Sony VAIO Mini W netbook review - full hands-on test

Following Wednesday’s announcement of the Sony VAIO Mini W-series netbook, we’re the first magazine to get our hands on a review sample. Read on to see what we think.

Look at previous ultraportable products from Sony, and it was always obvious the Japanese giant wouldn’t settle for a simple bog-standard design. While this is indeed closer to the netbook norm than the super-expensive VAIO P-series, it still features one stand-out feature – the screen.

At 10.1 inches, there’s nothing unusual about the size, but it’s leaps and bounds ahead of the game when it comes to detail. Although the resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels may not sound spectacular, it’s among the sharpest we’ve seen on a panel of this size, and puts the 1024 x 600 pixel screens on most rivals to shame. Colour and contrast are also excellent, matched only by a select few netbooks, such as Toshiba’s impressive NB200.

The design of the VAIO Mini W is impressively cohesive, looking exactly like a scaled down version of Sony’s larger products. You’ll find the same textured plastics, same range of colours, same hinged-back display as other VAIO products, even a similar isolated-style keyboard is in place.

It’s also one of the better netbooks keyboards. The shallow keystroke doesn’t allow for quite the same levels of comfort as a Samsung N110, for instance, but with decent spacing and large and responsive keys, it’s easy to adjust to and we were typing at full speed within seconds. The touchpad is one of the larger solutions we’ve seen on a netbook, with big, responsive buttons, making for an excellent working environment.

On the left-hand side of the chassis, you’ll find an interface for the power adapter, microphone and headphone sockets, and a VGA-out port. The right-hand side offers two USB ports and an Ethernet connection. With the screen sliding down over the rear of the casing when open, there are no ports on the back of the Mini W. The front offers a power button and a hardware switch to disable wireless functions – of which you’ll find 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Sony has stuck to the tried and tested Intel Atom solution when it comes to processing, albeit the marginally faster and more power efficient 1.66GHz N280 chip. You’ll also find 1024MB of memory, and Windows XP in place, offering broadly similar performance to its rivals. We haven’t had time to put the battery through its paces yet, but check back here to see how we get on. A 160GB hard drive rounds off the specifications.

Sony was unable to provide a direct price for the VAIO Mini W, but told us to expect it to be around the £400 mark. Not cheap then, but it’s definitely one of the nicer high-end netbooks we’ve seen, and the screen really is a stunner.