God of small things

Sony Vaio VGN-P15G pocket PC,a delight for people who like to stay connected while travelling

It will fit into any bag,even some deep pockets,and is the size of a standard business envelope,less than 20mm thick. It is the Sony Vaio VGN-P15G pocket PC,a delight for people who like to stay connected while travelling and a guaranteed eye candy. It packs a punch too,with a 1.6 GHz processor and 2GB RAM as well as Windows Vista OS.

Sony doesnt refer to it as a netbook,but the fact is that this new Vaio is smaller and more compact than the likes of Dell Mini 9 and Asus Eee PC,but still has an eight-inch widescreen and a keyboard far better than its competitors. It is undoubtedly an engineering feat,as the clamshell laptop,weighing less than 600 grams,has all features of a regular laptop except the touchpad.
The touchpad has been replaced by a joystick in the middle of the keys. But the tiny trackpoint navigation is a put off and does create a lot of difficulty in fine controlling it will take a lot of getting used to. However,the mouse buttons are intact and placed at the front of the machine.

Net surfing is this netbooks USP,but the pointing stick will drain you of your energy if you are a mouse person. The ultra wide LED backlit display of 1600×768 resolution easily displays the width of an entire page and makes browsing smooth. This also means the text size and icons are small and a strain on the eyes. Working on documents is easier as you get to increase font size. The battery life,however,is just three hours,not much considering that people buying the P-series wouldnt like to be tied up to a power plug.

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Another unique feature is an additional button on the right,which helps organise multiple windows side-by-side on the screen when too many windows make life tough for the user. The P-series also has the Xross media bar,offering fast access to the Web,email,photos and music without having to log onto Windows.

While the P-series has WinDVD video playback,the DVD drive is missing like with most netbooks. So if you want to watch a movie or upload a video,you probably have to do so through the USB or download it directly onto the device. For this the device has been provided with two USB ports as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Audio,video playback is also a plus point,especially with the built-in speakers and noise-cancelling headphones. A built-in microphone and webcam make webchats easy.

The VGN-P15G comes at a think-twice-before-you-buy price of Rs 64,990,while the lesser VGN-13PG is priced at Rs 49,990. However,it wins hands down as a handy on-the-go laptop for those concerned with weight,size and,of course,style.