Sony Vaio P

Sony Vaio P undelivered promise

The one product I've been looking forward to tinkering with since 2009 rolled round was Sony's Vaio P. Hailed by the Japanese giant as a laptop, but smaller than any netbook, it screamed of ultra-portable greatness.

With the claim coming from Sony, we were bound to take it seriously.

A laptop that one can effortlessly slide into jacket pockets or have jutting out from a pair of jeans is destined to sweep a consumer electronics market craving the next sensational successor to the iPod.

At first glance, the Vaio P delivers. It's a stunner. You stare in disbelief at the size and style they've pulled off. Slimmer than bulky mobile phones, literally half the height of a netbook and a few inches smaller, it is undoubtedly Sony's pièce de résistance. Its slick exterior finish and subtle gleam of metal will sucker its way into shopping bags without attempts to uncover what lies beneath.

So far, so good. As you pop it open and lock the hinge, you're instantly drawn to its crafty keyboard. Sans the industry standard mouse trackpad in favour of a return to the old mouse nub, the metallic keypad is surprisingly easy to use… until you get to the space bar and mouse keys that is. This will take some getting used to… a more patient person than me.

Sony's laptop aspirations are evident when you see its 1.33 GHz Z520 Atom Processor loading Windows Vista Basic, complete with MSOffice and Intel integrated graphics. Now that's an odd one. A mobile processor powering Vista is a unique proposition. Throw in 1,600x768 resolution and you begin to think the Vaio P could just be the next sensation.

Hope and reality, however, have always disagreed and while the Vaio P may have all the specs of a laptop, when it comes to translating it in to performance, it falters.

At its highest resolution, it fares better. Video proportions are a tad skewered due to its height restriction, and overall it does the job of a netbook to perfection with easy browsing and a standard three hours' battery life.

But unless you consider squinting eyes a great facial feature, you have to take the resolution down. And this is where all hope is derailed.

At any other resolution, except the lowest, every program and software staggers while video freezes every few seconds. Browsing standard websites while streaming video or music is a painstaking effort. You quickly erase any expectation of running a media player, graphic design software, an MSOffice application and an internet browser simultaneously. On a real laptop you could. On a Vaio P you can't.

Is it more than a netbook? Yes. A multitude of external ports, a fully loaded operating system and better processing speed take it a notch above today's netbooks.

Is it a laptop? Definitely not, but they have priced it like one.

So what is it? Well, to borrow from Britney Spears – it's not a netbook, not yet a laptop. 

Price: From Dh3,495

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