We don't often pay attention to entry-level product launches, but Sony's latest laptop offerings have piqued our interest. There's no question that once you're talking about spending $1,000 or more on a high-end Ultrabook, there are many respectable options: you can get a nice, high-resolution screen and good build quality from Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga and X1 Carbon, Dell's XPS 12, or Asus' Zenbook Prime series. However, as we found the last time we took a look at entry-level laptops, it's hard to find features like this at or below $600.

That’s one of the things that Sony wants to change with its new mainstream laptop lineup, dubbed the VAIO Fit series. You won’t mistake these for premium machines, but they do raise the bar in one important respect: a Sony rep told us that none of the systems would include a 1366×768 display. The 14-inch models use a 1600×900 resolution, while the 15-inch models bump this to 1920×1080.

The Fit brand is intended to eventually clean up Sony’s confusing laptop lineup, which currently consists of the E-series (low-end), the S-series (mid-end), and the T-series (Ultrabooks), joining the existing Tap and Duo brands in an effort to make the lineup less obtuse.

That being said, Sony still offers a bewildering range of options across the four laptops being introduced today. The Fit E laptops come in 14- and 15-inch versions, which begin at $549.99 and $579.99, respectively. The base price includes an all-plastic chassis and the screens mentioned earlier (touch is a $100 add-on) as well as a dual-core Pentium 2117U CPU (upgradeable to a dual-core Core i3, i5, or i7), integrated graphics (upgradeable to an Nvidia GeForce 740M with either 1GB or 2GB of video RAM), 4GB of RAM (upgradeable to 6GB or 8GB), a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive (which can be switched out for larger and/or hybrid hard drives, but not SSDs), a DVD burner (upgradeable to a Blu-ray burner), and Windows 8 (or Windows 8 Pro). A fully loaded Fit 14E can cost as much as $1,279.99, or $1,309.99 for the Fit 15E.

The 14- and 15-inch Fit laptops (with no E) are a bit more expensive (they start at $649.99 and $699.99), but usually have better upgrade options and are a bit faster to begin with. The base price for the Fit 14 and Fit 14 includes a plastic-and-aluminum chassis, the non-touch screens (touch still costs $100 more), a dual-core Core i3 CPU (upgradeable to a Core i5 or i7), integrated graphics (upgradeable to a 1GB or 2GB GeForce GT 735M), 4GB of RAM (with 8GB and 12GB options), 500GB hybrid hard drives (upgradeable to 750GB or 1TB hybrid drives or 256GB and 512GB SSDs), a DVD burner (upgradeable to a Blu-ray burner), and Windows 8 (or Windows 8 Pro). The SSD options drive the maximum price of these laptops up to $2,159.99 and $2,209.99, respectively.

All four systems include additional niceties like backlit keyboards (with a number pad in the 15-inch models); NFC, single-band Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, front-facing webcams, and software-enhanced sound courtesy of Sony’s ClearAudio+ technology.

While the Fit line is supposed to simplify Sony’s product lineup, the need to offer multiple options for each and every thing (as well as multiple colors, depending on which laptop you’re buying and whether or not it includes a touchscreen) doesn’t end up simplifying much at all. Fit, as a name, is preferable to a series of random letters, but the experience of buying one of these laptops probably won’t differ much from the situation as it currently stands.

Hands-on

Sony sent us a touch-equipped version of the Fit 15 so we could clock some extended hands-on time with the hardware in addition to the brief demos we were given in the company’s New York office. You won’t mistake these for the premium Ultrabooks we often review around these parts, but for the money they aren't bad.

The first and most obvious improvement is the screen, which as we mentioned is a 1920×1080 panel rather than the 1366×768 that we all love to hate. The quality of the panel itself is still what you’d expect in a low-end or midrange laptop; it’s a TN panel, which means that colors are a little washed out and the viewing angles (vertical especially) are poor compared to the IPS displays you’ll get in most Ultrabooks or tablets. The screen does, however, get nice and bright.

The touch functionality itself is accurate. Whatever Sony is coating the screen with does a fair job of repelling those pesky fingerprints and smudges, but it does make the surface of the screen feel slightly sticky, and I found that it was more difficult to drag my finger around the screen than it is on most touchscreens.

As for the build quality—well, you can only expect so much at this price point. The all-plastic Fit E models feel fairly well put-together and rigid given their material, but they are susceptible to a fair bit of creaking and flexing, especially in the lids. This is also true of the more expensive Fit models (which add an aluminum lid and palm rest to a plastic bottom and keyboard area). You also shouldn’t expect them to be as thin and light as Ultrabooks, given their screen sizes and the extra thickness needed to accommodate the optical drive.

Next, we arrive at the keyboard and trackpad, another area where entry-level laptops could use a lot of help. The actual keyboard layout is good—there are no shrunken, oddly placed keys here—but there’s very little key travel. This is especially disappointing given that, unlike in some Ultrabooks, these computers aren’t trying to shave off precious millimeters in an attempt to nab the “thinnest laptop” crown. There’s plenty of room for satisfactory key travel, but the Fit delivers one of the shallower laptop keyboards I’ve used in recent memory. The keyboard’s backlight is nice and bright, but (at least in the silver model we tested) it’s very uneven.

The computer’s trackpad is of the now-standard buttonless, clickable variety, and we happily have no problems in particular to report with it. Pinch-to-zoom, two-fingered scrolling, and the Windows 8 trackpad gestures all worked predictably and without issue, and we had no issues with palm rejection while we were being dissatisfied with the keyboard.

Finally, we arrive at the insides of the computer. These PCs all use the same dual-core Ivy Bridge Ultrabook chips that we’ve seen in numerous machines over the last year (our review unit also came with the integrated HD Graphics 4000), and at this point we don’t have much to say that hasn't already been said—performance is excellent for general usage (though slowed down a bit by the use of spinning hard drives) and lighter or older games, but users with more demanding workloads may want to consider a PC with a quad-core chip (or one of the dedicated graphics upgrades). The sole caveat here is that Haswell, Intel’s next-generation CPU architecture, is due out next month, and while it’s going to take a while to filter down to this price point, it’s always worth taking a moment to consider a new PC purchase when the latest-and-greatest chips are just weeks away.

In the end, we consider any step forward in entry-level PCs to be a positive development, and Sony’s push away from the dreaded 1366×768 in the new Fit laptops is something we hope to see from every PC OEM as they begin to unveil their summer and fall lineups. That said, the Fit and Fit E laptops are not immune to the weaknesses of other laptops in this price range: the screens’ viewing angles are poor, the keyboard is dissatisfying, and in general the build quality, size, and weight are less impressive than that of many Ultrabooks. Given that Ultrabooks can cost two-to-three times what these laptops do, however, the Fit laptops are still worth a look if you’re interested in a solid PC that won’t entirely drain your bank account.