Vaio S15 Keyboard

I've been wondering about the keyboard for the Vaio S a while now. The last Vaio I bought was an i5 Vaio EB, which had an excellent keyboard, despite its age.

At Best Buy, I tried using the Vaio E's new keyboard, and I absolutely hated it.

It was mushy and weak, which reminded me of the HP DV6T's keyboard, which of course, was also a terrible keyboard. There was simply not enough feedback when you typed.


The Vaio EB's keyboard had extremely crisp feedback whenever you pressed a key. Each key had a certain resistance, requiring a moderate amount of pressure to activate the switch. The result however, was a quick drop that would result in delicious tactility and sound.

Instead of making a "click-clock" sound like with most laptops, it'd produce a firm and low "dun-clack" sound that would give an indicator that you hit a key. However, the collapsing feel of the keyboard would also result in faster depression, and thus, louder typing. Make no mistake, the Vaio EB had a pretty loud keyboard.


My question is, did Sony skimp out on the keyboard with the S15, or did they stick with their older styled keyboards? Is the tactility still what it once was, or has it been reduced to a squishy mess like the E series?

As I mentioned before, the EB keyboard was my favorite laptop keyboard. If the S15's keyboard can't match it, then it's not worth a buy.


An another note, does anybody know the differences between the IdeaPad and the ThinkPad keyboard, other than the lack of a TrackPoint? I particularly enjoyed the IdeaPad's typing experience, and I was wondering if the ThinkPad was in any way superior to it. While I still prefer the EB series over the IdeaPad, I was wondering if the ThinkPad's keyboard was better than it.

It's one of the ThinkPad versus Vaio moments again.

 

You're right on. I have a relatively new SVE15 Ivy Bridge laptop (ordered from Sony online) and the keyboard is awful. The top rows of keys flex really badly, and believe it or not the back-lit keyboard makes it HARDER to see the white-on-white key letters.

I love the machine (I got it with the discrete video card), and I even love the trackpad. But the keyboard sucks! Makes me wish I'd have kept my monster FW series laptop that I gave to my son

Keith

 

Ugh, the E series keyboard is terrible in general. It feels nothing like the EB series, despite having the same name.


So, does anybody with a Vaio S wanna say how their keyboard feels? I really enjoy Sony's "stiff keys." You simply can't beam em.


I'd like to know whether or not they made the transition to mushy keys, or if they kept their original keys.

 

Though I have no experience with an EB series Vaio, I do have experienced both IdeaPad and ThinkPad keyboards and I can tell you that they are both better than the S15's ... Having said that the Vaio's keyboard other than the flex on the left side is quite good...

 

I own a Vaio Z12, which for me is the best piece of hardware I ever bought (and the most expensive -.-). As a result, I had a hard time finding a satisfying replacement.

I love the keyboard of the Z12 soooo much and I couldn't find better words to describe the way it feels than how you described the EB's. That said, I must say that the S15's keyboard's quality is far from that of the Z12. The vertical travel is quite short (not like in 'Ultrabook-short', but still short) and it bends on 80% of the keyboard area. I also have much more trouble distinguishing the single keys blindly. And the backlighting suffers so much from lightbleed that I find words for it (ever seen backlit keyboard of Samsung Series 7 Chronos? wow!), but I don't mind though.

BUT I also have to say that for some unknown reason I was able to type at nearly the same speed as on the Z after ~1 day of adaption. I feel comfortable now and the only issue for me now is KNOWING that the keyboard is worse than what I had before, but I don't suffer from that difference in quality. And btw I like the sound of the keys being pressed.

You could find a retailer and try the keyboard yourself, but if you're like me you will need more than 3 minutes to adapt to the keyboard. If your country has a return policy, I would suggest you to just buy the S15 and keep it for a week. In my eyes, the keyboard and the orange/red problem are the only weaknesses of this otherwise wonderful notebook, and for both I really don't care much.

TL;DR: The keyboard is definitely weaker than EB's, but after some adaption you can type nearly as comfortable on it (or that's just me).