Sony VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD11213CXB 11.6" Capacitive Touchscreen Ultrabook

I picked this one up mainly because I wanted to have a tablet that would both run my Windows programs at work, but also allow me to take notes with a digitizer stylus. I used a Windows Vista/7 convertible laptop for this purpose in college and it served me fantastically, so I figured this would do me well.

So far, it has met my expectations.

There are several things about it that are absolutely wonderful to behold. The first thing you notice is the screen. It's got an IPS panel and runs at a 1920x1080 resolution. Packed in an 11" form factor, the ultra-high pixel density makes images crisp and edges smooth. The IPS panel produces color that *pops*. It's the first laptop that I've owned where the colors on the screen didn't look washed out and where I didn't have to turn the gamma settings all the way down.

The device itself is build to last. The screen is made using Gorilla Glass, which is smooth and durable. You can't scratch it. The rest of the device uses either a hard plastic and metal, with a black brushed look. It feels solid, dense, and while it's a bit heavier than other tablets, it's not wholly uncomfortable to carry.

The performance is stunning. It's priced and spec'd about on-par with the MacBook Air, but with a better screen and touch capabilities. It boots Windows 8 in only a few seconds, and runs very cool and quietly. There is a fan, but it's not too loud when spinning fast, and you can disable it using a software utility, if you desire. The machine itself runs cool enough that you don't find yourself feeling like you have to reorient it or put it down due to the heat. For fun, I tried installing Guild Wars 2 on it. While you would certainly not call this a gaming machine for any demanding titles, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it ran the game relatively well on medium-to-low settings. I required an external mouse, of course, but even on battery power, it worked well. The Core i5 and 6 GB of RAM certainly make this no slouch.

The stylus, its selling point for me, also works well. It writes very accurately and comfortably, and is also made of metal. It feels solid and durable, like the computer itself, and has just enough heft to it. It is an active stylus (with a digitizer), so it does take a single AAAA battery, but it works just fine, just like my experiences with Wacom's battery-less styluses. It's the same size as any other pen, so it's not difficult to use.

Connectivity-wise, this thing has everything you need. It has HDMI out as well as VGA (though I wonder why they bothered with that). It has USB 3.0 ports, and one of them can be set to be used to charge devices even while the computer is in standby or off (handy if you want to charge it as well as your phone overnight, without having to leave it on). It has an SD card slot which also supports some Sony proprietary memory type. It even has an Ethernet port, which was fit on such a thin device with a clever expanding door that you can open as needed.

There are a few quirks about this thing, though, that are good to note:

One, the screen, being "full HD", uses a 16:9 aspect ratio, which isn't bad in landscape, but just looks tall and thin in portrait mode. It's usable, but I prefer something closer to the aspect ratio of a book, personally.

The screen, while brilliant, also is a bit too angled when tilted up, and you cannot adjust it. While it also holds its position well when it's slid up to reveal the keyboard, it only rests there. I'd have preferred it to snap in place to a degree, so that when I'm using it on my lap, it doesn't wiggle around as I use the keyboard or tilt the computer towards me.

The keyboard is a bit difficult to use at times. While I understand they have to make some compromises with the available size, for whatever reason, I occasionally find myself missing a letter even though I hit the key. Somehow it misses keypresses now and then. It's not a huge problem, and it could improve with practice, but it happens often enough that it can be annoying.

The optical trackpoint is a bit lacking. It works like the touchpoint you find in ThinkPads, but is optical instead of mechanical. It does its job, but is also very sensitive. When I touch it or pick my finger up off it, more often than not, the cursor will jump just enough to make me have to reposition the cursor again so I can click on whatever button or checkbox I'm attempting to use. Also, as a touch-sensitive device, it doesn't support some gestures that are now common on trackpads, such as double-tap and hold to drag. Also, if you bump it while using the keyboard, you may find yourself having lost focus on your text box or typing in another location in your document.

Finally, while the stylus works great, and it does automatically disable finger touch input while in use, its detected range is only about an inch. For some, that may not be a problem, but for me, that means I have to be careful not to move the pen around too much or else my hand, resting on the screen, will start messing with my work area (scrolling, selecting other things, etc). The ability to completely disable finger touch input manually, for a time, would be a great thing for me. Then I can do everything using the pen instead of having to switch between pen and finger, and hoping it doesn't switch to finger input while I'm trying to take notes.

As a final note, given this is a portable device, some mention of the battery performance has to be made. I bought this with the optional sheet battery attachment, but I don't always use it. There is reason to use it with and without. While the sheet battery doubles the (roughly 4 hours) battery life of the machine, it does also double the weight, which makes it a bit uncomfortable to hold and carry as a tablet for long periods. It also is wedge-shaped, so when it's attached, it has an awkward unbalanced and asymmetrical feel to it when in portrait orientation. It isn't problematic in laptop mode or landscape orientation, though. Since you can easily remove or install it while the device is running, and it is able to be separately charged with the same wall charger as the laptop itself, it's great as a battery backup for when it's needed. Otherwise, I leave it disconnected when carrying the VAIO Duo itself around. Its roughly 4 hours of battery life is great for most purposes, though. In an office setting, you may be carrying it around a lot but you likely will be able to put it on your desk and charge it before ending up running the battery down.

In summary:

I enjoy this device a lot. It's a bit larger than a normal tablet, but not too much so, and so it's pretty comfortable to use as one. It has pen input, which is a must, and it works well. It also runs my desktop applications (since it's the full version of Windows 8) and so it fulfills all my needs very well. I can work and play on it and it does both very well. If you feel you can be patient with its few quirks, I would highly recommend it for purchase.

Full Review, Pros and Cons are at the bottom for TL:DR sake.

Enjoy!

Physical Design:

This device weight is less than 3 lbs, much lighter than your average laptop. The design feels sturdy, even when you prop the device up to utilize the keyboard. Some other reviewers have stated that the slide out design "rattles" and "feels rickety". I have a much different opinion on it, the slide mechanic feels very sturdy and durable to me. I have had zero issues sliding the screen up and down. When in the upright position with keyboard out, you can use the stylus and write on the screen without any movement. I've tested this on all parts of the screen, the digitizer also recognizes the pressure used when writing, I can press relatively hard to get the "more ink" on feature just fine when free handing in word with the ink tool.

The design of where the Ethernet jack is placed works great, there are two tabs on the bottom that pop out to support it with a slight tilt to raise the Ethernet pop out design from touching the desk. The keyboard feels natural after a day of use. The only thing that felt weird originally when I first set hand on the device was where the spacebar was placed, I wanted to initially press the mouse pointer buttons, but that never became an issue after a couple hours of time on the device.

Interface:

This device runs on the full version of Windows 8, you can utilize any of your regular desktop applications on this device! This is a big deal; you've gone from having just a typical supersized phone that most people call a tablet, to an Ultrabook that runs a complete desktop version of Windows 8! The design behind Windows 8 really feels like it was meant to be for this type of device. I definitely had some mixed feelings about Windows 8 when running it on my desktop machine; I was confused and didn't really understand the whole logic behind the metro start menu and such. But after getting some quality time with the Sony Vaio Duo 11 Ultrabook, it has made all the sense in the world to me. We've been pushed down this path with cell phones to learn how to use our fingers while navigating with a touch screen, and Microsoft has built a platform to get the best of both worlds, which really works for Mouse/Keyboard or a complete touch interface as you please. I found myself navigating through windows much quicker just being able to tap the places I want to go on the screen in a split second.

The Start screen feels very fluid, this device runs in 1080p (1920x1080). The screen is very bright if you need to turn it up while you are outside, and the clarity is simply amazing. Sliding through the tiles and using the left side of your screen to "tab" through applications that are running off the start menu is fast. Booting a program up such as the Music application and having the ability to listen to music instantly is great, then grabbing the app by sliding your finger from the top down then to the right or left will place the application on whichever side you moved it to. You've just split your screen and show a nice music player on the side of your screen and still have all the desktop real-estate to do plenty of other things in your desktop applications while controlling music on the sidebar. I have not noticed any frame drops in the desktop interface or in the "Metro Start Menu" interface. Everything moves super smooth.

Device and Application Speed:

This device is insanely fast given the SSD and Intel i5 processor. From a cold boot, you can be in your desktop within a mere 4 seconds. The speed is just unreal in this device. You can stack up the bottom bar with applications and tap through as fast as you can and expect everything up within seconds. I haven't got this device to choke up at all yet performance wise. I went as far as installing a nice resource hog game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to humor myself, this first person shooter multiplayer game ran very playable in the resolution 1280x720. Joined a 24 person server and played for about 10 minutes and couldn't believe it. Running at a solid 60fps pretty much the whole time with Vertical Sync set to Triple Buffered as well. The only time I would really see frame drops was when there was smoke or fire (I honestly wasn't even expecting this to run at all, considering normal desktop machines have trouble running this game normally).

Rebooting the machine is extremely quick; Windows 8 definitely was structured to boot and shut down much quicker than your normal Windows 7 computer. It feels like it runs much lighter but still has all the features that Windows 7 had with it. The only drastic change is the "Metro Style" Start Menu. You can just start typing in whatever application you want after you hit the Start Menu button and it will filter your results instantly, I've found that I actually enjoy typing the beginning of the app names I'm trying to load than to thumb through the start tiles or setting up shortcuts. The tiles would definitely be much faster if you were leaving this in the flat tablet state the whole time.

Audio/Video:

The audio on this device is plenty for the size of it. You can't get too crazy with the speakers but it gets plenty loud and stays clear. The Dolby audio software makes the audio sound really good, you might notice it doesn't use the lower frequencies as much in the sound profile, but this will sound more full if you use a real set of speakers or headphones. I plugged in my SteelSeries Siberia V2 headset into it and it sounded amazing from the headphone jack, so zero complaints there. I have not tried the HDMI for audio and video, but I don't imagine Sony would have bottlenecked here, I have not come across one bottleneck on this device yet.

Battery:

The battery lasted about 4.5 hours just as stated, I went on the amazon website and streamed some tv shows for about 1.5 hours, booted up some of the games they have pre-loaded, did some various work in the office applications and streamed music for a bit all over Wi-Fi. For how small this device is and all the expectations I had, it surpassed everything I could have asked for in a tablet and laptop. I can completely understand why the stock battery performs the way it does. This is literally a super condensed version of a laptop with all the tablet features.

I had the opportunity to use an extended battery you can purchase off the Sony site for this device as well, the extended battery doesn't require you to remove the old one or get crazy at all, it just clips on and acts as a sheet that will put a nice slant on it without impeding on anything or hindering it in any way, and it also comes with a built in Stylus holder (Extended battery that is) and you can also just plug your power cable directly to the extended battery and let it charge by itself. You don't have to leave it plugged in to your device to actually charge it. The runtime was much longer with the extended battery, the other day we pulled about 15 hours out of it before it forced itself to shut down.

Pros:

Just refer to this whole review, I can't say enough amazing stuff about this device.

This is no simplistic tablet design such as an iPad or Android platform tablet that in all reality is just a supersized phone. Why would you want to carry around a giant device, when your cell phone that sits in your pocket is just as capable of doing? This Ultrabook runs the complete Windows 8 OS, yes that means you can download and install/run your everyday applications you are already utilizing on your desktop currently! And this device is incredibly fast 4 second cold boot to desktop. The price for what you are really getting from this device. Think about how much it costs to purchase a quality laptop, or just a great digitizer and stylus setup that are pressure sensitive costs over $400. I can't say enough amazing things about this Ultrabook. I'm thoroughly impressed.

Cons:

The only con about this device I have so far, is battery life. This can be changed by picking up an extended battery. There is no stylus holder on the device itself, but if you purchase the nice case through Sony or extended battery, they both have stylus holders.

Conclusion:

Hats off to Sony, after you realize how fast and slick designed this device is, you wouldn't really choke up about the cost. This device was definitely worth the $1200 USD I spent on it. 5/5 in my book, passed the test with flying colors.

UPDATE:

Video review and demo posted on youtube

Buy Sony VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD11213CXB 11.6" Capacitive Touchscreen Ultrabook Now

I was skeptical going with a touchscreen and a smaller computer since my last one was a Sony viao Z-series, but I'm glad I did.

Not having used windows 8 prior to this, I was very happy using a regular non-touchscreen laptop on windows 7, but was in need of a computer refresh. After a few hours of getting use to, I'm able to work faster and be more productive, all while doing it in style.

Pros:

the laptop is light just under 3 lbs.

the touchscreen is very responsive and with windows 8 features + office 2013 I can now do things like copy and paste with my fingers, zoom the screen, and all these various short cuts that are intuitive and work flawlessly with this computer. I'm only making this point because sometimes Microsoft products don't work well with certain brands/models of computers, but Sony got it right. Everything just works.

-the screen is HD. It's just like my ipad retina display, but better. Somehow with the black glossy bezel and the screen glass pictures look amazing.

-boots up within seconds. no more waiting around for it to wake up from sleep mode (which could take minutes on my old Sony Z series)

using regular earbuds and plugging my headset in, the sound is the best quality I've heard through earphones IN MY LIFE. It not only was deep rich sound, which is great when you want to listen to music while you work, but it was so good, I've had times where I had to take my headphones off b/c I thought it wasn't plugged in, and the voices were actually coming out of my speaker. Think theatre surround sound for the headphones. Don't take my word for it, just go try it out at the store and see for yourself.

-it has ports (2 usb, 1 HDMI, and one where you can plug into a projector) other tablets or ultrabooks don't always have these.

you can type in the dark with the backlit keys which is great on an airplane, or taking notes in class/work when lights are dimmed for projection purposes

-it's great to be able to use a stylus to take notes, and the stylus works pretty well

-performance with the i5 is great. Even though they make a model with the i7, this one is snappy and performs well.

cons:

-battery life. while I can go a few hours of continuous work without a charge, it would be NICE to get a full day's worth, or even half a day.

-the stylus isn't able to be stored somewhere on the surface or in the Duo, which means it's easier to lose. I put mine on a lanyard and wear it around my neck when needed.

-only a con if you have larger hands/fingers. the keys are a bit smaller than your standard keyboard so if you have extra large hands, you might be subject to fat fingering. fortunately, I don't have that problem ;P

I used to have a place for a computer lock on my Sony Z. this Sony Duo doesn't have one of those so I'm not able to lock it up if I wanted (minor issue if you use this feature)

other intangible PROS aka why you should buy one for yourself:

this computer looks amazing. it will turn heads. your co-workers will be jealous.

Read Best Reviews of Sony VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD11213CXB 11.6" Capacitive Touchscreen Ultrabook Here

I don't know how so many "professional" reviewers have been so wrong on this item.

This computer is great! It is not an iPad. Anyone buying it knows it is not an iPad and is buying it BECAUSE it is NOT an iPad. This is a laptop that is fully functional and only minimally bigger than an iPad. It can switch to-and-from tablet mode MUCH more quickly and easily than any of the products with the "transformer" form factor because you don't have to dock or undock anything. This might not seem like a big deal at first, but it has been huge. I use my duo on the couch to read and mark up textbooks--usually in tablet mode. But, when I need to google something, I don't have to hunt for the keyboard or use the screen to type. I just quickly put the screen up and type what i want. When I am done and want to switch back to my pdf, I just put the screen back down.

The computer is LIGHTER than the ATIV smart pc pro with dock. And, it doesn't tip over. I draw on it using the included ART RAGE Pro while it is in laptop mode. I use the stylus as a mouse and peck at the screen. You could never do these things with the tranformer-type models.

Ok, the keyboard is not the best. But, it is totally usable and much better than the on-screen keyboard or having to dock/un-dock all the time. The optical track button is also suprising usable and has been a useful adjunct to the touch screen and pen. Although I still wish the pen was WACOM for sampling speed when drawing, the N-trig stylus does offer better accuracy at the edges and corners and isn't as susceptible to tilting of the stylus. It is a better over-all pointer option than WACOM for general use (though not for digital ink).

Don't listen to the professional reviewers who can't see past their own biases for how they think a tablet or laptop should be used. Buy the tool to meet your needs and usage scenarios. This has been a great investment.

UPDATE: Several reviewers have stated that the SD card slot works to expand storage by up to 64gb. Sony's actual specs have no such limit and state that the reader supports SDXC; cards are now made up to 256gb. I took a leap of faith and dropped a bill on a UHS-1 128gb SD card with a 60mb/s transfer rate. It is screaming fast and the card is flush agains the side of the chasis. SO, for those who are interested, storage is quite upgradeable.

I have been using the sheet batter for over two weeks and I get about 7.5-8 hours of HEAVY use per charge which is really more than I would ever need. It DOES NOT double the weight as some have said; the battery is quite light. I will sometimes take it off if I'm going to be in tablet mode for a while because the angle is a little weird on the table in portrait.

Want Sony VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD11213CXB 11.6" Capacitive Touchscreen Ultrabook Discount?

2nd Update after 2 months, 4/21/2013:

* Finally feel fully adjusted to Win8/RT touch-screen after 2 months, and love the Sony Duo 11. The starting SSD limit of 70GB and dropped internet connections are no longer issues. I now find it easier and faster to use than my WinXP, non-touch laptop. It's very good for productivity. Music out using headphone jack was also really good. No background hiss. In particular, highs in classical music soars when using Ultimate Ears TripleFi. Screen is a beauty. Text is crisp, and image/graphics very easy to edit.

* Only remaining issue is "gorilla arm". It's a dull ache now instead of acute pain to my right biceps. I will get a portable trackpad for travel. (Link to Hidden Dangers of Touchscreens, ) So far, the best remedy I found is to consciously try to do everything with my left arm (non-dominant), including brushing my teeth and lifting my coffee cup. This fully rests my right arm for those time when I forget and point at my computer with my right arm. :-)

* 6/25/2013 Update: I took a Python programming class and was using this computer 12-15 hours a day. Gorilla Arm became extremely bad again. Finally set up an external LCD monitor and wireless keyboard & mouse. (Note HDMI out can convert to DVI with adapter for full res on DVI monitor.) Really good idea if you use this machine for very long stretches! Else it's great in portable mode for intermittent work, or no more than 4-6 hours continuous work. If you store your music and photos in the SD card, win8 Library feature does not see them. But you can make a shortcut to your file folder and pin it to both Metro and Desktop. If you open the file directly from file explorer, the music plays and photos open. Also, I was writing browser-based games for the Python class, and was surprised that some games played about 8x faster on quod-core Duo11 than my dual-core WinXP laptop! I had to adjust all of my game constants! :-)

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1st Update: after 1 full month of constant usage.

I wanted to replace my iPad2 and Sony 13.3" laptop with one device with a very good pen. I hated the fat fingers problem on iPad where selecting a specific letter was impossible at times. I bought the kickstarter pen for iPad, but still had issues. Bluetooth keyboard(s) will go to sleep and have a slight delay each time I typed, annoying. So, I stayed away from Samsung tablets with removable keyboard, and got Sony Duo 11 for the attached keyboard and N-Trig pen. Display is AWESOME. It is clearly the best feature for me. Next all programs run fast, and start from full shutdown is only 4 seconds. Start from hibernate is 1 sec. Digitizer is very accurate and smooth. Apps optimized for RT Tiles are uncluttered and have large controls for finger-only navigation. No problems loading older WinXP programs and loading Brother MFC and Canon inkjet printer drivers. I have replaced my 13" laptop completely, and 90% replaced my iPad2. Battery test lasted 4hr 11 min with screen on 7/10 brightness running office apps and watching videos using wifi. This is good enough for me. Charger weights 6oz, much lighter than my old laptop's, another plus. Full travel weight with charger & pen is 3 lb 4 oz. My previous laptop was 4 lb 8 oz with charger. If I also carry the iPad2 with light cover and charger, it adds 2.0 lbs. I used to carry both (6 lb 8 oz), thus my motivation for getting a combo device. Overall, this is a solid 5-star device. However, there are some learning curve and rough spots. I cover these next to help a new buyer.

Usage Tips:

* I got severe repetitive stress pain on my right (dominant) biceps, and some on right elbow and wrist. I initially used the optical track-button a lot, and switched to pen/finger, which helped some, but still got the biceps pain. I plugged in a Logitech wireless (not Bluetooth) mouse, and used it with my left hand (non-dominant), and the pain is much reduced. I think this may be an issue for some landscape/keyboard users.

* Outlook has RT mode (built-in Mail, Calendar, Contacts) and Win8 mode (MS Office Pro 2013), and they are very different. It was confusing initially. Treat RT version as a phone app, and Win8 version as the full-service laptop software.

* Install updated wireless driver from Sony. I got a lot of dropped connections. Sony has 2nd update that cured the issue.

* WEP problem: After Windows Updates in March, my internet connection at home stopped working, but had good connection from a cafe's unsecured net. Win8 is said to not play well with WEP, the lowest security setting. If this happens to you, you can change your home router from WEP to WPA or WPA2. I have changed my home router to WPA-TKIP and got solid connection from home. Or, if you cannot change your router setting, you can manually set your computer to use WEP. Go to "Control Panel", "View Network Status and Tasks", "Set Up a New Connection or Network", select "Manually Connect to a Wireless Network" option. User Name is your SSID, Security type is WEP, Encryption Type is either HEX or ASCII, Security Key is your router's password.

* Keyboard Update after 2 months: I no longer get dropped letters. Initially I didn't press as firmly as needed. Since the travel is so thin, it made me want to press very lightly.

* Only 70GB Free on SSD. Recovery partition eats 25GB. -Update 2: Problem solved. 128GB Lexar Class 10 SDXC card (~$130 from Amazon) is working well. Bought Samsung USB 2.0 DVD R/W external drive (~$30 from Amazon), and made recovery backup to 4 DVDs. Also made image backup of recovery partition to external hard drive.