Sony has launched its new VAIO P series netbooks in India as " Lifestyle PC " with aggresive ad campaign - you must have seen a girl pushing the netbook inside her back pocket and walking in haste .The netbook looks elegant and stylish but its being so expensive is not justified by its functions.The prices of VAIO P models start from Rs 42,000 which is twice as expensive as some of the fully functional notebooks in India.
Contrary to general belief , the notebooks and netbooks are not same.While netbooks are for lighter purposes like web browsing , running MS office like applications and organizing /typing documents they are not hardcore developer machines.
On the other hand if you like to listen your favourite songs and also be using Photoshop for editing apart from web surfing then notebooks will server your purpose better than netboks.
So back to the topic once again ! , Portability is the biggest plus point of VAIO P.The device is just 19.8 mm thick and weighs less than 600 grams .The 8-inch wide screen of this p series device supports resolution upto 1600X768 pixels but at that point font size becomes too small to view.Although pressing FN and F10 keys makes the small text instantly becomes readable. We found that 320x240 resolution worked best for most of the device functions including watching a movie.
The glossy plastic surfaces is strong enough to overcome minor wear and tear in your purse or back pocket but it is advisable not to test its extremities.
Like most of the current breed of netbooks , the driving force behind VAIO P is the Intel's Atom processor of 1.6GHz .Perhaps , to keep the device cool in its small cabinet Sony used this rather slow processor.The 2 GB of RAM with VAIO P which is tightly soldered to the mother board does make things better which is lost on processor front but creates another problem - you can not upgrade RAM or any hardware.The netbook is provided with solid state 128GB drive which which is sufficient space for performing most acts on device. The technology of passive cooling makes this device absolutely noiseless while running.
On Keyboard front , Sony VAIO P keyboard is very compact , although you can type long reports or emails without too much difficulty but if you do that more often better consider buying an external keyboard to be attached with this netbook.For space saving , sony removed the touchpad from VAIO P and has touchpoint or trackpoint pointing stick for this purpose.Keyboard is very comfortable to type on and there is no bounce at all.The netbook serves better for hunt and peck style of typing (typing while looking at keyboard) than touch typing due to reduced key gaps.
Vaio P comes loaded with Windows Vista which really makes this device performance miserable.It took us almost 2 minutes to surf the net starting from the boot up.We believe people will surely look for windows 7 or revert back to windows xp for VAIO P's smooth working.
Come to the multimedia capabilities, Sadly , Sony has failed on this front VAIO P is not a great multimedia entertainment box.Still if you are desperate you can opt for external speakers or headphones.But that incurs extra expenditure you know.The VAIO P series comes with two USB ports and a combination HDMI/port extender. Sony provides a small extender to add video and wired Ethernet ports in the sales package too.
Now about the battary backup , the Li-on 4-cell battery of VAIO P gave us nice 2 hours and 45 minutes of working .The backup is expected to increase with little tweaks like loweing screen brightness,disabling wireless card and unwanted startup applications.
Now the conclusion , VAIO P is definately for you if you are willing to use it as a stylish essential travel accessory which you can occasionally flaunt among friends or collegues rather than a fully functional pc.It has got style ,eleganceand beauty to justify .But if you had planned to replace your old family PC with this new VAIO variant, your family pc still rules !
Strengths of Sony VAIO P
The highly portable Vaio P is neither too heavy nor too big and easily slips into back pack
Sceen display is nice and vibrant with rich colors
Drawbacks of Sony VAIO P
- Absence of firewire port.