Sony Vaio M Series netbook review

If we weren't already disappointed, we soon would be after completing our battery life tests.

Netbooks can live or die by their battery life. After all, if you're out and about you don't want to be beholden to a plug socket as it kind of defeats the purpose of the device. Alas, Sony appears to have forgotten this fact.

On heavy use, despite being a six core battery, the M series only lasted three hours and on light use it was even more disappointing, only just breaking over the four and a half hour mark. We understand this is a budget machine but the key to a netbook is its battery life and we were stunned at how bad it was on this product.

At an average price of 299 (inc VAT), this netbook is not too shabby. It is aesthetically very pleasing, has great connectivity and a fairly standard, but adequate chip set.

However, the lack of battery life, inability to upgrade memory and misty eyed screen were a real dampener and we do believe there is better out there for your hard earned cash at a similar price.

Verdict

A shining example of how to make a budget netbook look but not enough substance to keep us interested. We suggest Sony works harder on its battery life rather than appearance next time.

Processor: 1.83GHz Intel Atom Processor N450

Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM

Storage: 250GB hard disk

Graphics: 1GB Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150

Display: 10.1in 1,024 x 600

Ports: 3 x USB, VGA, SD card reader, 3.5mm Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack, Ethernet

Connectivity: WLAN 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR

OS: Windows 7 Starter

Dimensions: 260 x 180 x 33mm (W x D x H)

Weight: 1.3kg