It's very rare for Sony to send out review samples and if this is a sign of things to come, then hopefully we can expect more products in the future. Sony has sent us their full-blown version of the Vaio P that comes with Vista Home Premium, 64GB SSD and a couple of bundled accessories. First let's check out the bundle followed by a closer look at the Vaio P itself.
Bundle
The bundle consists of the following accessories;
Charger
Port extender
MDR-NC 021 Noise cancelling earphones
The port extender and the earphones are only available in the high-end model and are otherwise sold separately. The earphones seem to be quite an old model and you won't find it anywhere on their website.
Build and Design
This time we got the black version instead of the red one, which looks even slicker. The device weighs only 594gm and can easily be slipped into your coat pocket or a handbag. The paint job on the top and bottom is glossy thereby attracting fingerprints and scratches.
On the left we have the charging dock, a single USB port and the headphone jack.
The right side features the Port extender jack and another USB port. Using the port extender you can use the VGA out port and the LAN jack. It's a real shame that you have to buy this separately with the lower model, since I would have expected something as basic as a LAN and VGA jack to be included by default.
On the left we have the Wi-Fi on/off switch that also enables Bluetooth. Just below that is a SD and Memory stick card reader neatly tucked away in the bottom.
The power switch is very similar to the PSP and prevents an accidental press. The two LED's on the side indicate battery capacity and hard disk activity. When the battery is running low, the power and the battery LED blink slowly in a breathing fashion.
Even though it's the full-blown version, we have to settle for the standard two cell battery. Now here's the interesting bit. When Sony gave us a presentation on the Vaio P, they specifically mentioned that it will feature the new Lithium Polymer battery. However, now we see that it is a Lithium Ion battery and that too just a two cell.
Opening the lid reveals the full QWERTY keyboard along with all the function keys. The entire keyboard is recessed a bit and the keys are small, but thanks to a clever design there is sufficient spacing around the keys making it very comfortable to use.
The 8-inch widescreen is really bright, thanks to the high resolution and the LED backlighting that uses less power and produces a more even backlight compared to CCFL.
The 1600x768 seems a little odd at first, since everything is too small. You have too zoom in to read text or while browsing the net. But for watching a movie or using an application, it's not that bad. Trying lower resolutions only makes things worse, so you have no choice but to stick with the native.
Daily Usage and Performance
Keyboard
The keyboard will definitely take some time getting used. The keys have the right spacing and size to be comfortable enough to be used on a desk or your lap. All in all, I give Sony two thumbs up for the brilliantly-designed keyboard given the space constraint.
The pointing stick is a real joy to use and the sensitivity can be completely customised with the AlpsPoint software. Tap the stick once for a left click, tap it twice and you have a double click. What about scrolling? Well, for that you have to hold the center button (between the left and right click) and move the stick up or down. Don't worry, as it is a lot less complicated than it sounds.
Multimedia Performance
I'm very disappointed here. Believe it or not but the DVD movie playback is quite jerky. Even after installing the K-Lite codec pack and using Media Player Classic, a typical 700MB movie does not play smoothly. I'm not even talking about skipping to a particular scene but simply watching it causes the video to freeze while the audio continues to roll and loose sync.
It does catch up again but spoils the whole fun of watching a movie. There was no doubt that Vista is the culprit here, so I switched the theme to Vista Basic that uses lot less resources, especially memory and was pleasantly surprised to see the video playback get a little better.
I then switched to Windows Classic, which showed some promising signs but wasn't quite there. In the Advanced Settings I selected the best performance option and even set a custom page file size, none of which fixed the problem completely. The playback seemed to be a little better in Windows Media Player but there was always a little sluggishness and the audio would loose sync often. What's surprising is the CPU usage never goes above 30% but the memory usage is around 1.2GB, leaving hardly anything for applications.
Battery Life
The Vaio P comes with a two cell Lithium Ion battery instead of the previously stated Lithium Polymer battery. Before testing, the battery was charged to a 100% and the brightness was kept at medium with Wi-Fi off.
I was pleasantly surprised when the Vaio P gave me a back up time of three hours and 20 minutes after which it was completely dead. This is very close to the rated four hour target and is good for a two cell battery.
Instant Mode
This is essentially your PSP/PS3 CrossMedia bar (XMB) that lets you quickly browse through photos and surf the Internet without booting into Windows. What's odd is that even this interface is jerky and not smooth like the one used on the PSP, which really makes me wonder what's eating all the resources? Either there's some major bug in the firmware or Sony needs to work on a patch to fix this problem. I definitely don't expect Linux to run so poorly on an Intel Atom with 2GB of memory.
Verdict
Call it the ultimate productive gadget or the rich kids tech toy, you cannot deny the fact that Sony has created a memorable piece of gadgetry that's going to inspire plenty of spin-offs from many manufacturers. The entire design and execution of the Vaio P is sheer genius and once you flip it out of your coat pocket or handbag, its game over.
The Sony Vaio P is available in many colors keeping both the sexes in mind. The screen is simply gorgeous sporting a really high resolution. The keyboard layout is well thought and is really comfortable once you get a hang of it.
Of course don't expect the state-of-the-art technology to be cheap. The base model has a price tag of Rs. 50,000, while the full-blown model that we reviewed comes for Rs. 65,000. While this could be device for someone looking at a productive gadget for work and entertainment on the go, Vista ruins the show.
Not only is it too much for the Atom processor to handle, you cannot even play a normal DVD movie without the video locking up every few seconds. Another thing I noticed is that the bottom of the Vaio P gets really hot during normal usage, which is not good for the components.
Make no mistake, Sony is strictly targeting the wealthy youth and businessmen with the Vaio P so don't expect any major price cuts, as the sole audience is going to be the rich folk with oodles of spare cash. My only resentment is the operating system which is a damper on what otherwise would have been the perfect little pocket PC.
Test unit sourced from Perfect Relations
Specifications
source : http://www.techtree.com/India/Reviews/Sony_Vaio_P_-_Pocket_PC_Review/551-99325-616-8.html
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