Review: Didn't we get rid of that a decade ago? Sunday 15th February 2009, 8:53 PM
DerekHyams.com Review: The Sony P11Z Netbook
It's not often I get to do a review on a spanking new product, but that's not to say I don't know what technologies in and what's not. On my desk this morning was the new netbook released by Sony, the P11Z series. Available in black, white, red, and green. It's price is a hefty £850, although the weight it at a miniscule 0.6 kilos, just over half of the average netbook. It's comes with vista, although no aero animations since the graphics adaptor doesn't look like it supports it. Where the battery sits there is room for a SIM card since it supports WWAN allowing the user to use the Internet wherever they wish, so long as there's a mobile phone signal. For those who are curious to know what WWAN is, it's stands for wireless wide area network. It's the equivalent to connecting your mobile phone to your laptop and using it as a modem. This is not to be confused with WLAN, wireless local area network. That is, hotspots in coffee houses, and if you have a wireless in your house, that is WLAN, or what most people would refer to as 'wireless'.
The unit features the newer Intel atom 'Z' series processor at 1.33Ghz giving better battery performance*, 2gb of RAM and a 60gb haard drive with built in shock protection. Upon opening the box the unit does feel rather weightless without the battery. In the box comes the unit, the battery that is part of the casing, the power adaptor, transformer and another small unit. Although we doubt we rely on Ethernet as much as we used to in airports and friends houses, I think it'd be nice to have it on the unit, instead of a separate module you attach that also features a VGA connector for an additional monitor. One thing you'll notice about the unit is that it's very wide. That is because there is no trackpad. They didn't decide the norm was... Well normal enough and replaced it with a joystick. Now I'm pretty sure, that the joystick was superseded by the trackpad about 10 years ago?
Speaking to a few customers, many of them where a dubious about Sony's choice. Although I did speak to one woman who was very content with her IBM's joystick, so I guess it's a matter of opinion. The unit is extremely thin at 2cm, with a width of 24.5cm and depth of 12cm the unit is very wide compared to a classic netbook, although with much less depth and height. The keyboard seems very nice to use, and you get a satisfying press with every key, on my Asus EEE netbook 900 I feel that the keys are a little tough and do not always type a letter when pressed. Although I am a little puzzled why the right hand shift key is less than generous. I found typing rather frustrating.
The webcam on the unit has been mounted on the right hand side of the screen, although I didn't get a chance to test it out. The unit has 2 USB ports, an SD Card trader as well as Sony's own Memorystick. The transformer is rather small too, about the same size as the VGA/Ethernet module. About 5 x 3 x 2cm.
The Screen has a rather high resolution for an 8" display. 1600 x 768. The pixels are very small making text hard to read at
first glance. I'd recommend changing the DPI from 96 to 120 to make items on the screen slightly easier to see. Rather than changing the resolution of the screen to a lower resolution leaving the screen rather pixelated, changing the DPI is relative keeping desktop items in proportion, minimising the amount of distortion of windows, icons and text of the screen.
The unit has left, middle and right keys for the mouse. Unfortunately I am not able to quote on the battery life, although the WLAN, WWAN and Bluetooth are provided on the desktop in a floating window that allows you to turn them off should you not want them to compromise your battery life. Also you have vista's power plans that can be customized, giving you fully customize your power plan.
Overall I'm going to give the unit 3/5. Although it has some suave features I think they have over-compromised the units shape and left the screen too wide, and at first impression I had many people speak of the lack of a more traditional trackpad, which I agree with. If you have the money, want something which is almost impossibly light and thin, with vista and some great technology built in then it's maybe worth it, but I doubt the units even worth an impulse buy. It almost feel that Sony have set out to build this netbook with all the information on paper, but not a customer's opinion within earshot.
