Sony VAIO Y Series 11.6-inch Notebook Review – AMD E-350 APU

Image Quality, Keyboard and Speakers

We were shocked to discover that the little 11.6″ Sony VAIO Y Series laptop had a screen resolution of 1366×768! We just reviewed a 15.6″ notebook that used this same resolution and here we are with a 4″ smaller display boasting the same specifications. The display on this laptop is excellent with very sharp colors that look crisp in low light situations. Since the display has a glossy finish to it we did find ourselves adjusting how the notebook was positioned with windows or lights as the backlight wasn’t bright enough to save the day. Overall this notebooks display is hands down one of the better ones that we have seen. The Sony VAIO Y series has a built-in motion eye webcam that features a 1.3MP lens!

Sony uses a full-sized 83 key QWERTY chiclet keyboard on the Y Series notebook and the best news is that is doesn’t flex that much at all. If you push down on it with one finger and mash on it you can see if flex, but most one finger peckers shouldn’t be able to get it budge. They key spacing isn’t bad, but we wish Sony would have made all the keys slightly larger as there is a bit of wasted space to the left and right sides of the keyboard. The keys on this notebook have a 1.6mm stroke and 18.43mm pitch.

The Sony VAIO Y series laptop features independent left and right mouse buttons and a small touch pad. Most notebooks we have seen lately have touchpads that are about the same size as the space bar and that isn’t the case on this particular model. Notice that the palm rest area has a textured surface on it. The touchpad appears to have a similar texture on it, but looks are deceiving and it’s a faux finish. The touchpad is perfectly smooth. This touchpad doesn’t support multi-touch gestures.

On such a small laptop you’d assume that the audio would suck, but the pair of speakers that Sony uses on the Y series of laptops are amazing. The two speakers are located on the bottom of the notebook directly under the palm rest. This isn’t our favorite location as our ears aren’t located on our feet, but the volume gets loud enough to where that isn’t an issue. The speakers have great mid-range sound and the top end even sounds fairly decent, but they do sound a bit tinny. The only thing missing when it comes to audio is bass and we can’t dock this laptop for that as it’s ultra portable!