Vizio 14-inch Thin + Light (CT14-A2)

The Vizio 14-inch Thin + Light (CT14-A2) ($1,099.99 list) is another good effort from Vizio, a name you may know from the HDTV market. Vizio has brought that screen technology to the ultrabook space, and put that tech on an absolute hot rod of a laptop. Unfortunately, a couple of significant missteps affect the day-to-day usability of the system; otherwise we'd have a potential first crack at an Editors' Choice for ultrabooks here.

Design and Features
The CT14-A2 hits the ground running with its aluminum unibody construction. At a quick glance it could almost be mistaken for one of the sleek Apple MacBook laptops like the MacBook Air 13-inch ($1,199 list, 3.5 stars) . True, it has a silver keyboard instead of the black keys of a MacBook, but it still has that feel, with a mostly aluminum look on the keyboard deck, palm rest, and lid. The keys on the non-backlit keyboard are a little slippery and the key travel is shallow, which is a concern if you're a touch typist. Also, the trackpad isn't quite there yet; it has some tracking and click registration problems, which is a concern if you need to select text often in your school work or day-to-day surfing. For example, when you use two fingers to scroll up/down, the touchpad sometimes failed to register the gesture, making you repeat the gesture until it works. Updates are constantly being posted to Vizio's website, which improve the performance somewhat, but this still shows that there is an inherent problem with the touchpad in the laptop, which can't be easily replaced. The keyboard and mouse are two of the primary ways you interact with your digital life, after all.

The strength of the CT14-A2 is its screen. The 1,600-by-900 resolution screen is just short of full 1080p HD, but that's still much better than the 1,366-by-768 resolution you find on other ultrabooks in this price range like the HP Envy 4-1043cl ($1,034.99 direct, 4 stars) . Websites, videos, and photos are bright and clear on the 14-inch widescreen. The row of function keys default to functions like screen brightness, volume, and playback functions, so you don't have to hit the "Fn" key to dim the screen if it's too bright. The screen's 1,600-by-900 resolution also means you can read more of a website before scrolling, an advantage over systems with lower resolution screens. There's a bit of a screen door effect, where you can see the vertical and horizontal rows of pixels when you look close to the screen, but it's not too bad unless you're really sensitive to the effect. The CT14-A2 weighs 3.4 pounds, which is OK for the ultrabook category.

The system comes with Microsoft Signature prep pre-loaded, which is a service you'd normally receive at Microsoft Stores in malls. The system comes with Bing pre-loaded as a search engine, the constantly rotating wallpapers are a gorgeous mix of images from Microsoft Signature and the Bing service, and the desktop is devoid of icons aside from the Recycle Bin. The system is free of bloatware (third party trial apps and ads for service), the only pre-installed programs are Vizio and Microsoft apps like Skype, Zune, Office 2010 Starter, and Microsoft Security Essential.

The CT14-A2 comes with a speedy 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), an Intel Core i7 processor, Intel HD 4000 graphics, and 802.11a/b/g/n dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz). The system has two USB 3.0 ports and a HDMI-out port. The system is missing a SD or other digital media card slot, even though there is room for one. These are very respectable internal components, and lead to some excellent performance numbers on our benchmark tests (more on that below). One reasonably significant nit is the system's 4GB of memory. Unlike with other systems, that 4GB can't be upgraded, nor can you order a system with more memory from Vizio. The 4GB may not be enough for the type of enthusiast who needs a Core i7 processor; 4GB will start to seem small if you regularly work with large photo files or video files, but it should be more than enough for most general-purpose users.

The 256GB SSD is twice as capacious the SSDs in some rivals: the MacBook Air and other ultrbooks like the the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A-R5102F come with 128GB SSDs. The result is that the CT14-A2 has 195GB free when you take it out of the box, more than triple the available capacity of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon ($1,599 list, 4.0 stars) (54GB free). While you can "get away" with a small SSD capacity on a business PC that stores most of its files on a server, a home/entertainment PC requires much more local storage for the music, video, and photo files that tend to pile up. The SSD also contributes to boot times and app launches that take seconds instead of minutes, making this system feel inherently fast.

Performance
The CT14-A2 has class-leading day-to-day performance, thanks to its Core i7 processor and SSD. The system completed Futuremark's PCMark7 tests with a blazing score of 5,672, besting rivals like the Dell XPS 14 (Summer 2012) ($1,499 direct, 3.5 stars) (3,348 points) and the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A-R5102F (4,315 points). The CT14-A2 also has excellent short times on our Handbrake video test (1 minute 44 seconds) and Photoshop CS5 test (3:59). The CT14-A2 was able to complete these tasks quicker than rivals with slower processors or spinning hard drives. The CT14-A2's 3D scores were more mediocre, thanks to Intel integrated graphics, but the system is plenty fast for day-to-day tasks. However, that day is likely to be shorter than a full untethered day, because the CT14-A2 only managed a 5 hours 4 minutes battery rundown time on MobileMark 2007. This is shorter than the Asus UX31A-R5102F (6:31) and far, far shorter than the Dell XPS 14 (9:37). The 5 hours doesn't seem bad, but it is at the low end of the ultrabook category, one that prides itself on long battery life.

In conclusion, the Vizio 14-inch Thin + Light (CT14-A2) is a very good effort from Vizio, though it shows room for improvement. It has potential to shake up the ultrabook space, once a few nits are combed out. The Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 ($1,299 list, 4 stars) continues on as the high-end ultrabook Editors' Choice, because of its combination of high-resolution screen, good performance, and strong features.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Vizio 14-inch Thin + Light (CT14-A2) with several other laptops side by side.

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