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A sense of style raises this otherwise median mainstream laptop above the crowd.

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 pays some needed attention to the lower end of the midsize laptop market, with the sharp-looking new Vaio E series.

If you want a reasonably priced desktop-replacement big-screen laptop, the Vaio E17 is worth a look. But it’s not a good Windows 8 showcase machine, and it lacks any touch interface other than a small touch pad.

The affordable Sony VAIO E Series 11 offers a lightweight and attractive design along with enough performance to handle the basics.

The Sony Vaio E Series 17 offers decent overall performance, along with a Full HD screen and a Blu-ray player. Nearly every part is configurable when you buy it so you can opt for lesser specs if you can't afford this top model.

It's good to see a Sony VAIO laptop that the average person can afford and we have to say that, even if it's not especially pretty, the this E Series laptop certainly gets the job done.

All in all, this is a good, if unremarkable, mid-level laptop from Sony, especially if you value the VAIO brand.

Sony basically provides a good multimedia notebook with its 15.5 inch rep of the E-Series. But it faces a considerable devaluation due to numerous flaws and shortcomings.

The EH1's design can't hide the fact that its Pentium processor is under-powered, and it also lacks USB3 support.

The redesigned touch pad might trip you up, but the 2012 Sony VAIO E Series is an otherwise well-designed 15.5-inch laptop that delivers fast performance and a big software bundle for a reasonable price.