Sony Vaio P Notebook Computer Review

2009 is going to be the year of sexy notebooks. With performance parameters between the various models narrowing, looks and feel are going to be playing a large role in helping a customer decide which notebook he is going to buy.

Design:
Performance:
Ease of use:
Value for money:
Overall Rating:

And one of the sexiest ones to have arrived on the market recently is Sony’s Vaio P. This ultraportable notebook which is Atom based and comes with a high resolution 8 inch screen is, to put it plainly, drop dead gorgeous. It has everything you could ask for in an ultraportable. But is the $900 price tag worth it? Keep in mind that today you can buy a “netbook” for less than $500. So what’s so great about the Vaio P that justifies the extra cost? Is it just the looks? If it was, this review would end right here. The Vaio P has a lot more going for it.

• The Vaio P is powered by an Intel Atom Z processor clocking in at 1.33GHz with a 512 KB cache. That’s along the lines of what you’d expect from a full size laptop so no complaints here.
• It has a super compact but high speed 60 GB HDD. That’s more than you’ll need for any application you could reasonably expect of an ultraportable.
• The 2 GB RAM is also more than enough for any application. On the downside, the memory is soldered to the mother board so you can’t change it. But the unit has 2 memory card slots to allow you to expand your storage options and to use the Vista “ready boost” feature.
• The display is the stand out feature – 8 inches but it packs in a 1600 x 768 pixel resolution. When you think that most 8.9 inch displays offer 1024 x 600 resolutions, you will know what the Vaio P has to offer. The screen is a glossy XBRITE-ECO so there will be some reflection in direct sunlight or under strong indoor lighting. Of course the small screen has the inherent problem of making small text difficult to read, but Sony’s ingenious magnification tool allows you to select and enlarge text size without changing the screen resolution.
• Despite its small size, the keyboard allows for hours of stress free typing.
• The extremely thin chassis weighs only 1.8 lbs, so it’s really easy to carry around.

So is the $900 price tag worth it? The answer is maybe. Sorry, but that’s an honest evaluation. You can get all you need for mobile computing applications on other makes of ultraportable notebooks that cost around $ 500 and from a purely operational point of view, the Vaio P does not justify the extra $ 400 – the big HDD, large Ram and display are not worth the extra cost and most users can do without this icing on the cake. But if you look at the whole package, what the Vaio P offers is a notebook so sleek, sexy and easy to use that it is almost in a class by itself. If you want the pleasure of using the best ultraportable you can buy today, and being able to stand out from the crowd, then go ahead and spend the $ 900.