The Sony VAIO X has finally been reviewed, and it passes with flying colours in most areas. Sony have been banging on for ages how the VAIO X is the slimmest, lightest, and longest lasting netbook around. With a height of just 0.6 inches, a weight of 1.4 pounds or 2.2 pounds with extended battery pack, and a claimed battery life of 10 hours, you can see why they’re shouting about it too. Wll Laptop Magazine have managed to get hold of a VAIO X, and have been putting it to test, to see if this little netbook can do what it says on the tin.
To summarise, reports are good. Although only 3 hours are available from the standard battery pack, which is understandable considering the size, the included battery pack increases life dramatically. Testing with the extended battery pack attached produced battery life of 10 hours, even when using WiFi – not bad Sony. Including the extended battery pack in the price of the VAIO X, which lets face it, is beyond most mortals looking to buy a netbook, is a great idea and will hopefully prompt other manufacturers to follow suit.
Other aspects of the Sony VAIO X are just as impressive. The Intel Atom Z550 along with 2GB of RAM provides enough grunt for a bit more than everyday tasks, and the 128GB SSD performs well against it’s competitors. Unfortunately, the VAIO X really suffered in 3d Graphics performance – not too much of an issue as long as you’re not looking to play 3d games, but more importantly full screen flash video playback was choppy. Could the lack of performance in these key areas be the end of the VAIO X before it’s even available?
