Sony VAIO E review: Sony VAIO E

Once a popular choice for on-the-go laptop shoppers, the 11-inch laptop has fallen on hard times of late (aside from the $999 11-inch MacBook Air). It's not quite as steep a drop-off as we saw with the 10-inch Netbook, but you could count the number of 11-inch laptops we've reviewed this year on one hand, and still have a few fingers left over.

7.0

Sony VAIO E

The Good

The 11-inch <b>Sony Vaio E</b> has a sharp design at a budget price, plus decent graphics and good battery life.

The Bad

This 11-inch laptop is thicker and heavier than many 13-inch models. The slow CPU isn't for everyone.

The Bottom Line

With only a handful of 11-inch laptops still available, serious travelers are flocking to ultrathin 13-inch models instead. But the low price and good battery life of the Sony Vaio E keep it from being counted out.

Sony has a new 11-inch Vaio E that makes a decent case for reviving this category, with usable performance and a sharp design, and coming in at $449 thanks to a new AMD E2-1800 processor (an Intel Core i3 version would doubtlessly cost more).

The recent trend toward thin ultrabooks has largely made 11-inch laptops unnecessary. They still have smaller desktop footprints, but usually weigh more and have thicker bodies than super-slim 13-inch laptops, which end up being more useful all-around travel machines for most people. But, those 13-inch and larger ultrabooks (or ultrabook-like systems, such as HP's new Sleekbook line) still cost more, at least $599 and usually closer to $1,000.

With performance that's acceptable, but not exactly zippy, and a body that feels a bit plasticky and clacky, I'd be more comfortable with the 11-inch Sony Vaio E at $399, rather than $449. But for portable Web surfing and basic productivity, it does the job. And, thanks to AMD's insistence on including decent graphics hardware from the former ATI (now just AMD's GPU division), this system actually does a decent job of playing games.