ET Review: Sony Vaio Pro 13

NEW DELHI: Sony’s latest Ultrabook is an impressive piece of technology. The carbon-fibre chassis and weight reduction technologies result in a total weight of just 1.06kg – making it the lightest 13-inch touch-enabled Ultrabook in the world.

It has a tapered design that is 17.2mm at the thickest and 12.8mm at the thinnest point when closed. There is also a full size HDMI port, two full size USB 3.0 ports, 3.5mm port and a card reader along the side – impressive considering that the lower half is barely thicker than a USB port.

Our unit came with Intel’s 4th generation Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD & Intel HD 4400 graphics. The new chip enables better battery life, better performance and better graphics. You normally wouldn’t expect such a thin and light design to offer fast performance, but the Core i5 version scored a 5.6 on the Windows Experience Index (with the lowest score of 5.6 going to graphics).

The screen is bright, offers full HD resolution with pinsharp details, high contrast, high brightness and excellent viewing angles. Touch response was great too. You really can’t ask for more from an ultra-portable’s screen.

There are a few compromises because of the design. The carbon-fibre construction means that the shell flexes a lot – though this doesn’t mean that it’s brittle. The number of ports is limited (only two USBs and no Ethernet). But the biggest disappointment is that the hinge design limits the angle at which you can open the screen. This is possibly to prevent the device from toppling backwards (it is fairly topheavy because of the touchscreen).

Battery life is almost 8 hours. For Rs3,990, the optional sheet battery can boost battery life to roughly 17 hours at the expense of added weight and thickness. Sony also sells the 770 gram Vaio P11 (11-inch full HD non-touch) with a Core i5 processor for Rs69,990.