Sony VAIO S Series VPC-SA21GX/BI

Pros: Amazing array of technology in a small package
Great screen
Better than average speakers for a small laptop
Enormous, industry-leading hard-drive (1 TB solid state drive)
Very fast performance
Excellent connectivity (2 USB 2.0 + 1 dedicated USB 3.0)

Cons: Incredibly noisy even when doing simple tasks
Buttons on track pad are not very precise (minor gripe)

Summary: On paper this is the ideal laptop; sleeker, faster, lighter than any of the competition. My wife has a MacBook Pro and even she was impressed. But, the horribly loud unpredictable fan noise unfortunately ruined this laptop for me. I believe the problem is that the fan is located on the back of the computer and easily gets blocked when the screen is tilted back beyond 90 degrees. Nonetheless, I returned what could have been the best laptop I have ever owned because the noise was that annoying. And, I just couldn't justify having spent over $5,000 for a laptop with such an obvious issue.

That all said, I will acknowledge that, based on my review of all the comments online and a brief discussion with tech support, it does not appear that this fan noise is indicative of any problems with the computer. I don't think it is a signal that the computer is going to over-heat and fail . . . it is just plain annoying. So, I personally am going to wait for the next generation "S" when hopefully the terrabyte SSD is also much less expensive.