Sony Vaio P - Pocket PC

Welcome to a Laptop Battery specialist
of the Sony laptop battery   First post by: www.itsbattery.com

I'm sure you must have seen the ad where a lady tries to contain a gleaming red gadget from falling out of her back pocket. Yes, that's the Vaio P, Sony's latest Ultra mobile PC, and we have it in the labs today for a full review. We had previewed the Vaio P last month and although we didn't get to spend a lot of time with it, everyone went gaga over it.

It's very rare for Sony to send out review samples and if this is a sign of things to come, then hopefully we can expect more products in the future. Sony has sent us their full-blown version of the Vaio P that comes with Vista Home Premium, 64GB SSD and a couple of bundled accessories. First let's check out the bundle followed by a closer look at the Vaio P itself.

Battery Life

The Vaio P comes with a two cell Lithium Ion battery like Sony PCGA-BP71 battery, Sony VGP-BPS2 battery, Sony VGP-BPS3 battery, Sony VGP-BPS5 battery, Sony VGP-BPS8 battery, Sony VGP-BPS9 battery, Sony VGP-BPL2 battery, Sony PCG-R505 battery, Sony PCG-V505 battery, Sony PCG-Z505 battery instead of the previously stated Lithium Polymer battery. Before testing, the battery was charged to a 100% and the brightness was kept at medium with Wi-Fi off.

I was pleasantly surprised when the Vaio P gave me a back up time of three hours and 20 minutes after which it was completely dead. This is very close to the rated four hour target and is good for a two cell battery.

Instant Mode

This is essentially your PSP/PS3 CrossMedia bar (XMB) that lets you quickly browse through photos and surf the Internet without booting into Windows. What's odd is that even this interface is jerky and not smooth like the one used on the PSP, which really makes me wonder what's eating all the resources? Either there's some major bug in the firmware or Sony needs to work on a patch to fix this problem. I definitely don't expect Linux to run so poorly on an Intel Atom with 2GB of memory.

Verdict

Call it the ultimate productive gadget or the rich kids tech toy, you cannot deny the fact that Sony has created a memorable piece of gadgetry that's going to inspire plenty of spin-offs from many manufacturers. The entire design and execution of the Vaio P is sheer genius and once you flip it out of your coat pocket or handbag, its game over.

The Sony Vaio P is available in many colors keeping both the sexes in mind. The screen is simply gorgeous sporting a really high resolution. The keyboard layout is well thought and is really comfortable once you get a hang of it.

Of course don't expect the state-of-the-art technology to be cheap. The base model has a price tag of Rs. 50,000, while the full-blown model that we reviewed comes for Rs. 65,000. While this could be device for someone looking at a productive gadget for work and entertainment on the go, Vista ruins the show.

Not only is it too much for the Atom processor to handle, you cannot even play a normal DVD movie without the video locking up every few seconds. Another thing I noticed is that the bottom of the Vaio P gets really hot during normal usage, which is not good for the components.

Make no mistake, Sony is strictly targeting the wealthy youth and businessmen with the Vaio P so don't expect any major price cuts, as the sole audience is going to be the rich folk with oodles of spare cash. My only resentment is the operating system which is a damper on what otherwise would have been the perfect little pocket PC.