Sony VAIO E Series 14in review

Performance is bang on the money, too. Intel’s Core i3-330M processor sits at its heart, and while ATI’s Radeon HD 5145 graphics chip lacks DirectX 11 compatibility, it's a decent combination. Our application benchmarks churned along to a final result of 1.27 and Crysis only slowed down to 17fps once we hit Medium detail and upped the resolution to 1,280 x 1,024. At low settings you'll be fine.
Connectivity
There’s little to complain about in the connectivity stakes, either. Bluetooth and 802.11n cover the all the wireless bases, while the three USB 2 ports on the right flank are opposed by eSATA, HDMI, D-SUB and Gigabit Ethernet on the other.

Delve deeper through the Sony’s DNA, however, and its love-it-or-loathe-it qualities rear their head once again. While we expected the usual 1,366 x 768 panel at this price, Sony has stretched a far more spacious 1,600 x 900 resolution across its 14 inches. That’s certainly nothing to complain about, as the extra pixels come as a breath of fresh air compared to the bulk of the mid-priced competitors.
Image quality
But although image quality is good enough, it’s far from perfect. The narrow vertical viewing angles left us tilting the display back and forth as we shuffled about in our chair, and no amount of fiddling could rectify the panel’s inability to differentiate dark grey from black. We’re glad of all those pixels but be under no illusions: the image quality very much reflects the affordable price tag.

Stamina, too, is another area where the E Series falters. It’s perhaps not surprising given the presence of the dedicated graphics chipset, but even under the lightest of usage conditions we could only squeeze 3hrs 50mins from the battery. Push it with intensive applications and that could fall as low as 1hr 13mins.
Conclusion
So, it’s not the laptop Holy Grail, but Sony’s VAIO VPCEA1S1E/L will remain a tantalising option for many prospective purchasers. If you find the blue finish nauseating, you probably won't like the neon green and lurid pink alternatives, but the plain white or black models might ease your discomfort. Either way, the striking looks, solid performance and decent-resolution screen combine very nicely at this price. Factor in the fine keyboard on top and this Sony richly deserves its Recommended award.
Price when reviewed: £574 (£674 inc VAT)Laptops