Windows 7-Powered Sony VAIO X-Series Hands-On

Early this September, at the IFA 2009 show, in Berlin, Germany, Sony, one of the world's largest vendors of consumer electronics and computing products, announced a couple of new additions to its line of VAIO laptops, including a more interesting model in the form of the VAIO X, touted as the “world's lightest” portable computer system. Not much was made public at IFA about the specifications of said machine, but early this month Sony came through with the tech specs of the new system. On that note, we were recently offered a chance to a hands-on experience with said VAIO, at a Sony press event, where the company showcased its fall lineup.

Although Sony unveiled models such as the AW, NW, CW or the W netbook series, the main attraction of the event, undoubtedly, was the VAIO X ultraportable laptop. Designed as a mix of a netbook and an ultraportable PC, the new VAIO is claimed to be the world's thinnest laptop. And we were certainly convinced of that when we got our chance to play a little with it.

According to Sony, this new machine has been designed as a next-generation alternative to the company's previous TT and TZ series, providing end-users with a thinner, more lightweight solution. The thin and light design of the laptop has been enabled by the system's internal configuration, which includes an Atom 550 processor, clocked at 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, large-capacity 256GB SATA SSD, coupled with Intel's GMA 500 graphics chipset. There's also an 11.1-inch WXGA with X-Black technology and a number of connectivity options, including Everywair WAN 7.2Mbps (3G), USB 2.0, LAN, WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/Draft n and Bluetooth.

The model we had a chance to play with was based on an Intel Atom Z540 processor, which is clocked at a lower 1.86GHz clock speed. The system was running on 2GB of RAM and the Windows 7 32-bit operating system, pretty much what you will get for the lowest-priced configuration. While we were impressed by the system's overall exterior design, the performance, even in Windows 7, was rather sluggish, especially when dealing with all those neat Windows 7 features, like the Aero interface.