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.

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.

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 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?

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.

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.