Let me begin with a disclaimer; this is not a technical review, as I am by far one of the least technologically capable people I know. Looking for a new laptop, my criteria went something like this:

1. Must be extremely lightweight as I will be carting it from work to uni on public transport
2. Must have a keyboard
3. Must be compact enough to carry in my handbag however large enough to operate as a laptop rather than a tablet

And that was it. I didn’t give much regard to the technical specifications because I would only be using it for word processing, excel and internet browsing. I chose the Sony VAIO 13 because it is extremely light and compact (weighing 1.3kg and 19mm thick). In the picture above, you can see it peaking out of my handbag. It actually fits right inside without showing, but I propped it up for the photo. Here are some of my general observations for others who may be interested in purchasing this laptop:

• The touchscreen is very handy, I use it much more than I thought I would.
• I never ever use this device as a tablet, I just find it too fiddly to do so and it’s just as easy to reveal the keyboard and use it as a laptop. In retrospect I should have purchased the non tablet version which is 200 grams lighter and slightly less expensive.
• It is very easy to touch type on the keyboard. It took a little getting used to at first because, for example, the shift button is much smaller on this device than on my previous laptop, however all in all the keyboard is very responsive and I find myself being able to type faster on this device.
• The laptop comes with a Bluetooth mouse, which is very handy for navigation because the track pad is very small.
• It also comes with a stylus which connects to the side, however I hardly use it, preferring to type or use my fingers.
• It took me a while to get used to the apps feature of the laptop, which is handy for quickly searching for programs, although I tend to stick to the traditional desktop view.
• It’s an attention catching, good looking, sleek and well designed device.
• The recharge cable is tiny, which is fantastic because there’s no point having a light laptop and an enormous, heavy charger to lug around.
• It comes with a thin protective case to prevent the screen from being scratched in my handbag.
• I find that the angle that the screen sits is a little awkward (as you can see in the picture below) and this cannot be adjusted. I solve this issue by propping a binder underneath the furthest edge when I’m using it.

You can see how thin the laptop really is in the above picture. Having connected this device up to my university’s wireless service, I find that I can get away with attending lectures and classes without notes since everything is readily available online. I can carry it around all day and not even notice it, in fact most of my textbooks are much heavier and I often find myself nervously checking to make sure I haven’t left it on a table somewhere! I highly recommend it as an ‘on the go’ laptop for students.

I hope this post was helpful. There is a wealth of information about this laptop online, but a lot of it is quite technical so I wanted to provide a layperson’s review.

That Career Girl