Hands-on with the Sony VAIO P Series

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The sea of people at the Sony’s CES stand meant that we weren’t able to spend too much time with the new VAIO P Series ultraportable, but we were able to correct this yesterday at the European launch. We took a bunch of photos to show you just how small this Intel Atom-powered portable really is, and shot a hands-on video to talk you through its main features. All this, and our first impressions of the VAIO P Series, after the cut.

Photos really don’t show how small the VAIO P Series is, and it’s only when you hold it in your hand that you can marvel at its compactness. It feels more like one of those PVC wallets designed to hold business cards than a laptop, but that’s not to knock its build quality – the case is plastic the top panel of the Vaio P is aluminum alloy, the middle is plastic and the bottom panel is carbon fibre (according to Endgadget Chinese).

The P Series isn’t quite small enough to slip into a pocket without poking out, but it is light enough (around 640g) to carry around in a coat pocket or handbag without weighing you down. Better still, it’s small and discreet enough to whip out for a spot of work without feeling like a poseur on public transport, although you’ll probably attract a small crowd in the process. The only catch is that if anything, the P Series is too small and there’s simply no way to use it comfortably on your lap.

There isn’t much to see on the outside – just a couple of USB ports. a socket for a port replicator and a pair of memory card slots (MemoryStick and SD Card). There’s no catch to keep the clamshell case closed, but the hinges are stiff enough to keep the lightweight lid tightly clamped.

The P Series will be available in four colours – black, white, red and green – and the colour covers both the top and bottom of the case, though not the battery. That said, only two colours are listed on the Sony Style at the moment – black and red.

Input options

The VAIO P Series’ unusual long, thin shape means there’s room inside for a good size keyboard without a big desktop footprint. The keys are Sony’s usual Scrabble tile and while small, are well-spaced.

They’re comfortable to type on too, although they do feel a little spongy and lack feedback. They fine for long spells of typing though, and in fact the bulk of this article was written on a P Series while sitting on a train.

There’s no wrist rest, but that’s hardly a problem for a laptop this thin – resting your wrists on the desktop works just as well. The mouse buttons sit on the front edge of the base, but while these are large and clicky, you do tend to bump your thumb against them when typing. It’s hard to click one accidentally, so this is really more of an annoyance than a problem.

And no wrist rest means no touchpad and the VAIO P Series instead uses a trackpoint joystick. We know not everyone gets on with these, but we rather liked it once the sensitivity was turned right down and its press-to-click feature disabled.

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