Sony Vaio Pro 13 review
With a stunning 13in full HD touchscreen, is this ultra-light 1kg machine a potential best friend for business users?
Sony has crammed one of the best touchscreens we’ve seen inside its lightweight, slimline Vaio Pro Ultrabook. The 1kg device also has a sleek design, lengthy battery life and decent performance. It’s not the strongest of laptops, but it’s ideal if you want a versatile machine for working on the road.
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Stunning touchscreen; Extremely light; Excellent battery life
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Feels flimsy; Typical Ultrabook performance
Connectivity includes dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, an NFC chip and Bluetooth 4. There's no room for Gigabit Ethernet, but Sony has come up with a clever solution a 60 adapter. This small device plugs into a USB port on the Vaio's power adapter, and it can use an Ethernet connection to create a single-band wireless network used by the laptop.
Options and Upgrades
It's possible to customise the Vaio's specification if you buy direct from Sony. The cheapest model costs 859 inc VAT and comes without a touchscreen, but it's not exactly underpowered: it's got a low-power Haswell Core i5 processor, the 128GB SSD and 4GB of RAM. That's more storage than the cheapest MacBook Air for 90 less.
Adding touch functionality costs 80, doubling the storage space costs 100, and upgrading to a huge 512GB drive adds 400 to the cost. A leap up to 8GB of RAM adds 40 to the cost. The standard warranty lasts for two years, but this can also be upgraded: a three-year deal costs 75, and a four-year package is 140.
Overall
The Sony is one of the most affordable high-end Ultrabooks we've seen, but that doesn't mean it's lacking in quality: the screen is stunning, there's enough power to keep up with rivals, and battery life is excellent. The attractive-but-flimsy exterior means we'd invest in a case before we carried the Vaio Pro on our daily commute, but this is excellent in virtually every department.
Verdict
Sony has crammed one of the best touchscreens we’ve seen inside its lightweight, slimline Vaio Pro Ultrabook. The 1kg device also has a sleek design, lengthy battery life and decent performance. It’s not the strongest of laptops, but it’s ideal if you want a versatile machine for working on the road.
OS: Windows 8 64-bit PROCESSOR: 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-4500U RAM: 4GB DDR3L low-voltage STORAGE: 128GB SSD SCREEN: 13in 1,920 x 1,080 touchscreen CONNECTIVITY: dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4 PORTS: 2 x USB 3, HDMI, SD card reader, headphone jack DIMENSIONS: 322 x 216 x 18mm (WxDxH) WEIGHT: 1.05kg (1.5kg) WARRANTY: 2yr RTB
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