"Sony have outdone themselves with the compact 10.1 inch LED-backlit display that shows crisp-colour and provides great contrast"
Karim Beerahee
The VAIO M Series is Sony’s latest foray in to the netbook market. It’s a very attractive lightweight machine that’s been well designed and sturdily built, with a good range of ports and wireless conectivity to boot.
These netbooks sit at the opposite end of the pricing spectrum to the Sony VAIO X Series. At under £300 for a Sony VAIO you can’t really argure, but let’s be honest there’s bound to be a compromise somewhere.
What we like best
The outstanding feature of the VAIO M Series has to be its screen, Sony have outdone themselves with the compact 10.1 inch LED-backlit display that shows crisp colour and provides great contrast.
Most importantly it also features top of the range wide angle viewing capabilities. With the small stature of netbooks, sharing the screen is normally an issue for cooperative work, however with the M Series the screen can easily be seen by two co-workers.
Sony have designed this series of netbooks for comfort, rather then sacrificing design for function, the M Series has a more then spacious keyboard and wrist rest, which along with the high standard screen allows for extended use.
What we like least
Your workload for a netbook is generally assumed to be light, however the processing power memory and storage are all low in comparison to other netbooks and ultraportables on the market.
It does do what a netbook should though. It has a fast boot and connection to the internet that’s also capable of editing documents, emailing, surfing and general computer usage.
The major faults would have to be its touchpad which lacked sensitivity and the battery which, although you can get about three hours use on a single charge, is not particularly impressive considering that prelonged use away from mains is an important feature of any netbook.
For comfortable use on a sturdy system the VAIO M-series is a respectable netbook. Though its processor speed is not the very best, its high quality screen and comfortable set-up, along with its striking Sony VAIO design combines to make a decent general-use netbook. Good value for money when all considered.
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Processor Speed
1.83 GHz
Processor
Intel Atom N470
RAM
Up to 1 Gb DDR2 SDRAM 667GHz
Screen Size
10.1 inch
LED Backlit
Graphics
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
Hard Drive Storage
Up to 250 Gb Hard Drive
Battery
6-cell Li-Ion 4.5 hours*
*Manufacturer claim
Multimedia
Headphone jack
Microphone jack
Webcam integrated
Speakers
Ports
3 x USB 2.0
1 x VGA
Weight & Size
183mm (W) x 26mm (H) x 270mm
1.4kg
Connectivity
Wireless LAN
Bluetooth 2.2 +EDR
Operating System
Windows 7 Starter
Christmas has come early for us content writers at PC Site, six months early in fact! Rosie Khdir reveals what goodies Sony had in store at the Christmas in July 2010 showcase.
Jingle bells, jingle bells…
As we stepped into a stylish gallery just off Regent Street, we were expecting the works, snow, reindeer, tinsel but there wasn’t so much as an elf in sight! What we did find, was that Santa had most definitely been good to us this year.
This chic white space was filled with an array of shiny toys that any gadget geek would be thrilled to find in their stocking.
From 3D TVs and cameras, to the very latestMP3 players and eReaders, Sony had it all laid out for us, as if it were Christmas morning!
The VAIO room
The room that really caught our attention was, of course, the Sony VAIO room. On a circular table in the centre of the room lay an assortment of colourful treats, the new neon VAIO P Series, small enough to toss in you handbag when you are on the go.
We also saw the new line of Sony E Series colours which included a less Barbie hibiscus and more baby pink as well as a metallic blue. We were also able to take a sneak peak at the new limited edition Billabong W Series notebook.
The VAIO PCs we had the most fun playing with were the all-in-one J and L Series. The VAIO J Series is the smaller of the two but is just as impressive, with its 21.5 inch multitouch screen with an impressive 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.
The gigantic L Series had on screen a large Google Earth type feature which demonstrated with what great ease the multitouch screen can be used. It had a crystal clear Full HD screen and wireless mouse and keyboard that topped off the minimalist look.
The feature I really enjoyed was the children’s colouring in application that comes with the J Series VAIO. It showed just how great this PC is for the whole family, and just how easy-to-use it was.
Thanks Sony Santa…
All round it was a great event, where we were able to have a look at the very latest models and see into our very 3D orientated future.
You can see more pictures from the event on the PC Site Flickr page!
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