Sony VAIO Fit 15 Touch review: Great display, but lackluster performance and battery life

The VAIO Fit 15 has had a makeover, emerging from Sony’s design studio with a brushed-aluminum case and an excellent touchscreen. But shiny new looks don't distract from lackluster battery life and so-so performance.

This is certainly no Ultrabook, weighing in at 5.7 pounds sans power adapter, but the Fit does pack 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory; a large, 750GB hard drive; a DVD burner; and an HD touchscreen. The Vaio Fit 15 Touch lineup ranges in price from $849 to $1699. Our review unit was priced at $949.

Running at a native resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, the 15-inch display is bright (we measured it at 274 lumens). Like most touchscreens, this display has a distractingly glossy finish: It shows reflections very clearly, so you can easily see if someone is sneaking up behind you. Its oleophobic coating keeps greasy fingerprints away, which is important for a computer running a touch-centric OS like Windows 8.

ROBERT CARDIN

Sony's VAIO Fit 15 Touch is an attractively designed computer.

This model uses Intel’s 1.8GHz i5-3337U (Ivy Bridge) processor. The Intel HD Graphics 4000 processor integrated into that chip drives the display but delivered relatively poor gaming performance. Serious gamers will want to opt for an upgraded model that offers one of Nvidia’s discrete GPUs. The stereo speakers in the Fit’s hinge delivered plenty of volume, but sound bounces off the display, resulting in a lack of separation, very little presence, and poor bass response. The recording of Beethoven's 9th symphony that I used to audition the audio system sounded as though it had been recorded in a dingy cellar.

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Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040365/sony-vaio-fit-15-touch-review-great-display-but-lackluster-performance-and-battery-life.html#tk.rss_laptopcomputers

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