New Super-Speedy Netbook from Sony

Netbooks offer a lot of features that buyers are looking for: They're extremely portable, have long lasting batteries, and often come in several colors, all while providing basic computing capabilities. A lot of buyers feel limited by the bare-bones approach, however, and take a pass, whether it's because of their cramped keyboards or tiny screens. The Sony VAIO VPC-YB15KX/S  may have them thinking twice. Sony's new entry into the netbook market sports an 11.6-inch screen and full-size keyboard and refuses to make sacrifices.


Design
The VPC-YB15KX/s has lightweight plastic chassis, though, the metallic silver coloring could easily be mistaken for aluminum—a material popularized by Apple's MacBook Pro line. The plastic construction helps keep the netbook light; it weighs only 3.2 pounds even though it's one of the larger netbooks. It measures 1.25 by 11.43 by 7.99 inches (HWD)—still small enough to slip into a backpack or large purse, but large enough to offer an 11.6 inch screen. Usually, netbooks feature a smaller 10.1-inch screen and offer a 1,024-by-600 resolution; the VPC-YB15KX/s offers a 1,366 by 768 resolution capable of displaying 720p video. The high-resolution and widescreen make this netbook a handy little entertainment device, well suited to watching streaming video through sites like Hulu and Netflix.

The Sony VAIO VPC-YB15KX/s also offers a full size keyboard, which provides a much more comfortable typing experience than the 95% sized keyboard found on the Samsung NF310-A01 (4.5 stars). The textured palm rest is also a nice touch, providing a bit of traction for your hands and making it easier to keep the netbook secure when used on a lap or tray table. The touchpad has a pattern printed across its surface that mimics the palm rest visually, but it's still smooth to the touch. The touchpad supports simple multi-finger gestures, like two-finger scrolling and pinch-zoom, and has two separate right and left mouse buttons.

Features
The VPC-YB15KX/S comes with a healthy selection of ports and connectors, including 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI outputs, and headphone and microphone connections. A physical switch along the front edge of the palm rest lets you turn the 802.11 Wi-Fi on and off. Also in the front edge are not one, but card reader slots, one for SD format cards and another for Sony's proprietary Memory Stick formats. Above the screen is one of Sony's Motion Eye webcams, and Stereo Bluetooth lets you connect wirelessly to Bluetooth-enabled devices, including wireless stereo headphones and sound systems.

The VPC-YB15KX/S comes with a spacious 500GB 5,400 rpm hard drive. Most systems shipping with smaller hard drives, like the HP Mini 5103 (4 stars) (160GB), the Editors' Choice Samsung NF310-A01 (250GB), Still, it spins slower than the 320GB 7,200 rpm drive found in the HP Pavilion dm1z (4.5 stars).
Bloatware is fairly light on this netbook. It comes with trial versions of Microsoft Office 2010 and Norton internet Security, but also includes Evernote (a free tool for taking and organizing notes) and Skype.

Performance
The VPC-YB15KX/SSony VAIO VPC-YB15KX/S 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver) comes with a 1.6 GHz dual-core AMD E-350 processor. This processor is top-dog in AMD's new E-series, and has appeared in other top-rated netbooks, like the Editors' Choice Samsung NF310-A01 and HP Pavilion dm1z. It's part of AMD's Fusion line of Accelerated Processing Units (APU), which place both the processor and a dedicated graphics processor onto the same chip die. This configuration provides better processor performance while maintaining the efficiency and long battery life that netbooks demand.

In terms of performance, as measured by the SYSMark 2007 benchmark suite, the Sony VAIO VPC-YB15KX/S scored 55 points overall, easily beating the Samsung NF310-A01 and nearly matching the HP dm1z. Only the Lenovo ThinkPad X120e (4 stars) managed to beat the VAIO VPC-YB15KX/S by a significant margin, scoring 59 points.

The VPC-YB15KX/s also comes with a 6-cell 54Wh battery. In our MobileMark 2007 battery rundown test, it lasted 7 hours 53 minutes from fully charged to completely drained. This time easily surpassed every comparison unit except for the HP Mini 5103, which lasted 8:40 with a 6-cell 66Wh battery.
With its speedy dual-core AMD E-350 processor, its large 500GB hard drive, and a size that is both compact and portable yet large enough for comfortable typing and viewing, the Sony VAIO VPC-YB15KX/S is a strong new entry in the netbook market. While the all-day battery life and lower price of the Editors' Choice HP Pavilion dm1z may sway some buyers, the Sony VAIO VPC-YB15KX/S is definitely worth considering.