Vaio W 'Beauty'

Sony Vaio W is beautiful and fashionable. But with the standard configuration for netbooks, this machine doesn't make a big difference from other products.

Sony Vaio W has a 10.1-inch screen. Photo: Gearlive .

Vaio W has 3 fashionable colors which are white, pink and brown. This is the highlight because the case is not much different from the netbook models on the market. Sure machine with 4 rounded corners, looks a bit thick (about 3.3 cm), the smooth lid is outstanding with Vaio logo bright white. Inside is a familiar design with a silver chiclet keyboard that bears Sony's own identity, surrounded by a light pink frame. The touchpad stands out on a darker pink background with embossed squares.

Vaio W owns a 10.1-inch LED backlit mirror screen, bright and sharp, with good color matching, excellent image and video quality at high resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. However, the mirror layer is too shiny to cause glare, so sometimes you will see smooth screen is a more reasonable choice.

The characteristic chiclet keyboard still retains a wide distance, sensitivity and smoothness, and is comfortable to use for a long time, but its size is smaller than the keyboard in many competing models, like the Samsung N120. The key layout is also very reasonable, except for the smaller "Right Shift" key, with the usual keys, to reserve space for " up-arrow - up arrow " and "Fn" on the right. The touchpad is extremely good, not only beautifully designed, wider, but also smooth and comfortable.

Wide chicklet keyboard. Photo: Latestlaptopreview .

Vaio W configuration at standard level of netbook with Intel Atom N280 processor 1.66 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD and running Windows XP Home Edition operating system. Besides the built-in webcam, which is VGA-shaped output, Micro / Heaphone jack, LAN, and only 2 USB ports and two separate memory card slots, one for SD card types and the other Memory Stick Pro Duo card.

The standard configuration above does not differ in performance from competitors. Vaio W takes 27 minutes and 23 seconds to compress videos with Windows Media Encoder software, which is equivalent to the capabilities of previous N270 processor models, but slower than the Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook also uses N280 CPU. Meanwhile, the time to test music compression in iTunes took only 18 minutes 33 seconds, among the top performance models.

Graphic ability is "bored" with 3DMark06 test results only 76 points. Partly because the Intel GMA 950 and 945 chipset support better for the 1,024 x 576 low-resolution screen, it is easy to understand with a resolution of 1,366 x 768, the result is less convincing. It compensates for good sound quality, high volume, clear sound and even when the speaker is turned on.

VaioO W's battery life is poor and uncompetitive. With 3-cell battery included, it only runs 2 hours and 24 minutes while surfing the web via Wi-Fi and watching videos online. While the average duration of a netbook battery must reach 4 hours. Sony will sell 6-cell batteries for phones in September but is quite expensive, nearly 130 USD.

Sony W's expected price in Vietnam is VND 12 million. Photo: Mynetbookreviews .

While other netbook models only fluctuate around VND 8, 9 million, the Vaio W has a much higher price. As Sony announced during the Computer World Expo in HCM City recently, it will sell about 12 million dong, not to mention the extra cost for the 6-cell battery.

Advantages
- Beautiful design, sure.
- High resolution screen.
- Good touchpad.

Defect
- Expensive.
- 3-cell battery with limited time.
- 2 USB ports will be detrimental.
- Small keyboard.