Sony Vaio VPCS11V9E/B review

Application performance is even better. An Intel Core i5 520M powers the system, running at 2.4GHz, while 4GB of 533MHz DDR3 RAM provides an amount of power that would have been considered workstation-ready a few years ago. It breezed through our benchmarks to an overall score of 1.40, suggesting there's plenty of power for multiple applications, with enough left over for multimedia editing. There's no compromise in terms of storage either - you can specify Sony's S Series laptops with a 128GB SSD or a mechanical disk. Our system came with a 500GB mechanical disk, and hence has more than adequate space for applications and media.

The normal trade-off for a laptop offering lots of raw oomph is decreased portability. That isn't the case with the S11. It weighs 2kg - not exactly ultraportable but fine for a machine that will spend its life on a desk with occasional trips away. There's much better news when it comes to the battery. Not only is it tidily designed - it doesn't extend beyond the back of the chassis - but it offers excellent performance.

Under pressure, the S11 ran for a reasonable hour and a half. Left alone, with nothing running but the screen turned on and hibernation disabled, the S11 went for a shade under five hours. In the real world, using standard Office applications, it seems reasonable to expect around three hours of life away from the mains - impressive for a system with such a large screen and decent amount of power on tap.