SONY VAIO S Series SVS13122CXB Notebook Intel Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 13.3" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 750GB HDD 7200rpm Slot Loading CD/DVD Player/Burner Intel HD Graphics 4000

Pros: Lightweight and compact

Cons: Windows 8, blue screen error right after 1 month

Other Thoughts: I really like vaio computers and truly, when it worked, this computer is a nice machine. After a few weeks my computer started crashing and bringing up a blue screen error message. I tried to figure out the problem and that really turned out to be a mistake. I didn't want to return it if it was something I could fix on my own so I tried and because I did that I missed the return deadline and now Newegg won't take it back. At this point, after "refreshing" the system I am left with a computer that will turn on but that refuses to run any programs.

Pros: The build quality is very solid. Not a unibody like the Macbook Pro but this feels like it will get outdated hardware-wise before physically falling apart. It's very lightweight. I see no problem carrying this around for daily class and work.

I thought the brightness and keyboard backlight being controlled by the ambient light would be annoying but you can turn it off (although there is no easy way to turn the keyboard backlight on and off otherwise) but I find it quite useful to not have to worry about it and it works well.

The one feature of Windows 8 I really do enjoy is the side by side apps. Having the desktop be the big app and running Messaging (or another app like that in the small side) is useful for not having to switch back to Facebook all the time for chatting. There is no way to have two apps be half and half though, one has to be big and one has to be small. Not a laptop thing but if it runs Windows 8 it's sort of relevant.

Cons: Hopefully this is just a problem with my model but my touchpad was sunk in a little bit on the right side while the left side was flush with the palm rest. Even if the whole touchpad was sunk in it would be alright.

I want to fall in love with Windows 8 but I just don't think it's ready. There are some things that just aren't intuitive to the level they should be, especially in an operating system where Microsoft wants intuitiveness to be the focus.

There is no two finger press on the touchpad for right click like in a Macbook which is a really intuitive way to do right click other than actually right clicking. There is a two finger tap (without clicking) so maybe the actual two finger click is copyrighted by Apple like everything else. If you prefer the actual button press the area of the touchpad that is for right clicking is changeable to make it as large or small as you'd like.

The touchpad is centered with respect to the laptop and not the keyboard, so my right palm rests over a good portion of the touchpad and sometimes I accidentally move the cursor or click. There are palmguard settings but obviously a better solution would have been to keep the touchpad between where the hands actually rest.

The FN buttons up top seem like a squandered opportunity. Right off the bat, there are two unused buttons. On a row that doesn't include a keyboard backlight toggle, wireless toggle, play/pause or other media controls, there's no reason why there should be two unused buttons. After that, two buttons are used for zoom in/out and I just don't ever see myself needing or using them. I'd rather have any of the above alternatives. You do get a touchpad on/off, mute, volume down, volume up, brightness down, brightness up, second monitor toggle, empty, zoom out, zoom in, empty, and what looks like a hibernate button but I don't want to press it. There is also no way to lock the FN button so F1, F2 etc are default instead of the useful mute, volume, and brightness functions.

VAIO Care has a setting to hold the battery at 80% to prolong its life but in doing so keeps the battery life at about 3.5 hours. Not quite the all day mobility that is advertised so I guess that extra sheet battery would be necessary to be unplugged "all day."

Other Thoughts: There seem to be a lot of cons but I guess the pros are just more obvious in that it's an affordable yet premium laptop that will do what you need it to do. None of the cons by themselves would be a dealbreaker for me even if I knew them before. Even if I had known them all before I probably still would have bought the laptop because I nothing is perfect, not even the Macbook so as much as I try not to settle for stuff (especially expensive things I'll need to use for the next 2-4 years) sometimes you have to consider what a deal you're otherwise getting.