I had the chance to get a first hand look at the Vaio X this weekend at the Sony shop in the Westfield centre in London. Wow….that’s one thin machine….almost too thin. But I still love it…and was surprised to find it was less than £2000 even for the high end version here in the UK. I specced it up with 128GB SSD (don’t think I really need 256GB) or Blu-Ray and it came out around £1400 with the obligatory carbon lid and 2Ghz process.
It’s a very impressive unit that is only 13.9mm thick, built from a carbon fibre chassis and weighing just 780 grams and punches out 8 hours of usage. The keyboard was particularly nice though the trackpad was strangely small given the size of the palm rest. I love the detailing of the power button and the modem connection and the Black LED screen continues to put others to shame.
I was in the selfsame shop on Sunday looking to get some accessories for my P11Z micro-netbook thingy and I saw the Vaio X there. It's completely awesome - hard to believe it is so light and yet so powerful. I got a severe case of laptop envy.
BUT that Sony shop is outrageously expensive. They wanted a £40 premium on an extended life battery, £30 extra on a 16GB Duo Pro memory stick and even £5 more for an (already-expensive) carry case. The salesman rang the manager to ask for a discount but he wouldn't budge. I looked up the prices on Amazon for the same stuff on my iPhone and walked out of the shop without buying. I don't see why I should pay £75 extra just for the privilege of buying from a shop.
I bought my P11Z at the Sony shop in Terminal 5 at Heathrow. The basic price was about the same as the online price and then they gave me Sony's £150 cashback voucher AND knocked another £100 off there and then.
So, basically, my advice is to shop around for Sony stuff and don't pay the sucker price in the Westfield shop.
But do buy one and let me know how great it is! :)