Thread: Sony VAIO W netbook

After its daring attempt with the Vaio P "Lifestyle PC, Sony is using the tried-and tested netbook formula with this model. The Vaio W is a typicallO-inch netbook. It does maintain Sony's signature style-statement all over; with the Vaio logo atop its glossy covering and the wireless and power switch on the edges. The top fortunately does not attract fingerprints. Overall, look-and- feel wise, Sony does make a mark. This baby will be noticed wherever you carry it. The build quality is also quite decent. It's fairly light at 1.2 kg and thin enough to be carried around easily.

Opening the lid reveals a 10.1-inch screen bearing a higher-than-usual 1366x 768 "HD" resolution. In our opinion, this resolution makes any text content appear a bit too small for convenience. We found it necessary to use a quick fix (a higher font dpi setting) to take care of that. However, we liked watching hi-res nop videos on this machine. A pebble or segregated-style keyboard, typical of most Sony laptops we see nowadays, is fitted in this one. All keys are sized well and are really soft to type on, once you get the hang of them. The touch-pad is also adequately large. The machine comes with the new Atom N280 processor that offers a minor speed¬up compared to the N270. In our battery drain test it touched almost two hours. Thus, one should get roughly three hours of normal usage; this is quite
fair for a three-cell battery.

We were also impressed by its transfer speeds using the Wi-Fi 802.Un mode. The Vaio W's only two USB ports might be too few for people who attach a lot of peripherals to their PCs at a time.

Its web earn is accompanied by a nifty app which allows for face detection. This zooms into your face and tracks it even if you change your position. It can also do other cool effects such as face-blurring, eye-mask, warp, etc. Overall, the Sony Vaio W is a good netbook.