At this point you know pretty much all there is to know about the amazingly thin (0.6-inches), light (just 1.4 pounds or 2.2 pounds with extended battery wedge), and expensive ($1,299 base)
VAIO X ultra-portable laptop from Sony. The only thing missing were tests to confirm or deny Sony's claim that the VAIO X battery lasts "all day and well into the night and will set the new standard for battery stamina," as
proclaimed at its IFA unveil back in September in Berlin. A bold claim that
Laptop Magazine has now put to the test. The result? Well, first of all, if you're hoping to get anything close to the hype then you'll have to opt for the extended battery -- the standard 4-cell battery is only rated for about 3 hours of power. Fortunately, the extended battery bolt-on (literally, it attaches to the bottom with two screws) is included in the X-series price -- smart move Sony. According to Laptop's tests, the VAIO X merrily pumped away for nearly 10 hours using WiFi (GPS and 3G turned off) thereby easily laying to waste most 6-hour, 6-cell netbooks. Impressive. For booting and processing everyday tasks, the 2GHz Atom Z550 paired with 2GB of memory and 128GB SSD did very well against netbook-class machines but suffered dearly with regard to 3D graphics performance. Likewise, the X couldn't handle full-screen flash video without chop. Sure, the mass market will ultimately shun the X as it did its VAIO X505 ancestor, but it will definitely find its niche amongst Windows 7 road warriors with pockets deep enough to afford it and egos fragile enough to by fed by the envious stares of others.
posted Oct 21st 2009 3:51AM
Finally, we're getting somewhere with batteries!
Not true... at least not with this...
yes! finally batteries are removable.
oh wait, thats nothing new.
by tacking on a huge external pack? you could do that with anything. this isn't an improvement.
THATS A HUGE BITCH!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=assZ9bcucmQ
Battery on the entry model won't give you anything more than 2 hours of wireless productivity as noted in this review
http://gadgetmix.com/index/sony-vaio-x-review-does-this-size-zero-notebooknetbook-has-the-x-factor/
cant play flash video without choppiness for $1300 not going to cut it in the netbook market, not going to cut it, you hear sony!!
Jsut as well this isn't a netbook nor aimed at the netbook market isn't it?
I wonder whats the price without the extended battery included
@simbr
Umm... yeah it is! Had you hit the read link and read the article you would have known. And you can tell from the features it has, not to mention they compare the speed with other netbooks in that little paragraph, "...the 2GHz Atom Z550 paired with 2GB of memory and 128GB SSD did very well against netbook-class machines..." You read the title only and start bitching in the comments. Your reply FAIL!
If it was aimed at the mainstream netbook market, it would've been cheaper, end of story. This is aimed at the expensive niché market.
Sarig, but it IS aimed at the netbook market. It's just overpriced as with all of Sony's products.
Having an atom doesn't automatically make something a netbook, but it does make it comparable in performance. Wikipedia defines netbooks as "small, light and inexpensive". This is not inexpensive. The Vaio W is a netbook, this is not.
@ Sarig: it's niche, not niché. with your spelling, it would be pronounced "NISHAY", which is wrong
aside from the color choice i actually really like that design. battery and all
"Colour", not "color", you cretin.
"Color" = American spelling, "Colour" = English spelliing. Which side of the pond are you on
Errr, so much for being thin then. The point of paying a premium for this is to get the super thin form factor. Having to use the extended battery defeats the purpose.
With the normal battery you can achieve 4 hours of battery life. Now suppose you are in an airplane and run out of juice you can still switch to the extended battery (ussually weights very little) and go on working. So I can see some use in it. Further I dont get the bitching about the price. I remember the x505 going for a mere 3000 to 3500 euro and this one goes for a mere 900 euro. It makes it beyond cheap. Ofcourse you could say its wayyy more expensive then the regular netbook but does a regular netbook come with an SDD HD, carbon shelling, a proper scren/keyboard? The balance between power/weight is always rather sharp and the lighter it gets the more expensive and ussually less powerful they get. Also remember that Sony doesn´t target the ussual netbook user but I could see this one endup in a business suitcase. And.. let´s face it 900 euro for a laptop is dirt cheap heck my first laptop which could do close to nothing went for 8000 euro. My 3 year old Vaio now is probably just as powerful as this one and goes for twice the price and 3 times as heavy. Nah... imo its not a bad laptop.
@JZ: Troll much? The point of getting this thing is for the thin form factor. Adding an extended battery defeats the whole selling point of the X series in the first place. 4 hours? Even Sony only claims up to 3.5 hours. When Sony claimed 14 hours and real-life test above got 10 hours, what do you expect from 3.5 hours?
What we need is a 13-14 inch battery life netbook... take a 13-14 inch typical chassis but put a dual core atom (nvidia ion?) (9inch mobo) system in there, led screen, nice keyboard and touchpad and fill the rest of entire thing with high power lipo batteries like apple.
I think you could easily put a ~100Wh ~14v battery inside there, maybe more. I'd like a true 12 hours of regular use without a charge, and fast charging tech.
for most people it would be the first multi-day use laptop, like how nokia phones were before we got into "smartphones"
I know there's a market for someone to do this
Yaaaaaaaawn Sony.
You don't *have* to use the extended battery if size/weight is more important than longevity, but I am surprised that you have to screw it on.
wait a minute, these clowns are still building laptops with VGA ports? c'mon what is this? 1999?
Wow. You know that VGA is STILL the most popular port, right?
Most people don't buy computers and monitors every year.
@Archon: It's very easy to get VGA out from mini-DVI or mini-display port. Having a VGA only port actually limits your options.
VGA has a place, and it's in the 90's. The bare minimum these days should be DVI and I would expect a company so modernized as Sony to include a Mini DisplayPort. Well, no matter, next year Apple and Intel are bringing Light Peak to the masses.
Yeah, and look how big the port looks on the netbook.
Don't tell Lenovo. VGA has been obsolete for *at least* 4 years. It's not the defacto standard any more, it's a niche connector (CRT monitors, old projectors).
Obsolete for at least 4 years? Where do you live anyway? America? Or whatever first world country it is for sure.
Elsewhere, VGA is still very popular and here, and in our university, it's the de facto plug for *I think* all the projectors in all classrooms. Well, you can't really expect me to check hundreds of rooms. But we recently got new XGA NEC projectors for the classrooms in our building and we're still using VGA, with an optional DVI, HDMI and ye old composite and component of course. DisplayPort? WTF is that? Seriously, DisplayPort is non-existent here.
Most projector in operation still use VGA. The reality is the majority of educational and corporation use ancient projectors, especially if you have wall mounted ones. Besides, there are VGA to DVI adapters, and vis-versa.
"DisplayPort? WTF is that? "
Exactly! Makes no sense that while everyone is happy when Intel releases new CPUs or when a new OS comes out, when superior display technology comes out most everyone fights it like the plague. Either that, or people just don't know about it.
This is a Mini DisplayPort built in a laptop:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mini_DisplayPort_on_Apple_MacBook.jpg
This is an excellent article on the history of recent display port technologies with a focus on the Mini DisplayPort.
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/10/21/apple-and-the-mini-displayport/
roughlydrafted...
...lol. I should go get all my sources from Encyclopedia Dramatica.
@ N900
Well well, mr MS Fanboy, tell us about the progression of display interface technologies then since you think you know.
VGA to DVI to DisplayPort
VGA is essential here in prehistoric British universities
that screwed-on thing looks awful
vga is essential in every major or minor company that use/s beamers for like presentations.
go visit some company and say "i want to show you my presentation, where is your beamer with HDMI-imput?"
i guarantee you in 90% you just get big eyes as a response...
of course i meant iNput
For the Brand whore in you............... or you could just spend a fraction of that on a highly reliable and cheap netbook that works for about 5 hours.
Man when will Sony learn...... they cant keep pushing there stock value up like this forever and keep their share holders happy, by releasing over bloated and glorified products. Hey lets take the PS3 and stuff in an LV suitcase we can call it the PS3LV Limited Addtion limited to 2 Million suckers who would fork out the cash for that shite.
They should just release GOD of WAR for the PS3 already and put eveyone out of their misery, thats the only reason I know why some people are even holding onto to their PS3zzzzzzzz
PLEASSEEEEEEEEEEEEEE......................
That's a poor battery life. I own a Fujitsu T2010 with the high capacity battery and easily get 8 hours, or max. 12 hours on a C2D ULV, 12" tablet PC, much more powerful and longer battery life than this fat Sony something.
Yes, the extended battery makes it look bad, but already owning a TZ, this thing shaves off 0.5lbs even with the extended battery and 0.9lbs with the regular battery.
1.6lbs. Granted, my TZ runs 720p without issue but if I have to drop to SDTV, it's an acceptable sacrifice for anyone doing any significant amount of travel or on-site work.
Carbon fiber, 3G, GPS & SSD. Everything has a cost.
Why are Engadget commentors generally so stupid?
This is not a netbook, that's the Vaio W. This is a notebook, it just runs an Atom processor to keep costs down and battery life up. It replaces the TT which went for double the price, so this is a bargain. Thinnest laptop ever, incredibly light, made from carbon fibre & aluminium, runs on a SSD, etc, etc I just went to the product page and it's a pretty impressive machine. Netbooks have spoilt us and made us expect so much for so little. This is a luxury machine and frankly I think for all it offers it's actually very well priced. Sure they could've offered an HD version and maybe taken out some other luxuries, or made the extended battery a seperate add-on to keep the price down; but then you're pretty much left with the Vaio W, so why bother.
The only hangup with this machine is the Atom processor not being that powerful, but it can still handle most tasks though might struggle with HD video from what some reviewers are saying.
It's because they are... Don't try to figure it, just accept them for the idiots they are... :P
The atom is more to keep power, heat and size down, rather than costs.
GMA500 is a deal breaker. I have the VAIO P and I love it but the GMA500 GPU kills the performance. Any mild graphics and the proc is almost pegged because the GPU sucks. HD YouTube isn't even possible. I have a GMA950 / Nvidia hybrid in my SZ and I'm always in GMA mode because it's able to smoothly play what I need (other than gaming).
NO THANKS, a bolt on battery to get only 10hrs from an Atom based machine, hah!
I'll wait for the Viliv S10, 2ghz Atom, 10" 720p screen, touch tablet, and 10 hrs of battery life without the ridiculous battery attachment and it'll probably be 65% of the cost of this Vaio X.
Sony, buy out Viliv now before it's too late!
The ONLY downside of the machine is video playback. I tried to play a Tron HD trailer on Youtube and granted it made it all the way through, it was a little too choppy to enjoy. Not nearly as bad as the first gen. P series though. Price is fine, build is fine, the thing will sell.
So you have to add this huge unwieldy battery in order to make the battery last so long. Kinda defeats the purpose don't you think?
Amazingly, I have never looked with envy upon some schmuck using a windows box on the road...or anywhere, really.
http://www.laptopbatteriesinc.co.uk/ UK Laptop Battery
http://www.laptopbatteriesinc.co.uk/sony-laptop-battery-c-11.html Sony Laptop Battery