Sony VAIO Duo 11 review

For review we were supplied with the faster of the two base specifications, with a Core i7-3517U processor taking pride of place alongside 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a SanDisk 256GB SSD. The cheaper model, at £1,000 inc VAT, equips a Core i5-3317U, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD instead.

The Core i7 processor delivers sparkling performance. Set to the test in our suite of Real World Benchmarks, the Sony acquitted itself remarkably well, with an overall score of 0.71. And with the SSD recording sequential write speeds of 305MB/sec and read speeds of 417MB/sec, applications spring into view with little delay. With Sony’s Quick Boot doing its bit to speed up the process, booting from cold sees the VAIO Duo 11 leaps into life in an astonishing seven seconds flat.

Cramming in a clever spring-loaded hinge and whole host of hardware leaves little room for an internal battery, but the Sony still lasted for 7hrs 6mins in our light-use test. Splash out on the battery slice that clips to the VAIO Duo 11’s underside – a £120 optional extra – and that figure will reach well over the ten-hour mark. As an added bonus, the battery slice provides a slot for stashing the supplied stylus.

The Sony’s display is simply superb. Stretching a Full HD, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution across its 11.6in diagonal, the VAIO Duo 11 boasts exceptionally wide viewing angles and punchy colour reproduction. A maximum brightness of 451cd/m2 ensures that the screen remains legible in the brightest conditions, and those bright, sparkling whites combine with deep, luscious blacks to result in an excellent contrast ratio of 868:1. The panel doesn’t quite cover the full range of colours in the sRGB gamut, but colour reproduction is pretty accurate, despite the panel’s inability to produce the most intense shades of blue.

Ergonomics

While the initial wow factor will be enough to loosen many people’s wallets, the VAIO Duo 11 isn’t without its fair share of niggles. The most pressing issue is that, in laptop mode, the VAIO Duo 11 isn’t that comfortable to use. The trackpoint works, but is fiddly enough that we regularly resorted to prodding the screen with a finger instead, while other members of PC Pro disliked it so vehemently that they immediately reached for a USB mouse.

The trackpoint’s tap-to-click mode is best left disabled. With it left on, it’s all too easy to accidentally jog the cursor while typing, and on occasion we selected swathes of text with a stray finger and deleted whole chunks without realising.