Sony VAIO X Notebook — Still Skinny, Still Expensive
We reported on the Sony VAIO X before, but until now I hadn’t had a chance to fondle it. If I could look past the $1,499 price tag, I’d be intrigued simply due to the 1.5 pound weight and overall form factor. The 11.1″ display is quite brilliant and offers that nice 1366 x 768 resolution, which is perfect for the size. Battery life in the double-digit range is another plus, as is the Z550 2.0 GHz Intel Atom for everyday computing, 2 GB of RAM and 128 GB SSD, but I think Sony is charging too much of a premium for thinness on this one.
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For a second there I thought you said $1,499…..
Z550??? Please tell me that is a typo. For that price I would expect 2.0GHz Pinetrail.
For that price I would expect a 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo with the consumption rating of an Atom
How much of that price is in the SSD?
I seriously don’t understand why anyone would want to buy such an expensive machine with so many great cheaper alternatives around.
I am typing this on my HP DM1 (you can buy four of these for the price of one Vaio X!!) and I cannot find any reason why I would want to have the Sony instead. The Vaio certainly looks sexy, but so does my hp and while the Vaio feels extremely fragile, I don’t worry about throwing my hp about a bit because it is extremely sturdy. As long as you can play YouTube HD videos and run Word and Excel I don’t see why you need a faster *mobile* device.
For gaming I have a PS3 and for development work I have a Dell desktop with a nice 24 inch screen and Synplicity automatically keeps my computers in sync.
I had one of these in house for all of a few days. It’s gorgeous, it’s light, the battery life is great (due to the fact that you get both regular *AND* uber-extended batteries standard with the unit.
The Atom CPU is actually zippier than one would expect. For day-to-day productivity tasks it is easily sufficient.
What makes the device utterly FAIL is the Sony’s defective battery technology which they are now claiming is deliberate. This has been a problem in the TZ and Z series for several years now, but for whatever reason, Sony cannot or will not fix it: Even with the device completely shut down (not sleeping, not hibernating), the battery drains. If you leave the device off and the battery in for more than a few days, you will turn it on to find a dead battery. The problem is not with the battery itself, as removing the battery from the unit when off does NOT drain the battery. It’s some polling/monitoring (Sony would have you believe) that the system is doing.
Funny how no other manufacturer on the planet has this “feature.”
Sony’s recommendation: remove the battery from the machine when carrying or storing and to recharge the battery frequently.
Seriously?
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s is their knowledgebase:
http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/documentLink.do?externalId=C223674&sonymodel=VPCX115KX/N&sliceId=1
EPIC FAIL!