Build like a ?night hawk?, the Stealth Fighter of the US Air Force is designed to leave no traces on the enemy radars, but this ?Sony VaioX? has larger-than-life footprints on the netbook radar.
Pitched as the lightest (655 grams) netbook with the slimmest profile (278 mm x 186 mm x 12.2 mm) and endorsed by a film actress known for her size zero figure, the VaioX is every bit the sexiest and ultra portable netbook so far. Encased in a lightweight and indestructible carbon fibre outer shell, the VaioX is built to endure the bumps and bangs of everyday use.
The matt black top lid has ?Vaio? engraved on it in gold for that extra impact!
On opening the top lid, you see a tray-type seamless aluminum keyboard panel and display bezel for structural rigidity. The 11.1? scratch-resistant widescreen (16:9) LED backlit LCD display is stunning. The very bright and colourful LCD panel has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and displays razor sharp images and text with almost no reflections. It is also great for watching movies, but only if you hook up a pair of external speakers as the internal speaker lacks both power and punch.
The ?MacBook Pro? type keyboard, though not backlit, but still looks every bit part of the ?VaioX? design. The very short throw of the keys (predictably due to very slim chassis) and tactile feedback almost like a touch keyboard, will require a little getting used to, before one can blast in full speed.
The palm-rest space is generous, specially keeping the small size of the netbook in mind.
I personally have no quibbles with the rather smallish touch pad, it?s responsive and equipped with multi-touch functionality, hence one can zoom in and out, flip through pictures, rotate items and scroll vertically and horizontally using two fingers.
To further enhance durability and speed, the VaioX sports a 64GB, Solid State Drive (SSD) with no moving parts as storage. It boots up fast and runs smoothly.
In the heart of this stealth beauty, throbs an ?Atom Z540? processor at 1.86GHz with support for Hyper-Threading. Though it is one of the fastest Atom Processor to date, and with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, it just manages to run ?Windows7 Home Premium?. But if you tweak the Windows for ?Best Performance? mode, and Aero?s frivolities switched off, the VaioX runs like a breeze and is very usable.
For connectivity it has just two USB2 ports, a VGA port for hooking up an external display, two memory card readers, a 3.5mm audio-out for headphones, WiFi and bluetooth, and a very cute Ethernet port that snaps open fully when required.
Presumptively, the heaviest part of the VaioX is the ?Li-ion? battery that can power it for 3.5 hours and the cutest part is the ?Power-On? status LED, that glow in bright green colour on top-right of the key board.
Despite its killer looks and slender design, the starting price of Rs 64,990 may deter the most, except the few with size ?XXX? pockets.