The new 11 inch Vaio TT is Sony’s attempt at launching a high-class ultraportable laptop unlike any other. In contrast to the standard low-cost, low-power netbook, the Vaio TT is a reminder that not all netbooks have to be that way.
Although the Vaio TT has pretty much the same physical characteristics as the average netbook, the truth is that its $4,344 price tag nowhere near the standard $500. This particular review is going to focus on the TT190UBX, the TT’s highest-end model. It comes with an Intel ultralow-voltage CPU and an internal Blu-ray recordable optical drive, making it the smallest Blu-ray laptop available.
However, the Vaio TT’s pair of 128 GB solid-state hard drives is what really drives the price over $4,000. If you’re not willing to spend as much money, there is a $2,094 model that does not include the Blu-ray or the SSD drives. The Vaio TT is no doubt an expensive investment, especially for an ultraportable laptop. But if you have the money to spend, then there’s reason to deny the Vaio TT190UBX, it’s probably more noteworthy than a lot of laptops out in the market.
When high-end ultraportable laptops first debuted, they were treated as sought-after commodities, and thus consumers were okay with spending more than $2,000 for an ultraportable, sleek computer. Due to the birth of netbooks, consumers began to expect less and therefore spend less since netbooks essentially performed the same functions as an ultraportable laptop: Web surfing, sending email, and other basic tasks. Thereafter, a more industrial, utilitarian design took over the computer world.
The Vaio TT does not follow the typical cheap, plastic look of the vast majority of netbooks – and of course we have every right to expect more for over $4,000. Instead, it is embossed with a chic carbon-fiber chassis, metal detailing, rounded curves, and an amazingly thin LED-backlit screen. It is basically a revamped version of the Vaio TZ, which happened to be one of our favorite ultraportable laptops when it debuted. The Vaio TT is equipped with a power button and A/C jack at the opposite ends of a large, circular hinge, just like the Vaio TZ. Additionally, the Vaio TT weighs less than 3 pounds and is less than an inch thick, despite its relatively large 11 inch display. Most netbooks weigh about the same, except with smaller displays.
Other brands have also been attempting to put more effort into their high-end ultraportable laptops. For example, both Lenovo and Toshiba have launched new models: Lenovo’s IdeaPad U110 and Toshiba’s Portege R500, which are both pretty impressive in regards to their engineering.
The Vaio TT’s keyboard is comparable to that of the MacBook – with flat, widely spaced keys. The typing experience is rather enjoyable, although the keys are barely bigger than the ones on Dell’s 9 inch Inspiron Mini 9 Netbook. The keys for volume, assignable shortcut buttons, and optical-drive eject are located on the bottom edge of the wrist rest. Other extras include both VGA and HDMI outputs, a mini FireWire jack, and of course the standard USB 2.0 ports and SD Card slots.
The 11 inch display has the same 16:9 aspect-ratio that is usually found in new 16 inch and 18 inch laptops, which is quite notable. The Vaio TT’s resolution of 1,366 x 768 is not substantially better than the standard 1,024 x 600 resolution of most netbooks. However, the slightly finer resolution and bigger display size is enough to make the Vaio TT have more workspace. The 16:9 aspect-ratio supports high quality multimedia viewing, including HD content. Although it should be noted that the Vaio TT is not able to handle 1080p playback, its HDMI port enables viewing at 1080p with an external display of 1920 x 1080.
In the past, we were generally dissatisfied with high-end ultraportable laptops because of their sub-par, low-voltage CPUs. But, the Vaio TT’s dual-core 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 is simply not comparable to Intel’s single-core Atom N270 CPU, which is typically used by netbooks such as the Dell Mini 9 and the Asus Eee PC. We realized that the difference in the level of performance between an ultraportable laptop opposed to a netbook is quite significant. The Vaio TT’s integrated graphics limit its graphic capabilities, but the truth is that ultraportable laptops have never been known to be compatible with gaming.
It is common sense to judge that an 11 inch laptop with a starting price of $2,000 will probably function faster than a $500, 9 inch laptop. To test performance, we chose the iTunes encoding test to compare the Dell Mini 9 and the Vaio TT (it was the only test that we were able to run on the Dell Mini 9 due to its limited 16GB SSD). The results were clear – the Vaio TT was more than three times as fast. Also, it was able to function well with high-powered systems such as Windows Vista, as opposed to the XP or Linux utilized by most netbooks.
The Vaio TT can handle multitasking a lot better than traditional netbooks. In addition, its multitasking ability is at par with most other ultraportable competitors such as the Lenovo IdeaPad U100 and the Toshiba Portege R500 (which are actually powered by older versions of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor).
Vaio systems are especially known for their impressive battery life, and the Vaio TT 190UBX follows the same reputation. After administering our playback battery drain test, we were surprised to find that the battery had lasted for 3 hours and 52 minutes, perfect for long-term, travel use. The Toshiba R500 also has a comparably lengthy battery life, and both the Vaio and Toshiba do not need any extra bulky batteries to boast such impressive battery lives.
Tech Specs (varies with customization):
Display: 1366 x 768 XBrite-Eco LED backlit color LCD. Screen size diagonally: 10.1″. Intel GMA950 integrated graphics with 64 megs dedicated memory and up to 192 megs additional shared memory.
Battery: 3-cell Lithium Ion rechargeable
Performance: Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz processor, 667MHZ FSB (Intel Diamondville 45nm CPU, single core, Hyperthreading, 32 bit). Intel i945GSE chipset. 1 gig DDR2 RAM (single channel). 160 gig SATA II, 5400RPM hard drive (ours was a Toshiba).
Dimension: 10.54 x 1.28 x 7.07 inches. Weight: 2.62 pounds.
Camera: 1.3 megapixel Motion Eye VGA webcam with dual mics.
Audio: Built in stereo speakers, mics and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack plus 3.5mm mic jack. Intel HD audio (RealTek).
Networking: Integrated Atheros WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR.
Software: Windows XP Home Edition. Intervideo WinDVD, MS Office 2007 trial, ArcSoft web camera software, Vaio Media Streaming Software, Vaio MusicBox and Vaio Movie Story. Norton Internet Security 2009 30 day trial.
Expansion: 1 SD (Secure Digital) slot supporting SDHC and 1 Memory Stick Pro Duo slot.