Reviews -> Hardware -> Others
Sony Vaio X
Dushyant Khilnani | 23 March 2010
For : Ridiculously thin and light, very elegant design and slightly more powerful than standard netbooks.
Against : Quite expensive for the performance it offers and the standard battery pack is disappointing.
| Netbook Sony Vaio X
Verdict: It’s a super-sexy netbook that performs slightly better than standard ones. If you’re willing to pay for aesthetics and lightness, the Vaio X is a good choice.
Specifications Rs 64,990 www.sony.com Dimensions (WxHxD): 278 x 13.9 x 185 mm; Weight: 655 g; CPU: Intel Atom Z540, 1.86 GHz; Memory: 2 GB DDR2; Hard disk: 64 GB SSD; Display: 11.1-inch, 1366x768 pixels; Graphics: Intel GMA 500; Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 n, gigabit LAN and Bluetooth. Contact Sony India Phone 1800-103-7799 EMAIL sonyindia.care@ap.sony.com
Sony laptops and netbooks have so far been popular for their design and style. The Vaio P and Vaio W are good examples of such high-end lifestyle netbooks. This time around, the company has taken their design accentuation to a different level with its latest Signature Collection model, the Sony Vaio X.
Features While its 11.1-inch screen and overall appearance might tempt you to mistake it for an ultra-portable laptop, this device uses hardware which is essentially a decent upgrade of the hardware used in standard netbooks. So far, most netbooks have been powered by the common Atom processors such as the N270 and N280, they had 1 GB RAM, a 160 GB standard hard drive and they were pre-loaded with Windows XP. Built around an Intel US15W chipset, the Vaio X too is powered by an Atom processor, but a more powerful variant, the Atom Z540 clocked at 1.86 GHz. This processor is slightly more powerful than its predecessors. Also, the Vaio X has 2 GB of DDR2 RAM and a 64 GB SSD. While the hard drive space should suffice for office applications and basic computing, a 128 GB variant is also available. Graphics is courtesy an onboard Intel GMA 500 chip, and as opposed to the older common 1024 x 600, the screen’s native resolution is 1366 x 768—which is increasingly becoming common in netbooks. In addition to the presence of an SSD, other features, especially connectivity options can be categorized as high-end. These include Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi n and Bluetooth. There are two USB and one VGA ports (HDMI would have been better), and a common jack for headphones and microphone. There are two card readers, one for SD cards and the other for Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick. Here’s something striking about the LAN port: due to the Vaio's overall slimness, the port housing is actually collapsed by default and needs to be folded out to accomodate the RJ 45 clip. Though it's in danger of snapping off, this is in fact a brilliant design, and is far preferable to being stuck without a wired connection or forced to use an USB adapter like wiht the original superslim Macbook Air. Another uncommon feature is that the Vaio X is pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium which is still a rarity in netbooks. The unit also bundles with it a number of applications, which include a few Sony applications such as Vaio Media Plus, Media Gallery and Vaio Movie Story. Also, there are many other bundled applications such as WinDVD BD for Vaio, Adobe Premier Elements, Roxio Easy Media Creator, Adobe Reader 9 and so on.
Performance Considering that the hardware in this netbook is only slightly more powerful than that of standard netbooks, there’s very little of a performance improvement that you can expect. Nonetheless, you can use mainstream casual and office applications such as emails, casual Internet surfing, chatting, VoIP and so on. Standard netbooks range from Rs 14,000 to about Rs 30,000, but the Vaio X costs more than double that price. It’s hard not to expect something more. In this case, superb aesthetics and portability are the main distinguishing factors. The performance is more or less the same. Had there been a more powerful processor and a more roomy hard drive, the price of this netbook could have been more justifiable. What’s really disappointing is the run time of the bundled battery pack. While the two optional battery packs promise run time of 7 hours and 16 hours, the bundled (2050 mAh) battery pack offers merely 3.5 hours under medium load.
Build quality In order to give the netbook a sleek design while maintaining the overall ruggedness that consumers expect, Sony has smartly used a combination of aluminum and carbon fiber for construction. Of course, keeping the slimness in mind, one can’t expect to flex the screen too much without damaging it. The light weight is also due to the presence of an SSD. The appearance is undoubtedly stylish and unique in comparison to other netbooks. The overall ergonomics are good, except that the keyboard is slightly sunken meaning you'll end up missing the space bar initially, but it's the kind of thing you can get used to in time. Had the keys been larger and better spaced, this wouldn't have been such a problem.
Conclusion On one hand, despite the exorbitant price, this netbook offers slightly better performance in real-world tests and uses. On the other hand the Vaio X is as thin and light as a paper notepad. Overall, although the Vaio X doesn’t offer superb bang for the buck in terms of performance, it will surely make your peers jealous.
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