First Look: Sony Vaio Mini-W netbook

 

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Posted on 10 Jul 2009 at 14:54

Sony has announced its new netbook, the Vaio Mini-W VPC-W11S1E, and we were able to try out a pre-production unit at the launch event. Sony's previous Atom-equipped portable computer, the Vaio P series, was very compact but costs around £750. The Mini-W is a more typical netbook size and will be far more affordable. UK pricing hasn't been confirmed yet, but it's estimated to cost around £400 inc VAT ??" still quite pricey compared to other netbooks.

The Mini-W's widescreen display has a 1,366x768 pixel resolution. That's far larger than the 1,024x600 screens found on most netbooks. In our brief examination, the display looked remarkably bright. Although it's large enough to show 720p high-definition video, we don't expect it to play HD video with its integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics chip. It uses a 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor, rather than the more common 1.6GHz N270, so it should a touch quicker than most netbooks we see.

One similarity it shares with the Vaio P is an almost identical keyboard which, unfortunately, isn't a good thing. The keys are a touch too small for our fingers and don't have enough travel so they don't feel very responsive to type on. It has a touchpad instead of the Vaio P's touchstick though. It's reasonably large with accurate and responsive tracking, while its buttons feel just right. The pre-production sample we tried felt sturdy and rigid, with minimal flexing around the lid.

As with most other 10in netbooks, the Mini-W will come equipped with 1GB of RAM, built-in draft N wireless networking, Bluetooth and a 160GB hard disk. The latter will come with Windows XP pre-installed. A Sony spokesperson stated that it's likely a version of the Mini-W with Windows 7 pre-installed will be available once the new version of Windows is released.

The Vaio Mini-W will be available in a choice of silver, brown or pink and will be available for purchase in August. Sony currently has no plans to discontinue the smaller Vaio P series. We'll bring you a full review as soon as we get a production model in our Labs.

Author: Alan Lu