Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone combo jack When playing music, though, some bass notes sounded distorted.Ī 1,280x1,024 HD Webcam had good light sensitivity in a dim office, but exhibited a grainy quality using the included ArcSoft WebCam Companion software. They're surprisingly noisy when playing games or watching movies and have some excellent treble for spoken word - sound effects in an episode of "Breaking Bad" actually had pop. Stereo speakers, heralded by Sony for having Dolby definition, sound louder than expected. Just make sure you look at it straight on. Unfortunately, the screen has terrible off-axis viewing angles, as compared with a superior display like the one on the Samsung Series 9. The 13.3-inch matte display does a good job of keeping glare away in an office the screen's 1,600x900-pixel resolution is a step up from the average 1,366x768-pixel resolution of most 13-inch laptops, and colors and text alike pop vividly. Most of these programs can be launched via a pop-up Vaio Gate toolbar that hovers from the top of the screen.
They're an alternative to Apple's suite of iLife software.
Sony's preinstalled software includes a whole suite of video and music tools: Imagination Studio Vaio Edition includes DVD Architect Studio, Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, Sound Forge Audio Studio and ACID Music Studio, and Sony's PlayMemories and Media Gallery. It's an odd location for the button (usually it makes sense somewhere near the touch pad), but Sony includes a tool set for using the reader to consolidate log-in and account passwords. A more useful inclusion is the fingerprint reader located next to the Assist key at the top. You could adjust these settings on your own. Flipping it activates one of two power/graphics modes, but it's really unnecessary. Next to that is the odd Speed/Stamina toggle that persists from Sony's last-gen Vaios. A few dedicated buttons above the keyboard launch Web (a browser hot key), Vaio (Sony's photo/media software), and Assist (customer service help and diagnostics).