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Sony VAIO X-Series review

Verdict

A stunning piece of design matched by excellent battery life, and despite the Atom inside it can cope with everyday tasks. But Sony struggles to justify that price

Review Date: 8 Oct 2009

Reviewed By: Tim Danton

Price when reviewed: £1,130 (£1,300 inc VAT)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
5 stars out of 6

Value for Money
2 stars out of 6

Performance
3 stars out of 6

Details
Part Code	VPC.X11SEB
Review Date	8 Oct 2009
Price ex VAT	£1,130
Price inc VAT	£1,300
Overall rating
Features & Design
Value for Money
Performance

Warranty
Warranty	2yr collect and return

Physical specifications
Dimensions	278 x 186 x 12.2mm (WDH)
Weight	766g
Travelling weight	1.1kg

Processor and memory
Processor	Intel Atom Z540
Motherboard chipset	Intel US15W
RAM capacity	2.00GB
Memory type	DDR3
SODIMM sockets free	0
SODIMM sockets total	1

Screen and video
Screen size	11.1in
Resolution screen horizontal	1,366
Resolution screen vertical	768
Resolution	1366 x 768
Graphics chipset	Intel GMA 500
Graphics card RAM	N/A
VGA (D-SUB) outputs	1
HDMI outputs	0
S-Video outputs	0
DVI-I outputs	0
DVI-D outputs	0
DisplayPort outputs	0

Drives
Capacity	128GB
Hard disk usable capacity	112GB
Spindle speed	N/A
Internal disk interface	SATA
Hard disk	Samsung MMCRE28GFMXP-MVB solid state disk
Optical disc technology	None
Optical drive	N/A
Battery capacity	4,100mAh
Replacement battery price inc VAT	£0

Networking
Wired adapter speed	1,000Mbits/sec
802.11a support
802.11b support
802.11g support
802.11 draft-n support
Integrated 3G adapter
Bluetooth support

Other Features
Wireless hardware on/off switch
Wireless key-combination switch
Modem
ExpressCard34 slots	0
ExpressCard54 slots	0
PC Card slots	0
USB ports (downstream)	2
PS/2 mouse port
9-pin serial ports	0
Parallel ports	0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports	0
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports	0
3.5mm audio jacks	1
SD card reader
Memory Stick reader
MMC (multimedia card) reader
Smart Media reader
Compact Flash reader
xD-card reader
Pointing device type	Touchpad
Audio chipset	Realtek HD Audio
Speaker location	Bottom
Hardware volume control?
Integrated microphone?
Integrated webcam?
Fingerprint reader
Smartcard reader
Carry case

Operating system and software
Operating system	Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
OS family	Windows 7
Recovery method	Recovery partition
Software supplied	VAIO Video & Photo Suite

Battery and performance tests
Battery life, light use	7hr 9min
Battery life, heavy use	3hr 11min
Overall application benchmark score	0.36
Office application benchmark score	0.38
2D graphics application benchmark score	0.38
Encoding application benchmark score	0.33
Multitasking application benchmark score	0.34
3D performance (crysis) low settings	N/A
3D performance setting	N/A

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From around the web

Why didn't they use the Nvidia ION? I have a media-centre PC using that processor with an NVidia ION and it flies through Windows 7 - Aero effects and all. It can't have been to keep costs down so why such a strange omission?

By Bassey1976 on 8 Oct 2009

Nvidia ION

Main reasons are likely to be heat and battery life - Nvidia ION consumes more power than the Intel chipset (off-hand I'm not sure how much more), so will need more cooling. And more heat + more cooling = worse battery life.

By TimDanton on 8 Oct 2009

Full circle?

Haven't Sony always sold ultra small laptop PCs for an absolute fortune? Only the ones they sold before did have some proper welly behind them.

Still, I suppose Daniel Craig will be using this in the next Bond movies, so many a personality-starved idiot will be forking out for one.

By Lacrobat on 8 Oct 2009

Fan

Hey, did you notice how the fan is on? Does it spin only when youre doing serious things, or is it always on?

By laser21 on 10 Oct 2009

Fan noise

Thanks for the post re fan noise - I've added this to the review.

In short, it very rarely spins (not at all when I was using it as my day-to-day laptop) but is noisy when it does.

By TimDanton on 12 Oct 2009

re fan

Thanks for your answer - this is important to me - Im a writer, so this machine is heaven for me :) Light, not noisy, great for word processing...I dont mind a small keyboard. Plus the awesome battery life...

By laser21 on 12 Oct 2009

fellow vaio x owner

The touchpad seems to be fine to me and also according to another awesome review here.

http://gadgetmix.com/index/sony-vaio-x-review-does
-this-size-zero-notebooknetbook-has-the-x-factor/

However, the main hit to me is its battery life. I get just 2 hours from it. Also, I've 64GB SSD version unit and not the 128GB or 256GB SSD one.

By vaioXowner on 16 Nov 2009