back, which is annoying if your headphone cord isn't that long.
4. It's pretty easy for stuff like dust to get under the keys. Unfortunately it's a lot harder to clean...
Bottom line: The price might a setback but if you are looking for a laptop that balances performance, battery life, reliability, and aesthetics, this laptop is definitely worth it.
Keep in mind also, that at the time of me writing this, Amazon is offering a free $50 gift card and free sheet battery (which attaches to the bottom of the laptop, doubles the battery life, and retails for $130). $930 $50 $130 = $750.
For those of you who are searching for a new laptop and don't really know what you want yet: the other laptop I had considered was the Toshiba Portege. It's similar to this laptop in many ways but it is cheaper by $100 or so. There are a few minor drawbacks, like a weaker graphics card (Intel integrated graphics), no backlit keys, and a non-HD screen. Depending on what you want that may be a better option.
The Sony Vaio VPCSE13FX is a decent laptop with a brilliant display and one really, really bad design defect. Let's just get that part out of the way.
See that shiny "VAIO" logo on the back of the display? Yeah, it's a plastic inlay. Why should you care? Because the aluminum around the back of the display is ABSURDLY thin and completely without structural support, meaning that nice little plastic Vaio logo presses into the LCD guts whenever your laptop experiences pressure of any kind (eg, in a backpack or messenger bag). I noticed pressure marks on the display outlining the exact shape of the plastic logo within a MONTH of purchasing this thing, and try as I might to mitigate the effect, it just kept getting worse. If you plan to use this laptop for travel, you need to be exceptionally careful. I worked in IT for years, so I know laptops can be fragile, but this is absurd. Sony should have just painted the Vaio logo on, because this is one of the worst design decisions on a laptop that I can think of. It's just flat-out moronic it's a laptop you basically can't travel with without ruining.
You'll hate it all that much more because the display is just so gorgeous. Really, the colors are vibrant, it gets nice and bright, and the 1080p resolution makes it ideal for photo editing, movie-watching, and multitasking. It really is awesome.
As far as build quality goes, I'm disappointed with the amount of flex in the chassis, but you have to realize you're getting a 15.5" laptop that is really, really light here without having to get some horrible ULV i3 processor. It's all aluminum, so it dissipates heat pretty well, too (much better than plastic-bodied laptops).
The keyboard is OK. I like the chiclet keys, but the action isn't quite as precise as what I was used to on a Macbook. The spacebar also creaks occasionally, so that's upsetting. Then again, I have used laptops with far worse keyboards than this, so I'd definitely say it's passable. Also, the backlit keys are awesome. For the nerds out there: the positioning of the CTRL key is not at all ideal, but I'm slowly getting used to it (it's tiny!).
The bloatware isn't too bad, but Sony doesn't provide you a restore CD should you decide to put on a fresh copy of Windows, so BYO media if you're planning on doing a clean OS install.
Battery life is... well, it's a Windows laptop that isn't an Ultrabook. In "Stamina" mode, it gets around 4-5 hours of continuous use. If you buy this guy in a retail store, you may be able to get a Sony extended sheet battery for free, and that'll get you to around 8-9 hours of total battery life. Definitely glad I got it, so maybe find this thing in a retail location and price match to Amazon or whoever's cheapest.
The speakers are terrible. Just really, really bad. The headphone jack also puts out really terrible sound but maybe the amp on mine is defective or something. This is not a device you'll want to use for sound editing, let's say that much.
The Wi-Fi is a pain sometimes, it uses an Intel chipset that is notoriously temperamental about which networks it will play nice with, but if you go tweaking around in the settings (especially changing it to a higher transmit power) you should be able to get it working on most setups. I've not found one that it simply doesn't work on.
USB 3.0 is a nice feature, not that I've ever used it. The SD card slot is great, as well reads quick and is placed in a good location.
The power adapter seems unlikely to break in the event you trip over the cord, because it sits in there pretty loosely, but I'm not about to test that theory.
Buy Sony VAIO SE1 Series VPCSE13FX/S 15.5-Inch Laptop (Platinum Silver) Now
Very happy with this purchase. It's bigger than I originally wanted....was searching for 13.3 inch laptop. However, most 13.3 in screens I've seen in person have a VERY poor viewing angle....move the screen slightly up or down and the screen either fades or the color washes out. This may not bother some, but is very annoying to me when viewing photos or watching videos.
The screen on this model is much better than any laptop I viewed in the stores.
True 1080p. Brilliant colors and excellent viewing angles from either horizontal or vertical.
I like the keyboard layout. It feels more like a desktop keyboard with the dedicated number pad.
There have been many complaints about the loud fan when doing heavy graphics or gaming, but Sony just released a new BIOS that remedies this.
You can still hear the fan spin up, but not as loud as other laptops. Also, it is very thin, and there is not much room in the chassis...you WANT the fan to do its job to prevent overheating. If the sound of the fan is too distracting, you should opt for a larger laptop with a thicker case.
Overall I think it's in the top 5 in the price range.
Battery life could be better, but it is only a 4 cell. With the sheet battery I can get around 7-8 hours while surfing, email, etc with a brighter setting on the screen in Stamina mode.
Read Best Reviews of Sony VAIO SE1 Series VPCSE13FX/S 15.5-Inch Laptop (Platinum Silver) Here
I have had this for two weeks now and feel I finally have found a keeper. (I am picky with laptops -have bought and returned two other laptops this year before settling on this one as my fullsize option.)
The overriding pro here is the incredible screen/display -a combination of the high resolution as well as the perfectly tuned contrast, make this supremely comfortable to stare at for hours. It's even qualitatively better than other high-end Sony Vaio laptops (at a BestBuy, I was originally impressed by the 16.4" high-end/high-resolution Vaio F, but later went to another local retailer and saw that this 15.5" blew that other Vaio away). On a scale of 1-10 I'd rate the average laptop screen as a 3 (you know, that "digital" glowing look, sometimes with the cross-lattices), some HP laptops as a 6 or 7, the Vaio F as a 7, most Samsung laptop screens as a 7-8, IPS screens (at least the ones I've seen) as an 8, and this Vaio S as a 10. My eyes hurt easily when doing work (no matter how much I fiddle with Cleartype, contrast and gamma settings), and this has been a revelation.
Other positives: an excellent backlit keyboard, good keys and trackpad; included Bluetooth; very light weight for a 15.5"; a clean, good-looking minimalist look (reminiscent of the black slab in 2001: A Space Odyssey); and acceptable battery life even with just the base battery. As a bonus, Amazon is also throwing in the sheet battery -which I think is a good idea (i.e., you choose the tradeoff between more battery life and more weight/thickness). The Speed/Stamina physical switch also turns out to be useful -much more convenient than fiddling with settings -and it really works, not just a gimmick. The i5 processor and discrete Radeon 6470M graphics work great. I'm not a "gamer" but tried a recent game (Skyrim) just for kicks and this handled the 1080p (highest resolution) setting with aplomb.
The rumored fan noise was also a concern of mine (I returned an MSI notebook this year mainly because of the excessively loud fan). I needn't have worried. The fan is always running (it is never 100% silent) but during everyday tasks, the fan is very quiet and not overbearing at all -you have to listen for it and it sounds like a smooth airstream (and NOT like a "wind tunnel" effect nor a pitchy whine, both of which I despise). When running demanding programs/processes,the fan will increase in intensity but again, I don't find it bothersome.
There are two negatives: one is the utterly middling sound/speaker quality. It gets the job done in a pinch, but most cell phone speakers sound better, to give you a basis of comparison. It is weak and there is no midrange, bass, or even high-end (I'm not sure what's left). I'm okay with this because these days, there are excellent ultra-tiny/portable speaker options (I use the Satechi IPOP which can be charged via USB) that punch way above their grade (not to mention the option of headphones). However, if one is categorically against having to bring an extra speaker along, then this will be a problem. Secondly, the hard drive is slow and especially can't compare to an SSD. That said, it's fine for what it is, it's quiet (no clicking noises!), and can be replaced with an SSD in the future if I ever wanted.
I don't dock off any stars (i.e. each star is "worth" 20% of the rating) for these two issues because 1) in the case of the hard drive, it can be upgraded to an SSD in the future if desired, and 2) they're not deal-breakers for me; the overall experience remains high. Hence 5 stars.
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****THE GOOD****
1) Sleek, stylish and very light. The internal batteries will last you 3+ hours with surfing/browsing and Word Processor. If you use the Sheet battery, you'll get maybe 7+ hours.
2) Not a lot of bloatware. I did a fresh install all the same.
****THE BAD****
Speakers are *very* poor quality. Sounds lack bass and any definition. You might as well listen to music via cups and strings. They are that bad.
My old trusty HP running XP finally threw in the towel. Not a gamer or heavy graphics user so all out power is not necessary...just reliable basic web access and computing...and the occasional DVD/Movie.
