Review Date August 08, 2011


  • Pros

    Powerful processor. Excellent display resolution. Sleek metallic design. Attractive backlit keyboard. Lightweight. Second battery included. Supports USB 3.0 and WiDi 2.0.

  • Cons Runs loud and hot under load. Ports and slots are all situated on the right side. Standard battery alone doesn't last long.
  • Bottom Line

    The VAIO VPC-SA2FGX/BI is built to impress and jam-packed with goodies, but its tiny physique can have trouble when its Core i5 processor and AMD graphics push their hardest.

By Cisco Cheng

Plenty of ultraportables are underpowered, eschewing powerful processors and graphics in favor of luxuriously thin profiles. But that isn't the case with the Sony VAIO VPC-SA2FGX/BI ($1,199.99 list). This ultraportable doesn't shy away from parts that are typically found in bigger, more powerful laptops: a Core i5-2410M processor and AMD Radeon graphics that provide "execute-anything" speed, and features like a backlit keyboard, high-resolution screen, and DVD drive. A few minor problems, including loud fan noise and excess heat while performing moderately intensive tasks, prevent the VPC-SA2FGX/BI from being perfect, but this is a solid ultraportable nonetheless.

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Sony has a rich history of manufacturing sleek ultraportables, and those design roots are obvious on the VPC-SA2FGX/BI. The metallic frame is entirely clad in a mixture of aluminum and magnesium—you'd be hard-pressed to find any traces of plastic here, compared with the Acer Aspire AS3830TG-6431 ($750 street, 4 stars), which uses aluminum only on its lid and palm rest area. The Sony is not as thin as the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) ($1,299 direct, 4 stars) or Samsung Series 9 ($1,650 list, 4 stars), as it includes a built-in DVD burner and complex parts that require a bigger chassis. It weighs 3.5 pounds, almost five ounces heavier than the 3.2-pound Toshiba Portege R835-P50X ($850 list, 4 stars)—another ultraportable with an optical drive.

Sony screens are arguably best in class, because they don't shy from high resolutions. The 13.3-inch widescreen on the VPC-SA2FGX/BI is not only bright, but its 1,600-by-900 resolution makes it look sharper than the screens of the Portege R835-P50X and Series 9; their 1,366-by-768 resolutions don't even compare. Sony uses the same awe-inspiring resolution in the VAIO VPC-Z214GX—a $2,000 laptop. The chiclet-style keyboard doesn't necessarily provide an outstanding typing experience, but serious typists will come to love it if only for the backlight function. You can also find backlit keyboards on the Series 9 and MacBook Air 13-inch. The touchpad and mouse buttons are larger than those of the AS3830TG and R835-P50X, and consistent in size with those of a mainstream laptop.

The VPC-SA2FGX/BI and R835-P50X are two of the lightest ultraportables that integrate a DVD burner, although a Blu-ray drive, like the one found in the Sony VAIO VPC-SC1AFM ($979.99 list, 3.5 stars), would have complemented the screen resolution in spectacular fashion. There's an HDMI port, which can be used to stream audio and video to an external display or HDTV. The other way to do it, sans cables, is to use Intel's Wireless Display (WiDi) 2.0 technology; it's essentially a wireless version of HDMI, but requires a Netgear Push2TV receiver (which is not included) to tether the laptop to the display—at all times.

Bluetooth and 802.11n also come on the VPC-SA2FGX/BI. Ports are plentiful, with two USB 2.0, one USB 3.0 (which can transfer data at up to ten times the speed of USB 2.0), VGA, and Ethernet, and SD and Memory Stick slots joining the aforementioned HDMI port. My complaint is about placement: They're all situated on the right side. The 500GB hard drive matches the one found in the Acer AS3830TG, but is smaller than that of the R835-P50X (640GB).

This particular SA configuration is sold through Microsoft's Store. It's exactly the same system that's available from Sony's website or resellers, with one exception: Microsoft's Signature service strips the VPC-SA2FGX/BI of most third-party and proprietary software, which Sony is notorious for bundling with its laptops. A bloat-free computer means that useless software won't tie up precious system resources. The other part of Signature is that the VPC-SA2FGX/BI includes 90 days of free technical support from Microsoft, on top of the one-year manufacturer's warranty. You also have the option of turning that 90 days into a full year by upgrading to Signature Premium, a $99 add-on.

Sony VAIO VPC-SA2GFX/BIThe VPC-SA2FGX/BI is regarded as a powerful ultraportable because it uses a standard-voltage Intel Core i5-2410M processor rather than low-voltage (and low-power) chips like those in the MacBook Air 13-inch and Series 9. This helped the Sony earn a good score of 2.57 in our CineBench R11.5 test, and showed you can easily use it for editing videos and photos. The laptop finished our Handbrake video conversion test in an impressive 1 minute 57 seconds and our Photoshop CS5 in 4:13, similar to the time we saw from the AS3830TG (4:20) but much faster than the Air 13-inch's 4:55 and the Series 9's 5:53. It was during heavy-duty tasks like these that certain side effects began to manifest. We could hear the fans kick into high gear, and the back vents spewed out enough hot air to make the unit run uncomfortably warm. The system ran silently and cool while we were surfing the Web and watching videos, however.

Also present on the VPC-SA2FGX/BI is a graphics switching system that lets you choose whether to run Intel's integrated video solution or AMD's discrete Radeon 6630M. This process isn't automatic, as it is on laptops (like the AS3830TG) that support Nvidia's Optimus technology: You have to flip a physical switch located above the keyboard to activate it. The AMD graphics helped the Sony achieve impressive results on 3DMark 06 (8,018) and Crysis (59.1 frames per second, or fps), at 1,024-by-768 resolution and medium detail settings; this laptop should be able to handle most popular games. You can get a similar gaming experience (and less heat) from the Acer AS3830TG.

Although the Sony's battery life of 4 hours 37 minutes (as tested in MobileMark 2007) seems respectable, it pales in comparison to what we saw from the AS3830TG (8:18) and R835-P50X (9:26). Its power-hungry parts are partly to blame, which is why the Air 13-inch and Series 9 opted for low-voltage ones and saw better battery results (5:36 and 6:04 respectively). That's also why this configuration ships with an extended slide battery (49Wh), which works in tandem with the standard one. This battery helped the Sony nearly double its battery life, to 9 hours 5 minutes—though it also added an extra pound to the system's weight.

The Sony VAIO VPC-SA2FGX/BI is a fully loaded ultraportable in terms of processing components and features. It's equipped to handle the toughest tasks you may face, but you should note its caveats: Fan noise and heat do come into play if this machine is pushed too hard, and the standard battery alone might not survive a long trip. This is a fine ultraportable regardless, but your money would be better spent on the Acer Aspire AS3830TG-6431 or Toshiba Portege R835-P50X.

Check out the test scores for the Sony VAIO VPC-SA2FGX/BI

Compare the Sony VAIO VPC-SA2FGX/BI with several other laptops side by side.

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Cisco Cheng
By Cisco Cheng Lead Analyst, Laptops and Tablet PCs


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