When you’re slicing your pie charts and adding up your spreadsheets, do you ever take a step back from your standing desk and ask yourself, “Am I getting enough Turbo time?”
Vaio knows that feeling. That’s why its new Vaio S spec bump (as seen on AnandTech) was designed specifically to maximize how much Turbo you’re getting. The business laptop is mostly unchanged from last year’s model — the VGA port is still hanging on, and USB-C is still absent — but the internals have been bumped up to the latest 8th gen Intel processors.
As fun as it is to say “Turbo time,” Vaio is actually very serious about this technology, which it dubs “Vaio TruePerformance.” Basically, it builds on Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, which allows for bursts of high performance from laptop CPUs. Unfortunately, the realities of power consumption and heat dissipation don’t let that performance spike last very long on a typical laptop. Vaio claims the Vaio S can handle longer peak performance spikes (Turbo Boosts), but it can also handle a higher level of regular sustained performance without overheating or throttling, thanks to its strengthened power supply and improved cooling.
The Vaio S looks to be targeted at a sweetspot between ultrathin and light laptops and more powerful workstation laptops. Obviously, if you need a GPU to get your work done, the Intel HD Graphics 620 won’t be much help. The new Vaio S line starts at $1,199 for the Core i5 model, and goes all the way up to $2,199 for a Core i7 model with a 1TB PCIe SSD and 16GB of RAM.
Update 2/13, 10:31 AM ET: I wrote “1GB” instead of “1TB” and I’ve been found out!