Sony Vaio Duo is among rare tablet/laptop
hybrids that have the most completed design, showed via the harmonious
combination of tablet-like features in a neat ultra-book.
Vaio Duo 11’s design has erased the border
between laptop and tablet; even in the near future, there will be more hybrid
laptops sharing common characteristics with tablets. Under the increasing
pressure of tablet and developing technology, hybrids models are becoming
sleeker, more lightweight and more efficient.
Sony
Vaio Duo 11
Some comments said that hybrids were still less
qualified than tablets, regarding weight, slimness and runtime. Similarly,
hybrids couldn’t be on par with laptops, with reference to screen size,
contacts, overall performance and usefulness.
This is normal as basically, hybrids are
still laptops re-designed to be sleeker and more compact. Integrating
tablet-like and laptop-like features in a limited space requires manufacturers to
select, simplify or remove some less important parts.
Interaction with users
Vaio Duo 11 is equipped with an 11.6in multi-pointing
touchscreen plus Full HD (1,920x1080pixel) resolution. The Gorilla Glass layer
increase the machine’s protection against shock and scratch thus the screen
will be better protected. Vaio Display Plus with OptiContrast improves brightness
and contrast, delivering bright and clear display even in outdoors or under bright-lit
conditions. Color-switching phrases, dark-light levels as well as greys and whites
are also easily distinguished.
Vaio
Duo 11 is among laptops that have the best touchscreen we have ever tried.
Besides, Duo 11 is one of several laptops
that have the best touchscreen we have ever experience. When accompanied by
Windows 8’s Modern UI, the product brought interesting experiences. With two
classic games: Angry Birds and Plant vs. Zombies, the feeling of smoothness
created by low friction made on-screen maneuvers easy and accurate, operations
were more versatile than through touchpad and external mouse.
Though, note that image size on an 11.6in
Full HD screen will be considerably smaller than on Acer Aspire S7’s 13.3in
screen. This is reasonable for the fact that the Full HD resolution only suits
laptops featuring 15.6in screen and above.
Keyboard and stylus
Packing many tablet-like and laptop-like functions
means that the manufacturer has to shrink the keyboard down and use optical
pointer instead of touchpad. The most creative is the digitizer stylus which
comes handy in noting, dealing with images or modeling graphics.
Practice showed that buttons felt soft,
with good feedback. There’s also LED backlighting for low-lit conditions.
However, due to keys having smaller than standard, it requires user more time to
get along with before typing without any mistake.
Beside
the multi-pointing touchscreen, user can interact with the device via a
digitizer stylus.
Contact and upgrade availability
Unlike hybrid models in the same series, limit
in size seemingly doesn’t affect the number of ports considerably.
Specifically, the machine supports both VGA and HDMI outputs, 4-in-1 card
reader, headphone jack and 2x USB 3.0 slots, one of which is integrated with “power
share” for performing fast charge even when the device is off.
The
standard VGA port helps Duo 11 to connect with common LCD screens.
Beside the 1Gbps Ethernet and other popular
wireless connections such as Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Duo 11 also
supports potential wireless connectivity, like WiDi 3.0for video/photo sharing
between computer and HDTV. NFC (Near Field Communication) can share info, data
or stream photo, messages in a short distance (4-10cm), or carry out electric
transaction.
Performance
Our test model features Intel HM77 Express
chipset, Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz, 3MB smart cache), Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4GB
of DDR3 RAM (1,600MHz bus) and 128GB SSD.
Vaio Duo 11’s overall performance was quite
good, meeting both basic work and entertainment. A SSD requirement helps to
raise the general performance, and bring faster response time, for instance,
booting took 10sec since pressing power button until logging into Modern UI and
reduced down to 7sec when “Turn on fast boot” was activated. Similarly for
PCMark 05, test showed that speeds were 119MBps for executing apps, 305.5MBps
for scanning virus and 173.2MBps for booting Windows XP.
The
gliding design feature hinges on sides.
Aside from advantage in accessing, SSD
could better deal with shock and heat spreading plus result in fluent operation
because of having no movable part; user data would be safer than in tablet.
Saying about battery life checked by
MobileMark 2007, in Productivity test, our model got 4h 43min, slightly lower than
Dell XPS 12 and 5.7% lower than Intel’s ultra-book standard.
Test details
Via PCMark 7, Duo 11 got scores of 4,921 for
general performance and 16,860 for Computation; much higher than results from
model equipped with hi-end discrete graphic card. This is understandable as the
graphic processor inside Ivy Bridge chip is better at processing and converting
video in Computation test.
Through Cinebench R11.5 (64bit), the device
got a score of 2.41 for CPU and 15.63fps frame rate in OpenGL test.
SSD equipment increased overall performance
and brought faster response, transfer rates of the partition containing the OS
were 328.8MBps (write) and 527.6MBps (read).
The device resulted in speeds of 119MBps for
executing apps, 305.5MBps for scanning virus, 365.7MBps for writing and
173.2MBps for booting Windows XP.
Graphic performance
For 3DMark 11’s Performance setting, Vaio
Duo 11 scored of 512 (Graphics) and 595 (Overall performance); slightly higher
than several ultra-books in the same series.
For the hard game test with Alien vs.
Predator, at 1,366x768pixel (WXGA) resolution and the lowest setting (0xAA,
0xAF), our test model reached 18.9fps. When setting was raised up to medium
(0xAA, 4xAF), frame rate in-game fell down to 16.5fps.
Though, the results were for reference as
practice showed that the Intel HD Graphics 4000 could only run low-required games
like Street Fighter IV. Specifically, at 1,366x748pixel resolution in default
setting, the device scored 9,045 and 49.9fps frame rate.
Battery life
Through MobileMark 2007, the model lasted
for 4h 43min in Productivity test, slightly lower than from Dell XPS 12 and
Intel’s standard – 5.7%.
Cooling system
Beside above performance tests, we also recorded
the device’s cooling operation in an environment whose temperature was 26
degrees Celsius. The machine ran smoothly with casual games: Fish with
Attitude, Radiant Defense… For hard-core graphic processes, like 3DMark11 or
Alien vs. Predator, the cooling system worked fluently while highest
temperatures of processor and GPU were respectively 79 degrees and 82 degrees;
much lower than from other hybrid models in the same test.
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Technical specs
·
Size: 32x19.9x1.8cm
·
Weight: 1.3kg
·
Processor: Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz, 3MB smart
cache)
·
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000
·
RAM: 4GB (DDR3, 1600MHz)
·
Hard drive: 128GB SSD (SATA, 6Gbps)
·
Display: 11.6in FullHD (1,920x1,080pixel) IPS,
VAIO Display Plus, OptiContrast Panel, capacitive
·
Webcam: FullHD 2.4MP
·
Contacts: VGA, HDMI, 2x USB 3.0, 2-in-1 card
reader, headphone
·
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0+HS, Wi-Fi
802.11b/g/n, WiDi, NFC
·
OS: Windows 8
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