It would be wrong to deny the fact that there have been many super-slim and uber-light Ultrabooks in the market, which come very close to the MacBook Air in terms of design, performance and reliability. However, these Ultrabook PCs came with a price tag so heavy, that it tipped the scales in favour of the MacBook Air in terms of value for money.

And one would usually associate names like Acer, Asus and Toshiba, who have already been making some really good super-slim, super-light and super-expensive Ultrabooks for some time. So when we discovered an Ultrabook from Sony which claims to be the world’s lightest one, we were a bit surprised. We were a bit more surprised when we saw the specs and later the price tag. We thought hard, if this could be the PC counterpart, in terms of design, weight, performance and most importantly pricing, of MacBook Air. Needless to say, we’ve been putting it through its paces on our test bench.

Light and chic

Yes, this Ultrabook is not light in numbers, but actually feels light because of the weight distribution. It weighs in at just 1.03 kilos, and this weight shedding has been possible for Sony because of two words that can make anything magically light yet strong – carbon fibre. The Pro 13’s entire casing consists of carbon fibre, and traces of machined aluminium. That’s two of the lightest components around. And yet, it’s not as pricey as something like the Acer Aspire S7.

Apart from the fact that it is very light, the Pro 13 is also a visual treat. The body is sculpted into neat lines and tapering edges which make you feel like holding it all day long. Sony calls this combination of tapering edges and polygonal-edges a Hexa-Shell design. This design, as we figured, makes sense not just aesthetically, but also ergonomically. The design tapers down as a slope towards the palmrest, which gives a very comfortable palm position while typing for long hours. The hinge and two plastic components at the bottom of the screen lift the backlit keypad up as you push the screen further, giving the right elevation for using the keyboard. They keys too, are well spaced out and have a sharp tactile feedback. I’d say this is one of the most well thought out designs in Ultrabook history so far.

Armed to the teeth

The Vaio Pro 13 is not just a looker, but also a performer, mainly because it has nearly everything a powerful Ultrabook should have. The unit we received had a 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 processor which clocked at 1.6Ghz with Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz. Further, it comes with 4GB RAM by default. We got a score of 621 on an average on Novabench, making it shoot past the Lenovo Twist, Acer Aspire S7, and almost every new Ultrabooks that we’ve tested in the recent past. The only Ultrabook to score higher at 640 is the Asus Taichi.

But that’s just numbers. We loaded the Pro 13 with some 2-3 heavy applications like some of Adobe’s portable Creative Suite software, a couple of big PDFs, and a 720p video as well. This lightweight Windows 8 Vaio didn’t freeze at all. We even got blazing fast wake up and boot up performance because the Pro 13 uses a 128GB SSD and not a SATA drive.

There are two USB 3.0s, one HDMI, an SD card reader and a 3.5mm headset jack. They might seem less, but in a world of wireless computing, they are more than enough. Plus Sony has been kind enough to give an HDMI to VGA converter in the box, and a USB charging port in its own charger’s adapter too. And the trackpad is NFC enabled, so you can use NFC accessories like headphones and stuff.

Multimedia

The screen, however, takes the cake. The 13.3-inch LED backlit TFT TRILUMINOS Display has stunning colour reproduction, diverse viewing angles and impressive levels of brightness, and thanks to a full HD (1920x1080) resolution, it’s rich with details. Yes, something more than just Intel HD 4400 for a GPU would’ve been much appreciated, but we were happy with the Pro 13 nonetheless. And combined with a rich, high-fidelity set of speakers, we enjoyed watching full HD videos on this Ultrabook.

With heavy multimedia, application and surfing based usage, we managed to squeeze out 5 hours of battery life from the Pro 13.

We say

The Pro 13 offers enough power to be on par with the best performing Ultrabooks that are out there right now. It is also a visual treat, because of its stunning design and a brilliant full HD screen. If a 3{+r}{+d} Gen Core i5 chip isn’t enough for you, there’s a higher variant with a Core i7 processor. But even with the base variant, there’s a lot more PC that you get for your money. It’s the best PC deal at the moment.

Rs 69,990 onwards

Love – Brilliant performance, sleek design, stunning screen

Hate – RAM can be expanded only up to 4 GB

sabyasachi.b@thehindu.co.in