Long Term Test – Sony VAIO P subnotebook
Monday, May 11, 2009 at 7:36AM 
The little P that could
By Gadjo C. Sevilla
Prior to investing in the Sony VAIO P, we had a series of netbooks and subnotebooks which we had used as backup machines as well as travel computers for basic e-mail, blogging and web surfing, The models we used included the 7’ inch and 9’ inch ASUS EeePcs and the HP Mini. While they were stellar in terms of size, their lack of storage space as well as tiny keyboards made them less-than-ideal for use in extended periods of time.
The VAIO P, which was designed around the keyboard promised to be a more portable yet more robust solution. Despite early misgivings on poor performance and a poor OS of choice (Vista Home). The Sony VAIO P has acquitted itself as a viable subportable that just works.
Emergency Option
When our unibody Macbook Pro started exhibiting odd behaviour (freezing, hanging and slow performance) during an overseas assignment, we were forced to make our Canadian version (no GPS, no WWAN) Sony VAIO P our main machine for managing our blog, social media, light photo editing and resizing as well as email and communications.
Our VAIO P, outfitted with the extended battery, which ups the battery life to almost 6 hours with Wi-Fi, took to the tasks admirably. We reveled in its near full-sized keyboard which had us touch typing at our regular rate without much adjustment. The 2GB of RAM on the VAIO P is ample for Vista Home, even with the requisite antivirus and anti-spyware applications running in the background.
The biggest hassle we encountered with the VAIO P is getting used to the small screen. Although incredibly crisp and clear, the VAIO P’s screen requires that you keep toggling your browser to increase the font size on each page you visit.
There’s probably an easier way of dealing with the incessant need to resize and enlarge everything. While handy and easier on the eyes, resizing text on webpages works only on non-Flash enabled websites and as expected, wreaks havoc on formatting, specially on more comprehensive websites with a mix of elements such as embedded video or images.
What we would change
Since our main machine, the Macbook Pro, crapped out, the VAIO P has become our most used computer for communications, research, blogging and email while an iMac has taken on all the image editing and video work.
There’s a lot to love in the VAIO P. Small size, stellar keyboard, ample connectivity and its long-lasting battery life are just some of the features that make it a true traveling subnotebook.
We would have liked it better if it did come with the ability to use a SIM card for 3G connectivity. While Vista Home works well enough (we had to scale back the settings and remove visual styles and aero to speed things up), we still would have relished the ability to install Windows XP, which, with the soldered 2GB or RAM, would have given the VAIO P better and faster performance.
Finally, something has to be done about the clunky video performance. Even YouTube videos play like absolute crap on full screen—we’ve seen the iPod Touch do a better job playing back video, which shouldn’t be the case.
The VAIO P would be an ideal device for portable video given its bright screen and strong battery life but alas, until Sony or Intel deliver a software fix for the integrated video its all wasted.
Conclusion
Netbooks have come and gone but it seems our VAIO P is here to stay, either as a secondary machine or as our first option for a wired note-taker with almost all-day computing on its extended battery. We can’t wait to see what the VAIO P will be able to achieve once Windows 7 is made available.