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Sony Vaio F-Series VPC-F22M1E review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £1299
inc VAT

Fantastic performance and a great HD screen, but the bulky dimensions look dated and it's a bit too expensive

Sony’s imposing F-series Vaios certainly stand out from the crowd; the unique-looking chassis has an incredibly chunky screen that’s thicker than some ultra-portables we’ve reviewed in the past. When we saw the first version, we thought this was less of a design choice and more because the display was 3D-enabled, but it has remained unchanged for this refreshed 2D model.

Sony VAIO F22M1E right ports

With a matt finish that diffuses reflections, image quality is quite good. The Full HD 1,920×1,080 resolution is huge for the 16.4in display: we had to increase the default font size in Windows to make things easily readable. However, the extra pixels meant images looked incredibly sharp, if a little muted due to the lack of a glossy finish. Contrast was reasonable and viewing angles were surprisingly good, but the position of the screen hinges mean there’s not a lot of screen tilt.

Sony VAIO F22M1E

Powering the display is a mid-range Nvidia GeForce GT 540M graphics card. With 1GB of video memory, it has no trouble playing Full HD video and was also powerful enough for some gaming. Our Dirt 3 test may have run only at 720p, but because the test has 4x anti-aliasing enabled, a smooth 40fps is still impressive. Disable AA and most titles should play at 1080p, albeit at medium detail settings.

A good graphics card isn’t much use without a powerful processor to back it up, but thankfully Sony has delivered with a fast Intel Core i7-2630M. It’s usually clocked at 2GHz, but Turbo Boost can raise all four cores to 2.9GHz when required for some serious performance muscle. Paired with 8GB of RAM, it tore through our multimedia benchmarks with an overall score of 82; we can’t think of many desktop applications that will tax the F22M1E. Surprisingly, the battery lasted almost five and a half hours in our light-use test.

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Basic Specifications

Rating***
ProcessorIntel Core i7-2630QM
Processor clock speed2GHz
Memory6.00GB
Memory slots2
Memory slots free0
Maximum memory8GB
Size53x399x272mm
Weight3.1kg
SoundRealtek HD Audio
Pointing devicetouchpad

Display

Viewable size16.4 in
Native resolution1,920×1,080
Graphics ProcessorNvidia GeForce GT 540M
Graphics/video portsVGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory1,024MB

Storage

Total storage capacity640GB
Optical drive typeDVD+/-RW +/-DL BD-ROM

Ports and Expansion

USB ports3
Total Firewire ports1
Bluetoothyes
Wired network ports1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support802.11b/g/n
PC Card slotsnone
Supported memory cardsSD, MMC, Memory Stick HG Duo
Other portsminijack audio output/S/PDIF (shared), minijack microphone input, 2x USB3

Miscellaneous

Carrying caseNo
Operating systemWindows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore optionrestore partition
Software includedMicrosoft Office 2010 Starter, Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, Adobe Premiere Elements 9
Optional extras£179

Buying Information

Warrantyone year RTB
Price£1,299
Detailswww.sony.co.uk
Supplierhttp://www.sonystyle.co.uk

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