Sony Vaio S and C series

Sony laptops are usually well thought-out, well designed systems in which all the components are optimised to work together. Outside of MacBooks, VAIO’s are probably the finest consumer laptops available. So why then, has Sony decided to make their latest systems glow in the dark?

VAIO C Series

14-inch VAIO C series comes in five colours, some of which glow-in-the-dark. Sony calls them ‘light emitting’ options; we call a spud a spud. Aside from the design, which we actually quite like, the systems are full of interesting Sony technology.

The 1366 x 768 display has LED backlighting for greater contrast and widescreen movies. The trackpad is multi-touch, and there’s an ambient light sensor that optimises screen brightness as well as the keyboard illumination. And the integrated HD WebCam is part of Sony’s ”Exmor” range, which means crisp, clear HD images.

There’s also a dedicated WEB button, to boot to the Internet in seconds. Instead of the long boot into Windows, Sony lets you load up a browser instead, slashing loading times. It’s a neat feature, which should also save battery life.

Inside the system, you’ll find an Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, and AMD Radeon HD 6470M graphics card and a DVD rewriter. It should retail for around £600.

VAIO S Series

One-inch smaller and infinitely more serious, one needs only to look at the S-series to see it as a direct MacBook rival: it’s thin, light and has a full-flat design. They probably fit the same cases.

The 13.3-inch screen (MacBook size) has a resolution of 1366 x 768, perfect for viewing widescreen movies. It’s also 24mm (3.4mm thinner than a MacBook) and 1.75kg (380g lighter than a MacBook).

It should give you seven hours battery life (uh-oh, three hours less than the MacBook), but incorporates the Smart Battery Concept. Essentially, this is an additional battery than can plug-in to keep the device going. It’s got the same footprint as the laptop, though, so it can comfortably sit underneath it without any issues.

Just like the C series, there’s a dedicated WEB button, an Intel Core i5 Processor, 4GB RAM Exmor Webcam, Radeon HD 6470M graphics card and a DVD rewriter. The hard disk space has jumped to 500GB.