Sony cocks a snook at the Macbook Air, but the Vaio X will never sell

Unveiled at the last IFA in Berlin, the Sony Vaio X now has an official price and spec. We were able to get a look at it a few days ago. Here are our first impressions and all the details on this new ultraportable laptop, which comes in at record weight and thickness.

A luxury laptop par excellence, the SonyVaio X has an impressive tech spec. It is the lightest model in the world at only 780 grams with the battery (655 without). This is a good 50% down on the average for the lightest netbooks, in spite of it having an 11.1 inch screen. The width is also impressive, at just 13.9 mm (dimensions: 278 x 185 x 13.9 mm).


The chassis is made entirely of carbon, while the hand rest is in aluminium. High quality, solid materials then!


An Intel Atom processor!

Up till now, the Sony Vaio X spec makes it a dream notebook. Unfortunately, when you find out what processor it’s using, you come to in a hurry! While we thought that the Intel Atom,used on the machines shown at IFA, was only there provisionally in the pre-series versions, it turns out not to have been! The Vaio Xs are using an Intel Atom Z series chip! Although these are indeed very economical processors, they also lack power and have just one core.

No doubt the slimness of the machine requires minimal heat but we would nevertheless have preferred a slightly faster processor, such as an ultra-low consumption double core for example (Intel’s CULV platform). That said, the Sony engineers no doubt studied this possibility but unfortunately didn’t decide on it. Doubtless it would have made the machine thicker.

Windows 7, SSD and HD video

Two versions of the Vaio X are planned for November. They both come with Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) and have a Poulsbo chipset that gives HD video decoding. The built-in graphics part is the Intel GMA 500, no good for video games. The backlit LED 11.1 inch screens have a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels (16:9 format) and are mounted with a webcam.


The VAIO VPC-X11S1E/B has a starting price of 1299 pounds. It is equipped with an Intel Atom Z540 (1.86 GHz), 2 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD. Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth are included along with a 3G module (HSDPA/HSUPA).

The VAIO VPC-X11Z1E/X will be on sale for 1899 pounds. It has a slightly faster processor than the X11S1E/B: the Intel Atom Z550 (2 GHz). The SSD is also up to 256 GB, while the casing has a high-end carbon finish.

A battery life of up to 16 hours?

Sony is promising up to 8 hours battery life with the standard battery but is also offering a longer life battery. It sticks out the bottom of the machine but doubles battery life. Though it doesn’t look great and makes the machine heavier, it will mean that you can be out and about a long time without having to look for a power socket.


The Sony VAIO Xs come with a leather wallet, an external DVD reader and a wireless mouse in the same design as the rest of the laptop.


Product survey: Laptops