Sony’s Vaio Y gets a review

From the moment Sony announced their new lines of laptops for 2010, I’ve been dying to see the Vaio Y in action. I still haven’t, as Sony products travel slower in my third world country ( ), but the folks at Laptopmag did and give it a test. And the results are pretty nice. Here’s what they liked:

• the exterior and arm rest are covered in a magnesium finish, so bye-bye fingerprints and scratches. Also, this makes the chassis more sturdy (Sony always brag on how they can make the only laptop that can be safely lift by holding them from a corner)
• keyboard and touch-pad are good (once again, Sony’s keyboards are some of the best chiclet ones available, only rivaled by the ones of the Macs)
• there’s decent ULV hardware inside (SU7300 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 320 GB storage drive)
• the 13 inch display is bright and comes with anti-glare cover
• connectivity is good (Wi-fi N and Bluetooth), although 3G would have been nice

Sony Vaio Y - the first trully affordable Vaio

The bad part comes with battery life though. Unlike its main competitors, The UL30A from Asus and the DM1 from HP that boost an autonomy of above 9 hours, this Vaio Y only offers around 6 and a half hours in practice. But there’s also an even better news:this is perhaps one of the first really affordable Vaios, as Sony plans to sell the version above for $799 in the US. There will also be an improved version, with bigger battery and hard-drive, plus some other goodies, for $999. You can read more on Laptopmag.com . I for one just can’t wait to get my hands on one of these Vaios Y and give them my own spin. Because I’m pretty confident this is going to be my next laptop, unless the 13 inch MacBook Pro doesn’t get a $300 price cut in the next 2 months.

Tags: Sony netbooks, Sony Vaio