Sony recently opened 2009 with gusto by unveiling the new Sony Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC notebook PC which packs an impressive amount of technology into a little 8-inch screen PC can easily be carried in your pocket or handbag. This powerful little netbook also has a price tag that is much less then similar notebooks on the market that have the same specs as the Sony Vaio P Series.

Design

• Longer Length: The Sony Vaio P design is uniquely longer in length than the other netbooks on the market and is extraordinarily thinner and smaller at a size of 9.65" x 4.72" x 0.78" and a feather light weight of 1lb 4.8oz with a four cell-battery. This ultra-portable netbook is in a class all of its own. You will love slipping this compact PC into your suit jacket pocket without the bulk.

• Glossy Finish: The casing has a world-class glossy finish with tiny visible specks mixed inside the paint which, by the way, offers a variety of very cool colors with a protective case that matches the color. While the glossy LCD lid looks very sleek and smart, it also tends to accumulate fingerprints very easily.

• Superior Build Quality: Overall the quality of the build is very substantial despite the casing being constructed from entirely plastic. Amazingly the plastic is durable enough to withstand being hurled around in your handbag or briefcase.

• Impressive Pixel Display: The little nine inch screen boasts a monster 1600 x 768 pixel resolution that makes the LCD panel extremely easy on the eye.

Keyboard

• Spacious Keyboard: For a nine inch sized device the Sony Vaio P Series offers a relatively spacious keyboard that is quite comfortable to use. The keyboard is 88 percent of a full-sized keyboard which requires a little adjustment due to the unique keyboard design that contains spacing between the keys.

• Business-Grade Touchpoint: The pointing stick offers a unique press-to-select feature that works by pressing down on the stick. One drawback of this feature is it can cause you to accidentally close programs, but the upside is that is has a feature where you can disable press-to-select.

Port Connectivity

Due to the extreme portable size of the Sony Vaio P Series when compared to the other ten and twelve-inch notebooks on the market, the notebook does not contain very many ports for connectivity. Rather it has a simple configuration of a SD Card and Memory Stick port, a power jack port, two USB ports, and a headphone jack.

The Sony Vaio P Series does contain a nifty little docking feature with a VGA connector that allows you to attach your netbook to a larger monitor and Ethernet jack.

Performance

• Windows Vista: The Sony Vaio P Series comes loaded with Windows Vista where the other netbooks on the market are utilizing Windows XP. This does not offer very good performance when it is combined with an Intel Atom processor. The P Series is equipped with 2GB of RAM (non-upgradeable) which helps to offer speedy performance that is adequate with light tasks such as Web surfing, e-mail, and word processing.

• Hard Drive Offers 64 GB SSD: The Vaio P hard drive offers 64 GB SSD from Samsung and connects to Windows Vista within three seconds and overall provides adequate speed. One of the downsides is that this netbook tends to heat up and is significantly warmer than other netbooks on the market. The upside is the cooling fan is relatively quiet.

• Wi-Fi Performance: Wi-Fi output and range for this little netbook is adequate in quality and typically display three out of five bars for signal strength. The mobile broadband connection fro Verizon wireless has superior performance with a capability to access a network within five seconds.

Overall the Sony Vaio P Series is not an average netbook and comes with a price tag of around $900; however it contains many features that the $500 netbooks do not offer.