By Lim Yee Hung

AT $899 a pop, Sony's first 10.1-inch netbook makes a big entrance by virtue of its price tag alone.

To justify its high price, the Vaio W boasts a solid, luxurious chassis and the best screen display I have seen in a netbook so far, making it ideal for playing videos or viewing photos on the go.

The sturdily built netbook, which comes in brown, white or pink, is just 1.19kg. Its keyboard, which is 14 per cent smaller than a full-sized one, is easy to get used to.

I particularly like the keyboard layout.

The Scrabble tile-like keys are well-spaced from each other so typing mistakes are less likely.

The touchpad is also responsive so the netbook wins bonus points for ease of use.

However, its trump card is the high-definition, 1,366 x 738 resolution screen, which is a notch above the standard 1,024 x 600 resolution found in most netbooks.

I did not expect it to make such a significant difference - the graphics are clear and vibrant and, again, the best I have seen on a netbook to date. Sony probably took a tip or two from its high-definition TV department.

Finally, I award points for the armrest - stain-resistant and textured with tiny dimples to give comfortable friction - and the fact that the netbook is loaded with the less clunky Windows XP instead of Vista.

Other than the screen resolution, the Vaio W's specifications are pretty ordinary.

Its three-hour battery life is average.

Most of the current netbook offerings already feature the Vaio W's 160GB hard disk, 1GB of RAM and 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor - and for less money. For example, the Asus Eee PC Seashell with the same specifications costs $798.

What is most disappointing is that the Vaio W can handle only 1GB of RAM. A pity when even the low-end models can accommodate an upgrade to 2GB.

However, during the review, I was able to run several programs, such as Mozilla Firefox, Windows Live Messenger and Microsoft Word 2007, simultaneously without any noticeable lag so a memory upgrade may not be necessary after all.

Final say

If you want a netbook for multimedia use, such as watching movies or editing photos, this is a good, if expensive, choice.

Lim Yee Hung is a freelance writer

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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