Sony Vaio VPC-YB3V1E review

Sony’s latest take on the low-powered ultraportable form factor is the Sony Vaio YB3V1E, an update to the VPC-YB2M1E which was launched just six months ago. It weighs the same as the average netbook, but has a bigger, higher resolution screen.

The dual-core AMD E-45 processor runs at a lowly 1.65GHz (just 50MHz faster than the older model’s E-350 chip), and it’s paired with 4GB of RAM as before. However, Sony has stuck with the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, so you’ll be able to use around 3.2GB. This meant it could only manage a meagre 11 in our multimedia benchmarks – exactly the same as the YB2M1E.

The E-45 can’t beat an Intel Atom for speed, and unfortunately it doesn’t have the advantage when it comes to battery life either. In our light use test, the YB3 managed six hours away from the mains: commendable, but still several hours short of the longest-lasting netbooks.

As the processor is a Fusion chip, graphics are built-in. The Radeon HD 6320 is far more capable than Intel’s on-chip graphics, and the older Radeon HD 6310m. It might not show in our Dirt3 test, which only managed 12.7fps, but older titles will still be playable at reasonable detail settings. You’ll also be able to watch 720p video on the laptop, or 1080p content on an external display using the HDMI output.

The screen itself has a 1,366×768 resolution, which is about as high as we’ve seen in a 12in laptop. Both images and text looked crisp, and we had no trouble working on two documents at once. Colours were accurate, although slightly muted, but viewing angles were excellent. There’s not a lot of screen tilt, and the glossy finish could make light reflections a problem, but this is one of the best screens we’ve seen on a netbook-sized laptop.