Overall this is a solid laptop. Mine is configured with a dual core i5 @ 2.6Ghz, a 256GB SSD, and nVidia GT 240M LE (2GB).
The keyboard is solid with good key spacing and travel. The backlighting is controlled by an ambiant light sensor above the keyboard, but as far as I can tell, there is only one brightness. On the 15" model, you get a full number pad which comes in handy.
The trackpad is a Synaptics Clickpad and for the most part work rather well. tap to click, 2 finger right click and scrolling work well. Pinch to zoom can be a bit problematic, but it seems to be an issue with windows rather than the trackpad. Lastly, some of the edge gestures for Windows 8 have some problems, but have steady improved through regular driver updates.
Battery life on this laptop is pretty good(I did not purchase the slice battery). I can regularly get 4.5-5 hours web if I stick to rather basic tasks like web browsing and coding. Streaming video from youtube will pull that estimate down closer to 4.5 hrs. If I am performing intensive tasks, especially those that utilize the GPU, it is possible to drain the battery much more quickly, but that is to be expected.
Sony loves to install so much crapware on Vaios. There were close to 20 pieces of son software. Some of which is useful, like Vaio Control Center (allows you to manage hardware specific features, such as fan speed and keyboard backlight) to completely useless like Vaio Gate, which adds a hideous dock to the top of your screen.
Overall, this is a fantastic laptop that doesn't give me trouble with anything. I'm gamer, but I have yet to find anything that has pushed this system to it's max though.
The Breakdown
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Design
7
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Keyboard
9
-
Touchpad
8
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Display
8
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Performance
9
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Heat / noise
7
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Battery life
8
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Software
5
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