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Sony Vaio X11 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £1185
inc VAT

An incredibly thin and light netbook, but its hefty price will be enough to put off most.

Specifications

11.1 in 1,366×768 display, 780g, 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540, 2.00GB RAM, 128GB disk, Windows 7 Professional 32-bit

http://www.dabs.com

Earlier this year Sony launched its Vaio P-series, an incredibly small device that was a cross between a netbook and a PDA. While we marvelled at its size, we noted numerous compromises made to achieve it, including poor performance, a cramped keyboard, no touchpad and most of all, an incredibly detailed but inconveniently-shaped 8in screen.

The X-series is similar in that it’s incredibly thin and light, but this time Sony has managed to make fewer compromises, and the result is a more conventional, but equally desirable, netbook. It’s only 14mm thick, and weighs just 780g, which is a good 500g less than most netbooks and only slightly heavier than the P-series. The X11’s 11.1in screen is far more practical, though. With its standard 1,366×768 resolution, it’s large enough to do office work without straining your eyes and you can even watch 720p HD video on it.

X11 side

The keyboard has quite small keys, but they are well-spaced and have a standard layout. Their action is light, but there’s hardly any travel and not a lot of feedback. Our only real niggle was the Space bar, which sits too close to the keyboard recess in the case. As a result our thumb hit the case more often than the key, which could prove annoying and as a result your thumb hits the case more often than the key. The touchpad is quite small and narrow, but the buttons have a nice light action.

Despite its slender design, there’s a reasonable selection of ports. The VGA connector only barely fits, taking up the full height of the chassis, but there’s no HDMI output. There are only two USB ports, one less than most netbooks, and the usual network port. There are separate SD and Memory Stick slots, and a headphone port, and that’s it.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ***
Processor Intel Atom Z540
Processor clock speed 1.86GHz
Memory 2.00GB
Memory slots 1
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 2GB
Size 14x278x185mm
Weight 780g
Sound Realtek High Definition Audio
Pointing device touchpad
Power consumption standby 0W
Power consumption idle 7W
Power consumption active 13W

Display

Viewable size 11.1 in
Native resolution 1,366×768
Graphics Processor Intel GMA 500
Graphics/video ports VGA
Graphics Memory 8MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 128GB
Optical drive model N/A
Optical drive type N/A

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 2
Bluetooth yes
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11n
PC Card slots none
Modem No
Supported memory cards SD, Memory Stick Pro Duo
Other ports minijack audio output

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included none

Buying Information

Warranty two years RTB
Price £1,185
Details www.sony.co.uk
Supplier http://www.dabs.com