Sony Vaio Y-series 11.6in review

When is a netbook not a netbook? When it’s designed by Sony and AMD. Alan Lu takes a look at the new 11.6in Vaio Y series laptop to see if it really does have all the advantages of a netbook without any of the limitations.

IT Pro Verdict

There's a lot like about the 11.6in Sony Vaio Y from its comfortable keyboard to its reasonably long battery life and bright screen. Best of all is its low price of £343 ext VAT. Although we suspect similarly-priced budget ultraportable laptops with equally good battery life based on Intel processors will soon be available, for now the Vaio Y is a good choice if you need a light laptop at a low price.

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It lasted six hours and 45 minutes in our light usage web browsing battery test.

The Vaio Y is heavier than most netbooks and some other ultraportable laptops at 1.44kg, but it's still very light and easy to carry around. The plastic chassis is a little creakier than we would like, but it feels sturdy enough. All of this would be for naught if the battery doesn't last for a long time on a single charge, but it lasted six hours and 45 minutes in our light usage web browsing battery test. This is good for such an inexpensive laptop and long enough to last a transatlantic flight.

If the Vaio Y looks familiar, it's because it's essentially a smaller version of the larger 13.3in Vaio Y series laptop which has now been discontinued. That model used ultra low voltage Intel processors and also had the benefit of an ExpressCard slot and a four-pin FireWire 400 port. This 11.6in version keeps the three USB2 ports, memory card slots, HDMI and VGA ports, Gigabit Ethernet connection and 320GB hard disk. Most people won't miss the FireWire port, but the ExpressCard slot would've been useful for adding a 3G modem since one isn't built in.

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