This Vaio EB1S0E is the first laptop we’ve seen to use Intel’s Core i3 mobile processor, and therefore we could not wait to compare it. Total score 77 may not sound much, but considering that this is equivalent to the fastest notebook in our recent £ 700 laptop control group, we were duly impressed.

Even more impressive that its Core i3 2,13-330 is the cheapest of the new line of processors, the range which also includes mobile Core i5 and the Core i7 chips to the base clock speeds up to 2,66 GHz. All the new chips are dual-core and Hyper-Threading, to improve performance in multitasking environments. Most processors use a range of overclocking Turbo Boost Intel in technology, which improves the chip’s clock speed, if not working near the maximum temperature. Unfortunately, entry-level Core i3 used in Sony Vaio VPC-in EB1S0E not include it.

Intel has moved to 32 nm manufacturing process for the new processors using transistors smaller, which allows chips to be more economical, with TDP of 35 Tues Intel also included graphics processor on the chip, which eliminates the need for special graphics chip and reduces power consumption. Sony, however, decided to use a special graphics chip, instead of – ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 – as an integrated chip is not powerful enough to play modern 3D-games.

Given all this, its battery score three o’clock 15 minutes was a bit disappointing. However, the battery itself is not very large and dedicated graphics chipset has denied any potential benefits from on-board GPU processor. We see this problem with EB1S0E, than Core i3 notebooks in general. Nevertheless, in more than three hours, he was still enough for occasional mobile use.

Sony new BA series of beautiful laptop, with a thin two-tone design. The cover and the area above the keyboard light color silver, while in our model, the keyboard and control panel for the wrists were finished in white. For the wrist itself has a glossy surface with a slight shine, and made from high quality plastic that is convenient to work, and believes tight.

This quality finish and choice of interesting material is distributed throughout the event, with attention to detail as we might expect from a Vaio. For example, the power button is a small LED display, where it meets the edge of the case, so it is still visible when the lid is closed. Our only concern was the DVD tray drive, which was inconclusive and free, when opened, the slot drive would be more in the confrontation with the rest of the case.

Dedicated ATI cards helped EB1S0E reach almost 20fps in Call Of Duty 4 test. This is not fast enough for hardcore gaming, but less action-oriented games such as Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 will run smoothly at lower resolutions and with lots of additional graphics settings turned off.

HD video will not be a problem, and has an HDMI port for output to your home entertainment system. Built-in speakers pretty loud but tinny at high frequencies and the lack of bass, so if you want to get the most out of movies would you advise to connect a decent sound system.