vaio x laptop

The Sony Vaio X is an incredibly thin and light laptop with an 11. 1 inch HD display, and 2.2 pound weight with an extended battery that ran for nearly 10 hours with WiFi on in a recent review from Laptop Magazine. With a standard battery, you’ll get closer to 3 hours.

That falls about 4 hours short of Sony’s claimed battery life, but it’s still pretty impressive. On the other hand, part of the reason you get that kind of battery life is because the computer comes equipped with a low power 2GHz Intel Atom Z550 processor, which means it’s not much more powerful than your typical netbook. And that would be fine, if Sony wasn’t charging $1499 for the Vaio X… but it is.

To be fair, the laptop has some premium features that you won’t find in most netbooks including a 128GB SSD, 2GB of RAM, and built-in 3G and GPS modules. But the folks at Laptop Magazine were disappointed in the small keyboard and touchpad. They also note that the computer can get uncomfortably hot at times due to its slim frame and poor heat dissipation.

What do you think? Would you buy one for $1500? How about $1000? $500? What’s the right price for a premium laptop with netbook-like features and then some?

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8 replies on “Sony Vaio X reviewed: Nice, but still too expensive”

  1. This is great machine because all i do is surf and email anyway. I have the 256G SSD and WWAN which makes it great if there is no wifi. even with the big battery its still light and I dont care about being next to a power supply.. Expensive? Who gives a f*ck. Money is free nowadays anyway…i bought mine using the taxpayers bailout…hahahaha

  2. $1500 is for 128GB SSD, $1299 for 64GB SSD. Also, 10 hours was for use with WIFI on, surfing continuously, Sony doesn’t make that claim. It’s disingenuous to claim they fell short of a quote they’d made for just general use, with the radio off.

    Poor heat dissipation refers to sitting the thing on your lap, if you read the review. Pretty poor transcription job, all told.

    Worth noting is the surface tension on the screen. Sony has had this technology for a while, but it is never mentioned in reviews. The high surface tension makes the screen more durable by far. The best screen tech on the market without question.

    I’m just glad the thing isn’t going for $2000, because I would have to have come up with it. I need a durable machine that is go-anywhere, has great battery life, will work with any projector, and is light to carry. This is the best machine on the market for those needs, and Sony will sell thousands of them.

  3. I’d rather buy a MacBook Air! Sony has always been out of touch with what the market wants, instead they keep “forcing” shit like this on to us!!

  4. $500 max on the netbook and add $300 for a “good” SSD (ie one that can handle lots of short writes)

  5. The Asus 1008HA has 5+ hours of battery life, similar performance, similar thinness, and only weights 2.2 pounds. That’s the same weight as the Vaio X with it’s more useful 6-cell battery.

    With the Sony you end up paying $1100 more than the Asus for a 1-inch larger display, cramped keyboard, and burns on your lap (from the Sony’s poor heat dissipation).

    Sounds like a poor trade-off to me! Plus it looks terrible with it’s extended battery (making it lose all of it’s fashion points).

  6. For that Vaio X I’d pay $750. That is just for the light weight and the extra features, not really for the power. The weight of many netbooks is really a big deal for me, in afct I’d rather have a in-between battery that was less weigh then their ‘extended battery’ but more power the their standard 3-cell. A device that could be 1.9 lbs with that sort of in-between battery shaving off the weight would make me very happy to pay $750.

  7. One word…. Vilv S10

    Hmm, you can get a touch tablet, 10hrs with no bulge, 10″ 720p screen for probably a lot less than this X.

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