SUPER SLIM SONY VAIO P

Glossy design

Sony insists the Vaio P is not a netbook, but a premium 'pocket style PC'. The emphasis is clearly on aesthetics and portability, with a super-slim design and high-quality glossy paint finish.

Slip into your pocket

The unique shape allows you to slip a Vaio P into any coat or trouser pocket. It's less than 2 cm thin, and only slightly wider and deeper than a business envelope. Externally, you'll notice the perfectly rounded corners and smooth lines.

Even the underside is free of stickers, labels and screws. Around the edges are the power and Wi-Fi switches, two USB ports, an earphones socket, a custom port for expansion, and one slot each for SDHC and Memory Stick cards-limiting, but manageable.

Roomy keyboard

Opening the lid reveals a large, roomy keyboard. The keys are well spaced, except for the miniscule right [Shift] key and the cramped arrow key cluster. Unfortunately, they're a bit too mushy and since there's no wrist rest, the lower lip where the cursor buttons sit obstructs the entire bottom row.

The trackpoint is well positioned and you can tap it lightly to register a click. Above the keyboard lie two slots for the speakers, which quite frankly, are awful. A mic and VGA webcam are integrated.

Crazy resolution

The screen measures eight inches, pretty normal for a netbook-class device, but has a crazy resolution of 1600 x 768 - over twice as wide as it is tall. That kind of horizontal resolution is greater than most 19-inch desktop monitors! Sure, it plays HD video, but all those pixels are crammed into almost no space at all. Icons and buttons are miniscule, and even regular text on screen is impossibly tiny.

A shortcut button brings up a dedicated media interface which is designed to look and feel like the PSP's Xross Media Bar. Pressing the same button while the Vaio P is off brings up Instant Mode, an instant-on OS which lets you access stored media files and browse the Web as well.

Hardware configuration

The model we tested uses an Intel Atom Z530 CPU (1.6 GHz, HyperThreading, and 512 KB of L2 cache) and a 64 GB solid-state flash drive.

You also get 2 GB of DDR2 RAM, Intel GMA 500 onboard graphics, and built in Wi-Fi N and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR for wireless communications. Noise-cancelling earphones and an adapter for Ethernet and VGA video outputs are also included.

Performance

Using Windows Vista avoids the now down-market feel of XP, but takes its toll on performance. The combination of hardware and software produced some of the lowest scores we've ever seen.

The Vaio P took 413 seconds to complete our real-world video encoding test (which measures the time taken to encode a 1-minute MPG file to MPEG-4), and 436 seconds to compress and archive 200 MB of multiple files into a single RAR file - way below par.

Good battery life

Synthetic benchmark scores were equally dismal, with SiSoft Sandra 2009's CPU Arithmetic tests throwing up scores of 2007 Dhrystones and 1665 Whetstones, along with 1156 MB/s in the memory bandwidth test.

However, battery life was well above average at 3 hours, 30 minutes under light load, and 2 hours, 50 minutes under heavy load.

Conclusion

We can't help but classify the Vaio P as a netbook rather than as an ultraportable laptop. Sure, it looks awesome, but this isn't what you'd be considering if you want a cheap and compact extra PC. You could buy two decently configured mainstream laptops or a killer high-end gaming desktop PC for the same price.

Verdict: Buy one if money's no object and you want to look good while surfing the web. Because of its small screen and keyboard it's not very practical for any other type of use.

Specifications

Sony Vaio P VGN-P15G

Dimensions (WxHxD): 245 x 19.8 x 120 mm;

Weight: 594 g;

Processor: Intel Atom Z530, 1.6 GHz;

Memory: 2 GB DDR2;

SSD: 64 GB;

Display: 8-inch, 1600 x 768;

Wi-Fi: 802.11 n.

Price: Rs 64,990

Warranty: 1 year

For: Excellent looks, dramatic style statement.

Against: High price, low performance, few features.

For viewing the pictures,do click on this link:
http://sify.com/finance/imagegallery/galleryDetail.php?id=jdzsyJicfid&title=Super_slim_Sony_Vaio_P