Review: Sony Vaio X Series

Sony's Vaio X Series is one of the new breed of laptops that pushes the definition of ultra-thin to new limits. Although not the absolute thinnest available, this new Vaio is also compact and lightweight, making it a desirable, if pricey, mobile client for the executive traveller.

Available to buy now, the Vaio X Series has a footprint smaller than an A4 sheet of paper and an 11.1in screen, characteristics that mark it out as an ultra-portable, a segment of the laptop market that emphasises portability, but often at a premium price.

This new Vaio certainly has a premium price. Even the entry-level model costs £1,299 but, at just 13.9mm, it is thinner than virtually any other laptop we are aware of except for Dell's recently launched Adamo XPS. The Vaio is also one of the lightest with a start weight of just 655g (depending on choice of battery).

For this price, you get a specification that is not much better than a typical netbook, which makes the Vaio X Series a stylish but costly option for those needing a highly portable system to carry with them when travelling.

However, we have concerns about whether the X Series is sturdy enough to survive everyday use on the road. The system's screen bends alarmingly and even the chassis can be deformed noticeably by exerting only modest pressure.

In tests, we found the Vaio very pleasant to use, although somewhat underpowered for anything but basic productivity tasks, while its compact size and light weight mean you hardly notice you are carrying it. We were also surprised at how long the battery lasted, considering the slimline format.

The specs
Our review unit was the VPC-X11Z1E/X model, which is based on a 2GHz Intel Atom Z550 processor with 2GB of memory and a 256GB Flash SSD instead of a hard drive, to help keep the weight down.

This model ships with a standard battery that leads to an all-in weight of 780g, which still makes it one of the lightest laptops we have ever tested. A smaller and lighter battery pack can be specified with the 'configure to order' version of the X Series, which is known by the model name VPC-X11X5E.

Despite its low weight, the X Series still provides a decent range of connectivity options, consisting of 802.11b/g/Draft n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a built-in Everywair HSDPA modem for wireless broadband, enabling buyers to stay connected virtually anywhere.

It also has two USB ports, VGA output, Ethernet connector, headphone jack socket and two slots along its front edge for SD Card and Sony's own Memory Stick Pro Duo Flash storage cards.

As a measure of just how thin the Vaio X series is, a hinged cover forms one half of the Ethernet connector, because the laptop's chassis is too thin to accommodate a standard size Ethernet jack.

We liked the Vaio's 11.1in X-black LCD display which features an LED backlight and looks nice and bright in most light conditions with a native resolution of 1,366 x 768. Also appealing is the keyboard, which has its keys spaced apart in what the Americans call a 'chiclet' design that makes typing very easy and pleasant for such a small system.

Also notable is the Vaio's touchpad, which supports multi-touch input. This allows gestures such as pinching together two fingers to zoom in, for example.

A pair of flip-out feet underneath the chassis lifts it to angle the keyboard when on a desk, and we found the Vaio X Series comfortable to use when sitting on your lap as well, as the screen can be pushed quite far back to a suitable angle.

With a single-core Atom processor, the Vaio X Series was never going to be a great performer. Even though the 2GHz Z550 chip supports hyper-threading, this is no substitute for the performance of the dual-core processors used in most other laptops, and the Vaio felt a little sluggish at times.

Our review unit was rated at just 2.5 under the Windows Experience Index built into Windows, but this score was held back by the low performance of the Intel GMA 500 graphics function in the chipset, while the memory and disk scores were quite respectable.

However, like netbooks (which also use Atom processors) the Vaio has ample performance for productivity tasks such as word processing, email and delivering presentations.

Performance was also possibly affected by the presence of various pre-installed applications, such as 60-day trial versions of Norton Online Backup and McAfee Security Center, which run every time the computer starts regardless of whether you accept the 60-day trial conditions or not.

Battery life
We were sceptical of Sony's claimed eight-hour battery life for the Vaio X Series, especially after seeing the thinness of the battery pack in the base of the unit.

Nevertheless, the unit lasted for five hours and 18 minutes in our tests using the Battery Eater Pro benchmark, which is an impressive score for such a thin and light laptop.

We tested the Vaio in its configuration as delivered, except that the screen and suspend-to-disk timeouts were disabled to prevent the system turning off the backlight or going to sleep while the battery life test was running.

Users may experience a shorter battery life than this in use, depending on how heavily they use the wireless communications, but should still be able to get several hours of use from the Vaio before a recharge is needed.

Inside the battery compartment is a slot to take a standard network SIM for mobile broadband access.

Sony said that all Vaio models with built-in broadband ship with an Orange SIM, although none came with our review unit. However, it did have an Orange-branded Internet Everywhere client installed for managing the mobile network connection.

As well as the trial software mentioned, our review unit shipped with a Microsoft Office 2007 60-day trial, Skype, and several Sony utilities including Sony Picture Utility, Vaio Update, and Vaio Video and Photo Suite.