Sony Vaio VGN-P11

I heart Sony very much like I would heart my kidney dialysis machine if I was diabetic. It is a requirement for most of my electrical devices, when I have the money, to be able to purchase it whatever it may be. When I cannot afford a Sony device, I usually head for “cheap man’s Sony”: Samsung, and it is frequently let me assure you. The name Sony exudes an aura of style and quality that just stands ahead of its competitors; it is the trendsetter ...
...a yard stick. It was Sony who had the high contrast glossy screen first and caused the others to follow suit. It was Sony who draped their devices in vampiric, fingerprint attracting glossy plastic that caused the others to swoon in adoration, and then plagiarise. The inhabitants of the Far East see Sony as the epitome of electrical reliability and quality, just like they see Mercedes cars as the ultimate automobile. When you drive around in a vehicle ... more

I heart Sony very much like I would heart my kidney dialysis machine if I was diabetic. It is a requirement for most of my electrical devices, when I have the money, to be able to purchase it whatever it may be. When I cannot afford a Sony device, I usually head for “cheap man’s Sony”: Samsung, and it is frequently let me assure you. The name Sony exudes an aura of style and quality that just stands ahead of its competitors; it is the trendsetter for style, the bastion of excellence that others use as a yard stick. It was Sony who had the high contrast glossy screen first and caused the others to follow suit. It was Sony who draped their devices in vampiric, fingerprint attracting glossy plastic that caused the others to swoon in adoration, and then plagiarise. The inhabitants of the Far East see Sony as the epitome of electrical reliability and quality, just like they see Mercedes cars as the ultimate automobile. When you drive around in a vehicle with the 3 pointed star, you know you have arrived. When people visit your home and see it strewn with Sony labelled home entertainment, they know you’ve arrived. It’s not that impressive over here, but then Sony is a Japanese brand that has had more time to establish itself in the East. Most people here agree that the word Sony is synonymous with other words such as overhyped, over marketed, and over my bloody budget.

Sony has always made stylish devices, it is in their blood. But where they always failed in the past was with their constant insistence to use proprietary formats that were meant only for their devices. This makes getting replacements and diagnosing problems very difficult and very expensive. Examples of this can be seen in their older laptops having the Memory Pro Duo memory slots with no SD card compatibility, ATRAC for audio rather than the popular MP3 and their eBook DRM security encryption. But nowadays, Sony has begun to see the light and have eased off their proprietary obsession. We are beginning to see SDHC card support, better support for different audio and video formats, and better portability from one device to another.

The Sony P series, particularly the black edition VGN-P11Z in this instance (try saying that 3 times quickly), has benefited from these recent changes, coupled with Sony's classic sublime style. This is one of the smallest, if not the smallest, and sexiest ultra portable laptop computers I have ever seen. Sony insists that it is a fully functional laptop and have installed Windows Vista Home Premium edition on it to show how much faith they have in their claims. But closer inspection shows that it is really a netbook, no matter what Sony throws in with the package to make it sweeter. It is running an Intel Atom CPU at 1.33 GHz so it is slower than standard netbooks that run at 1.6 GHz. There is also 2 GB of RAM, 60 GB hard drive space (10 of which is used for the recovery partition), 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, an 8 inch ultra wide screen and 3 hours of battery life. It may have sub-standard netbook capabilities, which in turn makes Windows Vista slow and as responsive as a blind horse, but it looks good and is super portable and that is what counts! In actual fact, installing Windows XP or 7 is a better option as those operating systems improve the speed dramatically.

Despite being extremely small, portable and light at 0.65 kg, Sony has managed to fit in some expansion slots for us to, well, expand it. There are 2 USB ports, one on either side of the machine to plug in external USB devices. The earphone jack and AC jack is to the left of the machine, whilst a proprietary port for a RJ45 Ethernet port and VGA out port dongle can be located to the right hand side. The front has the wireless slide switch to the left and the power slide switch to the right. Beneath the wireless switch are 2 memory card slots, one for SD cards and the other for Sony HG Pro Duo memory cards. There is a motion eye webcam built-in that sits to the top right of the screen, which was a bad decision as you always look lop-sided in webcam conversations. As per other netbooks, there is no optical drive built-in, but that doesn't stop you plugging an external USB 2.0 DVD drive in for DVD access.

It is very nice to look at, with a matt silver keyboard surface and the rest of the machine a glossy, pearlescent finish for that professional look. The screen is completely flat with no indenting for that complete, uncompromising feel. The whole machine is actually thinner that a PSP when the lid is closed, but slightly wider and longer. I would say that if the PSP was made from putty, this would be the result if you pressed on it and pushed it out from the sides. Speaking of the PSP, I can see that Sony lifted some design ideas from the PSP, including the sliding switches for wireless and power, as well as the silver matt finish for the trim and the Xross Media Bar (more on that later). It has been said that it resembles a ladies’ purse when closed and held in the hand, and I have to say that it is very true, but what better way to get accused of being an ubersexual than to be caught with this ?

The keyboard is of a fantastic build and you can easily touch type with it. The keys are spaced out generously and it gives your hands ample room to move your fingers naturally. What lets down the input devices of the machine is the mouse coming in the form of a control nub in the centre of the keyboard. This joystick-like nipple will be familiar to those who have used the IBM ThinkPad’s of old, and will know how frustrating using one can be. The left/right/middle mouse click buttons are located near the front of the keyboard and are really thin due to the dimensions of the device, so you would find yourself hitting the wrong mouse button on occasion. Other than that, the keyboard is great.

The screen is good with excellent sharpness and contrast. The screen's native resolution is 1600 x 768, despite it being on an 8" screen and that is a remarkable achievement so screen real estate on such a small device is surprising. Being an ultra wide, the screen is perfect for watching DVD movies with the widescreen ratio as it perfectly fills the screen. However, as a result of this, everything on screen appears extremely tiny. This means you would have to squint a lot at the screen to make out text, so you would have to enable the zoom function for most applications or have system copy set to 150%. The onboard audio coming from the built-in stereo speakers lack any bass and sound as if they were coming from a mobile phone loudspeaker, but that's to be expected from an extra small netbook. Increasing the volume to 100% would actually result with a little distortion from the minute speakers, but then again why do we have the earphone port for?

There are these 2 buttons next to the right mouse button, one for rearranging windows and the other for loading up the Xross Media Bar for quick power up access. The windows rearrangement isn't that exciting, but what I want to talk about is the instant power on capabilities of that Xross Media button when the machine is off. When your machine is off, pressing on the button with the cross on it boots up your machine into a Linux based mini operating system that resembles the Xross Media Bar of the PSP and PS3, albeit more jittery and less animated. It takes about 20 seconds to boot into so it is very convenient if you just want to quickly show your friends some photos or quickly browse the internet. In one of its menus is the option to load into Windows, which would restart the machine and then go through the cold boot process of loading into your version of Windows. It is quite important to mention here that if you have Linux or any other operating system other than Windows installed, this button would not work. It must be Windows Vista or Windows 7 and must have the Xross Media Bar software (downloadable from Sony’s website) installed for it to even register.

Performance wise is, put frankly, slower than standard netbook computers such as the Samsung NC10 despite having more RAM, and this is due to the slower CPU rated at 1.33 GHz and the choice of operating system. Everyone knows what a resource hog Vista is, which is why most netbooks have Windows XP installed for a more enthusiastic response. Sony’s own pride made it install Vista onto this machine, convinced that it could persuade people that it is a laptop and not a netbook. It is fine for surfing the internet, word processing and watching the occasional movie clip, but if you replace the operating system with either XP or 7, you will find that the hard drive creaks a lot less, the programs loads quicker and multitasking doesn’t have to mean a paralysing wait as you flick between windows. But despite the operating system, it is very usable and is perfectly fine for general use with Vista, although do not try to watch a HD movie on it as it would stutter like mad. Battery life varies but on a good day you may be able to get out nearly 4 hours on the standard battery it came with. Only the optional extended battery can increase the time further than that.

As any computing nut would know, you would eventually want to upgrade your computer’s components to speed it up. The Sony P series makes upgrading very difficult, and I assume it is because Sony didn’t intend for us to meddle with its hardware. It reminds me of Apple’s stance with the iPod, they didn’t want you to replace the battery without their intervention. And they still don’t. But if we are honest, Sony aren’t really targeting computing geeks with this device and more at the stylish individual that would take his computer to service whenever it went wrong with little intention to upgrade. Opening it up is possible, but it requires the patience of a saint and the skills of an intricate embroiderer to get it open without damaging the external shell, traits that I do not have nor will ever acquire.

The main drawback to this machine, besides the just-acceptable performance, is the price. When it was first released, it was averaging £900 for one of these Sony P netbooks - I mean laptops – and that was just way too overpriced for a machine of its calibre. Only rich executives who wanted to look trendy purchased it as a way for their portable computing to match their suit and outfits. It came in 4 colours in the UK at the time: black, red, white and green, and they also had to have some sort of superlative tacked onto it, such as Volcano Red, for that finishing touch. Nowadays though, the price has fallen quite dramatically as it now costs around £570 for a basic machine like this VGN-P11Z, and Sony has even set up a cashback scheme that has them sending you a £150 cheque upon purchase of a Sony P series device at participating stores (valid until 31st November, 2009) so it seems like a much better deal. However, considering there are faster netbooks out there for about 300-odd pounds that look pretty good, you still get that twinge as you meander with whether or not you should purchase it. I know I did.

Overall, it is a very attractive and very portable computer that has everything you need if your requirements do not fall outside the realms of word processing, web browsing and basic multimedia. It is still slightly overpriced even with its new cheaper price and cashback scheme, but there is no better no stylish way to spend your hard earned cash. If you like being noticed, in this sea of portable computers, it will turn heads. If you just want straightforward portable computing without the frills, then I would steer away from this Sony. I personally love this little device as it is a slab of Sony engineering ingenuity and excellence that many others would fear to attempt with the risk of wasting company capital. Sony’s got the balls! 

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