Sony VAIO P-Series (VGN-P19VN/Q) review

Sony swore it would never join ‘the race to the bottom’ – a phrase one Sony executive very unkindly levelled at the burgeoning netbook market – and going by its latest addition to its portfolio, the P-Series, it has certainly held true to its word.

Indeed, utter the word ‘netbook’ within earshot of the P-Series and you half expect a Sony marketing executive to leap out of the USB port and box your ears for daring to utter such blasphemy. But if Sony was worried that a passing consumer, journalist or curious dad-of-four might just possibly mistake the P-Series for a netbook, they needn’t have worried.

For one, if you haven’t done so already, take a look at the price at the top of the page. The model we reviewed, the VGN-P19VN/Q, is the most luxurious of all the P-Series and costs a spine-tingling £1,190. Oh, and lest we forget, that’s excluding the VAT.

Suited and booted

Sony is well aware of how unique the P-Series is and at launch one of its favourite party tricks was getting its marketing representatives to pull one from a suit jacket pocket.

That’s pushing things a little too far – it’s still too bulky to stow away in most normal jacket pockets – but the P-Series is one seriously light laptop. At just 618g with the standard battery and 708g with the extended one it’s less than half the weight of Samsung’s NC10 and significantly lighter than the average ultraportable. The P-Series is quite literally in a league of its own.

Gloss finishes wrap around above and below, and the whole affair simply oozes style and solidity. Its 245 x 120 x 21mm dimensions are quite unlike anything that’s come before it, except perhaps one of those tall, slender Michelin travel guides. It doesn’t matter what you compare it to, though, this is by far the most portable laptop we’ve ever seen.

And as befits the VAIO’s portability, wireless networking is beyond reproach. Draft-n, Bluetooth and an unlocked 3G modem are all squeezed inside. The tiny chassis doesn’t leave much room for physical ports and connectors, though, but you still get a generous selection – two USB ports is more than you get on a MacBook Air, plus there’s a card reader and a headphone socket. Meanwhile, VGA and Ethernet find themselves offloaded onto a tiny, 54g breakout box which neatly clips onto the compact PSU and connects to a proprietary socket on the Sony’s right-hand side.

Full of surprises

Tilt back the wide, squat lid and, amazingly for such a tiny laptop, you’ll find a reasonably spacious-looking keyboard staring back at you. To make room for such a sight Sony has entirely done away with the trackpad, replacing it with a trackpoint and squeezing in the two buttons along the P-Series’ front edge. It’s a neat solution and makes the most of the available space, but it’s far from perfect. The Scrabble-style keys, for example, don’t have a great deal of travel or any definitive action to speak of, and it makes typing feel strangely dead and disconnected. Factor in the complete absence of any wrist rest and finding a comfortable typing position can be decidedly tricky.

There are other annoyances. We’re naturally used to tapping the spacebar with our thumb, but as the trackpoint buttons along the front edge are raised we often found ourselves pressing them by mistake. And as for the trackpoint, well, it’s not the best we’ve encountered. The rough finish might be grippy, but gives a less than pleasant feel under the finger and the tap-to-click function had us regularly clicking items by mistake. Sensitivity is also an issue, and one that left us frequently tweaking the settings.
Niggles aside, what Sony has managed to squeeze into such a tiny shell is truly impressive. The screen, for example, stretches a mere eight inches across, but despite its modest dimensions manages to pack in a native resolution of 1,600 x 768.

That’s enough to send any netbooks with delusions of grandeur skulking away with their low-resolution displays firmly shut, but it’s not quite as wonderful as it first sounds. It makes for a generous amount of desktop space, no argument there, but unless you’re glued to the screen it makes reading text very, very difficult, and precise cursor control trickier than it needs to be.

Image quality is good, however, with ample brightness, even colour reproduction and good contrast. And although the vibrant display would be superb for watching video, particularly that of an HD nature, the low-powered specification unfortunately puts paid to any such plans.

Going slow

Indeed, building a laptop this small and light requires a complement of components that can survive without fans – a requirement that left Sony’s engineers turning to the netbook processor of choice, Intel’s Atom. To this end, Sony has partnered one of Intel’s Z-series Atoms with 2GB of DDR2 memory. The cheaper models in the range make do with the 1.33GHz Z520 processor and a mechanical 60GB hard drive while our top-end model goes one step further with a 128GB SSD and a 1.6GHz Atom.

This wouldn’t be the sprightliest of combinations at the best of times, but Microsoft’s Vista Business is about as far as is possible from being the ideal foil to such a partnership. The Real World benchmarks bear out such cynicism, with the Sony’s score 0.26 comparing unfavourably to the 0.44 of the Windows XP-powered Samsung NC10.

Graphical power is equally limited due to Intel’s GMA 500 chipset, which although theoretically capable of HD decoding, finds itself partnered with drivers barely capable of rendering YouTube or iPlayer content at a smooth frame rate.

If you can’t wait for Vista to stumble into life, then the Sony’s instant-on function comes as some consolation. Dab the Xross media button on the Sony’s front edge and 23 seconds later the Xross Media Bar springs into life, mimicking the interface on Sony’s PSP and PS3 consoles. It offers access to pictures, videos and music stored on the hard disk while also providing Firefox for internet duties, the Pidgin multi-client chat application, and Skype. It’s a perfect fit for such a compact device as it allows you to pull the P-series from a bag and quickly check a mail account or conduct a web search with the minimum of hassle. Had Sony partnered it with a more Atom-friendly OS such as Windows XP, or potentially the forthcoming Windows 7, the VGN-P19VN/Q might have made a touch more sense.

This limited performance does have its benefits when it comes to battery life, however. The VGN-P19VN/Q comes with two batteries, one that sits flush with the chassis and an extended one which raises the rear of the laptop. Sitting idle and with all the wireless radios turned off, the extended battery managed to keep the VGN-P19VN/Q going for an impressive 7hrs 18mins. Even thrashing the Sony with our heavy-usage test left that figure nearer the four-hour mark.

To P or not to P?

The P-Series’ novelty is both its greatest asset and, to an extent, its greatest flaw. In terms of size, weight and sheer ambition no other laptop can follow in its tiny footsteps, but the asking price means it has to stack up against some of the best laptops money can buy.
At the budget end of the scale, Samsung’s NC10 is a mighty tempting alternative which, thanks to its combination of a better keyboard, traditional trackpad and a lower resolution screen, proves far more usable. Even if you are one of the lucky few for whom money is no object, there are plenty of far more practical alternatives which don’t sacrifice too much in the way of portability. Sony’s own VGN-Z21MN/B, for example, might be significantly larger and twice as heavy, but it combines light weight and stamina with much more sensible levels of processing power.

As an ultra-compact, 618g laptop for internet access and email on the move, the P-Series is a hugely impressive achievement, but at this price we’d expect the user experience to be as slick and refined as the hardware itself. Alas it simply isn’t up to scratch.

Warranty
Warranty	1 yr return to base
Physical specifications
Dimensions	245 x 120 x 20mm (WDH)
Weight	618g
Travelling weight	880g
Processor and memory
Processor	Intel Atom Z520
RAM capacity	2.00GB
Memory type	DDR2
SODIMM sockets free	0
SODIMM sockets total	1
Screen and video
Screen size	9.0in
Resolution screen horizontal	1,600
Resolution screen vertical	768
Resolution	1600 x 768
Graphics chipset	Intel GMA 500
VGA (D-SUB) outputs	1
HDMI outputs	0
S-Video outputs	0
DVI-I outputs	0
DVI-D outputs	0
DisplayPort outputs	0
Drives
Capacity	60GB
Hard disk usable capacity	55GB
Spindle speed	4,200RPM
Internal disk interface	SATA
Optical disc technology	N/A
Optical drive	N/A
Battery capacity	2,100mAh
Replacement battery price ex VAT	£79
Replacement battery price inc VAT	£91
Networking
Wired adapter speed	1,000Mbits/sec
802.11a support	no
802.11b support	yes
802.11g support	yes
802.11 draft-n support	yes
Integrated 3G adapter	yes
Other Features
Wireless hardware on/off switch	yes
Wireless key-combination switch	yes
Modem	no
ExpressCard34 slots	0
ExpressCard54 slots	0
PC Card slots	0
USB ports (downstream)	2
PS/2 mouse port	no
9-pin serial ports	0
Parallel ports	0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports	0
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports	0
3.5mm audio jacks	2
SD card reader	no
Memory Stick reader	yes
MMC (multimedia card) reader	no
Smart Media reader	no
Compact Flash reader	no
xD-card reader	no
Pointing device type	Trackpoint
Integrated microphone?	yes
Integrated webcam?	yes
Camera megapixel rating	0.3mp
TPM	no
Fingerprint reader	no
Smartcard reader	no
Carry case	no
Battery and performance tests
Battery life, light use	3hr 11min
Overall application benchmark score	0.16
Operating system and software
Operating system	Windows Vista Home Premium
OS family	Windows Vista
Software supplied	VAIO Recovery Utility