COULD THE Vaio P be Sony’s much-awaited netbook contender? The answer is somewhere between yes and maybe, depending on which main feature you’re looking at.
It’s easy to dismiss the Vaio P as a netbook just by looking at it. It’s tiny — about the size of a lady’s clutch — and it weighs about 1.4 lbs, which is just as light as a hardbound book. Its solidly built chassis is pretty impressive for such a fragile-looking device. Like most netbooks, the Vaio P’s full QWERTY keyboard is 25% smaller than a full-size laptop keyboard. While the keys extend to the edges of the tray, typing with Chiclet-like keys can still be a chore.
Vaio P also comes with a WiFi on/off switch, found in the brim of the chassis. Its small footprint means that it can only accommodate two USB ports, a standard headphone jack and an LAN adaptor port.
Viewing from an eight-inch widescreen display takes some getting used to: the bright backlight and a superb 1,600x768 resolution helps one appreciate the display easier. The only trade off is that one has to squint to see the Windows icons and toolbars.
Expanding the screen to the perimeters of the screen would have been great, but Sony opted to make space for a Web camera instead.
When it comes to playing videos, don’t expect too much. Firing up a full-screen video can be disappointing; when I played an MPEG-4 clip, it dropped quite a few frames.
What lies underneath the hood is perhaps the unit’s greatest asset. Packed with some high end extras, these features are enough to take it out of the netbook category. Well, almost.
It has 2GB of RAM, 60 GB hard drive space with up to 128GB solid state drive, it is based on Windows Vista Home Basic and it runs on 1.33Ghz Intel Atom processor. It also has built-in 802.11n WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth connectivity.
With a decent RAM capacity and an average processor, Vaio P’s performance was surprisingly underwhelming.
The unit’s battery life left much to be desired. For basic productivity, which included playing music, word processing, and exploring other Windows applications, Vaio P clocked in barely three hours. For Web surfing, it lasted two hours, tops. It is also worth noting that the machine’s base already felt warm just after an hour of usage.
Overall, the Sony Vaio P hits most of the marks, although some promises are yet to be proven. Just like most netbooks, its machine is ideal for Web surfing and running not-too-heavy applications.
At P49,999, it looks (and sometimes, behaves) like a netbook, but with its high end extras it cannot be denied that it packs a punch like a full-size laptop. —
Mira B. Gloria
Manila,Philippines
http://www.bworldonline.com/
