- Conclusion Get the lowdown
- Features How they compare
- Performance Real world benchmarks
- Differences Technical showdown
- Reviews Word on the street
- Competition Others to consider
- Discussion Answers and opinions
Compare with...
- Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen
- ASUS Zenbook UX31E
- Dell XPS 15z
- Sony VAIO E Series
- SAMSUNG Series 9 900X3A
- 15.5"
- Core i5 2.4 GHz Dual core
- 8 GB DDR3-1333
- 640 GB HDD
Released October, 2011
Rated 78% by by c|net (Jul, 2011)The 15.5-inch display has a native resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels, which is perfectly suited for Blu-ray and 1080p HD video.
- 15.6"
- Core i5 2.2 GHz Quad core
- 6 GB DDR3-1333
- 750 GB HDD
Released October, 2011
by LaptopMag (Jun, 2012)Click to EnlargeThe $1,499 Samsung Series 7 Chronos looks great, sounds great, and is pleasantly thin and light for a 17-inch notebook.
Conclusion Which is better for you?
Features Key features of the Sony VAIO S Series compared to the SAMSUNG Series 7 Chronos
GHz2.4
Intel Core i5 2430M
by LaptopMag (Jul, 2012)Click to EnlargeAlthough the 1366 x 768-pixel resolution is standard fare for a 13-inch laptop, the VAIO S Series 13 plenty bright.
2.2 GHz
Intel Core i5 580M
by LaptopMag (Jun, 2012)For a 17-inch notebook, the Series 7 Chronos is surprisingly thin and light.
screen size
15.5"
15.6"
VAIO S Series by Shawn-Corrill (Apr, 2012)Otherwise I love the backlight on the keyboard, the large screen.
Series 7 Chronos by TrustedReviews (Apr, 2013)Whilst this considerable size will be a drawback for some, those looking for a 15-inch device are likely to be nonplussed, with the added size and weight meaning an expansive and vibrant 15.6-inch Full HD touchscreen display could be thrown into the mix.
screen resolution
VAIO S Series by c|net (Jul, 2011)Tew/CNET). The 13.3-inch matte display does a good job of keeping glare away in an office; the screen's 1,600x900-pixel resolution is a step up from the average 1,366x768-pixel resolution of most 13-inch laptops, and colors and text alike pop vividly.
Series 7 Chronos by c|net (Jan, 2013)The 15.6-inch display has a full 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution, which is what we'd expect from a modern multimedia laptop.
cpu speed
| 0 GHz | 2.4 GHz | 3 GHz |
VAIO S Series by LaptopMag (Jul, 2012)In addition to the $919 configuration we reviewed, which includes a 2.5-GHz Core i5-3210M CPU, 6GB of RAM and 640GB HDD, the S13 can be customized to include up to a 2.9-GHz Core i7-3520 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GT 640M LE GPU with 1GB of VRAM, a 1TB 5,400-rpm hard drive, 12GB of RAM and a 4,400-mAh sheet battery.
Series 7 Chronos by LaptopMag (Jun, 2012)A closer competitor is the HP Envy 17, whose second-gen 2.2-GHz Core i7-2670QM processor paced that notebook to a score of 2,790.
processor
VAIO S Series by c|net (Jul, 2011)It's not quite in the ultrabook category, but this is still a reasonably thin and light 15-inch laptop, especially considering the powerful components inside, such as the quad-core CPU and Nvidia GPU.
Series 7 Chronos by c|net (Jan, 2013)Samsung calls the Series 7 Chronos a multimedia powerhouse, with quad-core Intel Core i-series CPUs, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage, plus discrete AMD Radeon HD 8870 graphics.
memory
| 0 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
VAIO S Series by M.-F.-Makala (Mar, 2011)I have owned a Vaio laptop before even though the RAM was only 2GB, and 6 years older its performance was a lot much better than this one.
Series 7 Chronos by Surfer (Mar, 2012)And psssst, most of the spec listings for this laptop say 6GB of RAM - it really has 8GB.
Performance Real world tests of Sony VAIO S Series vs SAMSUNG Series 7 Chronos
3DMark06 CPU
VAIO S Series by LaptopMag (Mar, 2010)Armed with a 2.26-GHz Intel Core i5 i5-430M CPU, 4GB of RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), and a 5,400-rpm 500GB hard drive, the S series notched a score of 4,950 on PCMark Vantage, which measures overall performance.
battery life
5.75 hour
4.5 hour
VAIO S Series by c|net (Jul, 2011)Sony has added a slot-loading drive and a larger touch pad; more RAM is included, and the hard drive is larger; there are a new, faster Intel CPU, better Nvidia graphics, and an integrated battery, which gives much improved battery life over the previous generation's $150 slice battery add-on, sold separately and practically a requirement for good battery life the last go-around.
Series 7 Chronos by LaptopMag (Jan, 2012)Click to EnlargeNot only is the Chronos 7 light enough to carry everywhere, but it lasts long enough on a charge to go unplugged for hours at a time.
cinebench r10 32Bit
VAIO S Series by D.-Lao--Domin8r (Dec, 2011)This is the first time I've experienced the performance of an i7 and SSD together, and everything is just incredibly smooth and snappy.
Differences What are the advantages of each
Advantages compared to the SAMSUNG Series 7 Chronos
| Is full HD | Yes | vs | No |
|---|---|---|---|
| Somewhat common; the screen is large enough to display 1080p video without scaling | |||
| Significantly higher resolution screen | 1920 x 1080 | vs | 1600 x 900 |
| More than 40% higher resolution screen | |||
| Significantly sharper screen | 142 ppi | vs | 117 ppi |
| More than 20% sharper PPI; enjoy photo-realistic, crisp images | |||
| More RAM | 8 GB | vs | 6 GB |
| More than 30% more RAM; run more applications and have more browser tabs open without slowing down the system | |||
| Longer battery life | 5.75 hour | vs | 4.5 hour |
| Around 30% longer battery life; surf the web longer without having to plug in | |||
| Faster processor | 2.4 GHz | vs | 2.2 GHz |
| Around 10% faster processor; run computation-intensive applications, such as photo editing, faster | |||
Advantages compared to the Sony VAIO S Series
| Much faster internal storage | 7,200 RPM | vs | 5,400 RPM |
|---|---|---|---|
| More than 30% faster rotation speed; faster boot times and shorter application load times | |||
| Much thinner | 24 mm | vs | 114 mm |
| 4.8x thinner | |||
| More cores | Quad core | vs | Dual core |
| Twice as many cores; run more applications at once | |||
| More cores | Quad core | vs | Dual core |
| Twice as many cores; run more applications at once | |||
| Much faster Bluetooth | 24 Mbit/s (Bluetooth v3.0 + HS) | vs | 3 Mbit/s (Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR) |
| 8x faster Bluetooth | |||
| Faster turbo speed | 3.33 GHz (Intel Core i5 580M) | vs | 3 GHz |
| More than 10% faster turbo speed; gain a temporary speed boost for computation-intensive applications | |||
| More storage capacity | 750 GB | vs | 640 GB |
| Around 20% more storage capacity | |||
Reviews Word on the street
Sony VAIO S Series | SAMSUNG Series 7 Chronos | ||
 |    Rated by 108 users at amazon.com Rated 80% by by Real-Name™-╦⌠≥---æ¢ç╡ (Aug, 2012) Rated 80% by by rkent78 (Aug, 2012) Rated 80% by by Real-Name™-╦⌠≥---æ¢ç╡ (Aug, 2012) | Rated by 5 users at amazon.com Rated 100% by by C.-Kanzenbach (Jan, 2012) Rated 100% by by C.-Kanzenbach (Jan, 2012) Rated 100% by by C.-Kanzenbach (Jan, 2012) | |
|---|---|---|---|
Competition What else you should consider
 | 2 | ASUS Zenbook UX31E 3-way tie: Fast Bluetooth |
 | 3 | Dell XPS 15z Good CPU benchmark score |
 | 6 | Samsung Series 5 NP530U3B-A02US 4-way tie: Really fast internal storage |
 | 7 | Dell XPS 15 (L502x) 2-way tie: Highest resolution screen |
