Lenovo FRU 42T4795
July 10, 2012The Vaios fall a little behind in terms of performance. In fact, our model seems to have regressed. There was once a time when Intel Pentium referred to high-end processors, but now the line-up consists of low-budget models. The Pentium B960 is the representative of this series and is equipped with an integrated graphics. This processor is installed in our EH3 test model. The rest of the hardware of the notebook is also standard. Lenovo 42T4235
The 15.5 inch display is modest and there are no big surprises in the RAM, hard disk, optical drive or connectivity. On the positive side, this means that the user will not be bothered by high noise emissions or a high price tag. Lenovo 42T4731
We should mention that there are much stronger processors available for the EH3 series: up to Core-i5. The number of different configurations on the Sony homepage is almost suffocating.Two predecessors from the EH series have already been tested at Notebookcheck: the well-equipped VPC-EH1Z1E/B and the weaker VPC-EH1M1E/W. In many ways, the new EH3 is identical to the latter, and this is why we have made references to the old review in the following test. Lenovo 42T4733
The test model is presented in pearly white and a fascinating honeycomb surface. Other models of the EH3 series are also available in black or blue. Fingerprints are hard to find on this case, despite the cover being glossy. The case is identical to the VPC-EH1M1E/W, and this is why we will keep this section short. Lenovo 42T4737
Robust, light, good workmanship. That is the EH3. As before, the display can only be opened with both hands. Everything on the inside is white and the gaps are clean. The keyboard is slightly spongy but this does not affect the typing experience much. More about that later. Lenovo 42T4753
The user is not going to get any extras for a price of 500 Euros. Four USB 2.0 ports, VGA, HDMI, audio jacks and Gigabit LAN are all part of the standard middle-class connectivity. Lenovo 51J0499 The VGA output is clear even at WUXGA resolutions. The only thing worth mentioning is the presence of two card readers. One for Sony Memory Sticks and the other for SD cards. The positioning of the ports can be poor at times for left- and right-handed users, depending on the ports in use at the moment. Left-handed users have to deal with stiff LAN and video cables, which are thankfully placed to the back of the laptop. Lenovo 42T4757
An Atheros WLAN card allows the user to connect to wireless networks using the N-standard. The Realtek Gigabit LAN port allows the user to connect to networks with a LAN cable. Bluetooth 3.0 + HS, also from Atheros, rounds off the package. As in the predecessor, the VAIO has a "Quick Web Access" button, which boots the laptop into an OS specifically designed for surfing the web. The time required to boot measures about 1 minute. Lenovo ASM 42T4703
The only security measure provided by Sony is a test version of McAfee Internet Security which constantly bombards the user with annoying pop-ups. Hardware for increased security, such as a fingerprint reader, is not available. Lenovo ASM 42T4752
Accessories
Effectively? None. Besides the 75 W power adapter, there are a few manuals and guarantee card. A recovery DVD for Windows 7 Home Premium has to be created by the user using the manual delivered in the package. A few Vaio programs are pre-installed. Lenovo ASM 42T4756
Maintenance
The user has few options. The RAM and hard disk each have one flap and that is about all Sony allows the buyer to see. Even cleaning the fan, would require the user to completely disassemble the notebook. Lenovo ASM 42T4796
Guarantee
12 months guarantee is provided by Sony for the EH3. As for the other Vaios, the guarantee can be extended up to two years for a premium. The premium amounts to around 100 Euros which is relatively expensive and the user will have to ask themselves if it is worth the investment for a 500 Euro notebook. Lenovo FRU 42T4702
Optional Accessories
Sony offers a variety of optional accessories and peripheral devices for their models. The offering ranges from mouse and keyboards to notebook bags. In addition, a replacement battery for 150 Euros and a replacement power adapter for 130 Euros are also available. Lenovo FRU 42T4751
This is one of the highlights of the test model: the full format keyboard has a numeric pad and a comfortable impact. It feels high-quality with the exception of a slightly spongy feel and some creaking. There are few special function keys which perform specific actions. The "Vaio", "Web" and "Assist"-keys are still on-board. Additional information about the keyboard can be found in the EH1M1E review, as its keyboard was identical. Lenovo FRU 42T4755
Touchpad
Knobby. That is the first aspect of the touchpad the user will notice. The well-sized touchpad has good feedback and is easy to use. The vertical and horizontal scroll bars are not marked, but they can be switched off in the driver. The keys have a comfortable pressure point and are relatively quiet. Lenovo FRU 42T4791
Webcam
A webcam for video calls is integrated into the top of the display with a microphone. The camera captures at 640x480 pixels, which is quite low, and the picture quality is decent. At maximum brightness, the pictures get paler, as the display lighting in the border is reflected slightly onto the lense. Lenovo FRU 42T4793
As previously mentioned, the VPC-EH3C0E/W does not have a great display. The widescreen resolution of 1366x768 pixels is standard and, as typical in low-end consumer notebook, the display is reflective. As the brightness is not very high, the display can be plagued by strong reflections. The user has to constantly adjust the screen to find the best position, and at home, the use of an external monitor would be recommended. Lenovo FRU 42T4795
The EH3 has slightly lower values than the EH1M1E/W. The predecessor had a contrast of 1.36 cd/m², whereas the successor has a much worse 1.54 cd/m². Paired with the average brightness 200 cd/m² (predecessor: 220 cd/m²) the contrast ratio is now lower at 1:144. Lenovo FRU 42T4797
In comparison to the predecessor, the color spectrum coverage has also dropped. The colors of the EH3 often seem pale and cold. The results of a color spectrum coverage comparison support this statement: the EH3 lags behind the EH1 quite a bit in the important Red region and in both the important color standards, sRGB and AdobeRGB. Lenovo FRU 42T4817
Poor horizontal and vertical viewing angles further exacerbate the problem. Sony has given away points in this area. The user will always be adjusting the screen, trying to find the right angle. Lenovo FRU 42T4819Computer veterans will remember the once-proud Pentium processor family. Now the name refers to CPUs which are always one or two levels below the best processors on the market.
The inner workings of the B960 are based on the Sandy Bridge architecture, which includes the integrated Intel HD Graphics. The clock speed of the processor lies around 2.2 GHz. There is no power-saving mechanism, Hyperthreading, or Turbo Boost. More details can be found here. Lenovo 42T4708
As expected, the performance of the CPU, which is the slowest processor available for the EH3, lies in the bottom to middle ranks. A few Cinebench benchmarks allow us to support this statement with values. Lenovo 42T4709 In the Single Rendering test (32 bit) in Cinebench 10, the Vaio (2,850 points) lies at the same level as other notebooks which still use older processors like the Intel Core i7 720QM or the Core 2 Duo T9400. For example, the Asus L50Vn is one such laptop. The Samsung 300E5A-S01 is a newer competitor which satisfies these conditions.In 64 bit Single Rendering, the EH3 lands ahead of the EH1M1E/W, although the EH1 is also equipped with a powerful processor. The EH3 scores 3,527 points, whereas the EH1 (Core i3 2310M) can only score 3,452 points.
In general, we can say that the B960 is not suited for demanding programs as it lacks the necessary performance reserves. Lenovo 42T4710
The system may not be exceptionally fast, but the choice of components makes it balanced. Lenovo 42T4712 However, this is not enough to get a high score in PCMark Vantage. PCMark 7 could be started on the test model, but even with latest patches, it crashed at the video transformation test. As such, we do not have any results from this benchmark. However, in PCMark Vantage the EH3C0E/W places near the bottom (3,874 points) alongside older notebooks, such as the Dell Studio XPS 16 (T9400 and Mobility Radeon HD 3670). This places the test model slightly below our reference benchmarks of the B960. The Toshiba Satellite L755D-14U is a more modern competitor, equipped with an AMD A6-3420M, and it can score 4,034 points. Lenovo 42T4714
4.6Windows 7 Experience IndexProcessorCalculations per second6.1Memory (RAM)Memory operations per second7.1GraphicsDesktop performance for Windows Aero4.6Gaming graphics3D business and gaming graphics5.4Primary hard diskDisk data transfer rate5.9 Lenovo 42T4715
Once again we find standard hardware installed in the test model. Everyday tasks are handled with ease by a 500 GB HDD from Western Digital and 4 GB RAM. The hard disk has a maximum transfer rate of 80 MB/s, and on average can perform at 70 MB/s. A second RAM module would have increased the performance of the notebook by a slight amount, as this would have activated Dual-Channel mode. An empty slot can be found in the notebook for this purpose. Lenovo 42T4731
No, we did not forget the number, this graphics chip has none. The Intel HD Graphics is basically a HD Graphics 2000 IGP. The clock speeds are dependent on the processor and this results in varying results in benchmarks. This chip is not a performance wonder and, as it lacks DirectX 11 support, some of the new games and benchmarks, such as 3DMark 7, could not be tested on the model. Lenovo 42T4733
In the well-known 3D Mark synthetic benchmarks, the EH3C0E/W can barely keep up with the current competition. In the best case, it can match the performance of older notebooks. Let us start with 3D Mark 03. The performance of the integrated graphics is comparable to Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS. The older Dell Vostro 1320 using this graphics chip with a P8600 processor. The Vostro can score 6,511 points whereas the EH3 takes second place with 6,379 points. Next we look at the newer 3DMark Vantage: the VPCEH3C0E/W is quite low with a score of 917 points and is once again matched in performance by older devices. The following diagram depicts the performance of our test model in comparison to other notebooks. Lenovo 42T4735
What happens when one decides to play games on the Vaio? Not possible? Well, although the laptop has low performance, it can run older games on the Intel HD Graphics IGP. Still, let us take a look at some of the new games we tested:Mafia II is not playable at any level. This action game does not run fluidly even at minimum settings (even under the minimum of our benchmark). In the benchmarks, the laptop performed at a maximum of 14.7 frames per second. Lenovo 42T4737
Shogun II
This demanding real-time strategy game runs at minimum details (max resolution of 1024x768 pixels and low settings). In the benchmark, the laptop ran the game at 39.5 frames per second. We have almost never seen such low values in this performance class. Typically we would run two more benchmarks via Steam, but these were not possible as the graphics chip lacks DirectX 11 support. Lenovo 42T4753
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