Sony VAIO Duo 11 Hands-On: 1080p Screen Meets Slide-Out Keyboard
Aug 29, 2012 06:24 PM EDT by 
Tablets with slide-out keyboards seem to be a mini-trend these days. ASUS released its Android-based Eee Pad Slider in 2011, and, here at IFA 2012, we’ve seen two separate Windows 8 slates with keyboards that slide out the bottom. New to the list is Sony’s new VAIO Duo 11, which the company just unveiled. We had a chance to go hands-on with the VAIO Duo 11 and liked its bright, sharp screen, but wonder whether this system might be too bulky and expensive for most users.
High-End Specs and Pricing
While some Windows 8 tablet vendors have chosen to offer their slates with low-end, low-power components, Sony has spec’ed the VAIO out like a medium to high-end notebook and priced it similar to a very expensive notebook rather than a tablet. Though the notebook will be sold in different configurations, all models will come with either a 1.9-GHz Core i7-3517U, 1.7-GHz Core i5-3317U or 1.8-GHz Core i3-3217U CPU, a 128 or 256GB SSD, a full HD 1920 x 1080 screen that supports 10-point touch and active stylus input and either Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro.
The review system we saw on display had the Core i7 CPU installed with Windows Pro, so perhaps that will be the dominant configuration. A Sony rep said that pricing would vary by country but would be around 1,100 Euros ($1,379). At present, even high-end Ultrabooks like the MacBook Air 13-inch ($1,199) and Lenovo X1 Carbon ($1249) cost less, while the iPad and its direct competitors hover around $499.
Like a typical notebook, the VAIO Duo packs plenty of ports, including 2 USB 3.0 connections. Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, a headphone jack and an SD card reader. By contrast, most tablets don’t even have one full-size USB port and many don’t include microSD card readers either.
Hefty Size
At Sony’s IFA Berlin booth, all of the VAIO Duo 11 systems on display had the optional sheet battery attached, which adds significant heft — a Sony rep told us that it adds .3 kilograms (.66 pounds) — and thickness to the tablet, which starts at a heavy 2.86 pounds but a reasonable .7 inches thick. When we lifted the tablet off of the display table, it felt extremely bulky in our hands and, when you consider that the iPad is 1.3 pounds (less than half the weight), the Duo 11′s weight is concerning.
Keyboard
The slide out keyboard is certainly interesting, but is it practical? In our tests, sliding out the keyboard was fairly easy once we figured out where to pull up the back, but the keys themselves were smaller than those you’d find on a netbook. Yes, the keyboard is backlit and it has an optical nub between the G and H keys for navigation, but the typing and navigating experience just didn’t seem that good as we often flailed around the desktop with the nub and found the keys just a bit too small for our taste.
Considering that the VAIO 11 Duo is specked like a notebook and priced like a very expensive notebook, we’d expect a notebook-like typing experience. Unfortunately, we can’t see too many users typing on this undersized keyboard for long periods of time and, with the lack of a palm rest or any kind of tilt, we think it might be uncomfortable. Also, with the screen propped up, this device would be really unwieldy if placed on a lap.
Screen and Pen
The bright, colorful 11.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 screen is definitely the VAIO Duo 11′s best feature. Where most 11-inch notebook screens clock in at a lame 1366 x 768 (or 135.1 pixels per inch) the VAIO Duo 11′s screen is a razor-sharp 189.91 PPI. In our test, Windows 8′s desktop environment was just huge with lots of tiny icons and Windows, which means that you can fit a lot of content on screen but you may want to turn up the font and icon sizes to make it easier to target menus and shortcuts.
Even better, the display supports 10 finger multi-touch. When we tried drawing with both hands in Windows paint, the system drew one line for each finger.
Sony hasn’t said who makes its touchscreen digitizer, but the bundled pen looks like one of N-Trig’s styluses. With the highly-accurate, two-button pen, we were able to not only draw effectively but easily and accurately tap the tiny icons and menus on the desktop. Since Windows supports stylus input for writing in any program, the pen could be a lot more convenient than the keyboard.
Final Thoughts
The VAIO Duo 11 tablet is a truly interesting product that pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a tablet or a notebook. That said, we’re concerned both about the price we heard quoted and the keyboard which is good enough for small typing tasks but not for full-time content creation.
For something that’s more expensive than an iPad and much more expensive than even some high-end notebooks, most users will expect the VAIO Duo 11 to be good enough to be a primary computing device. The system certainly has the power to be your everyday work and school PC, but does it have the right level of usability? We’ll determine that after we review the VAIO Duo 11. Stay tuned.
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August 30th, 2012 at 12:42 am
The Duo 11 keyboard is almost the exact same as the old Vaio X505 if you compare the two – at least in look. Not sure about pitch, etc. The X505 wasn’t for everyone, either. If the price you quote is what it will be, it’s pretty fair for a full fledged notebook-spec’d tablet. Based on things like the old X505 and U70P, etc, all of which sold for much more than the alleged price of the Duo out of the gate, I’m pleasantly surprised. I only really have two problems with it:
1. You can’t have 16GB of RAM (which my Panasonic CF-J10 ultraportable can – you don’t review that line since it’s Japanese only)
2. Only a 256GB SSD; 512 or 1TB would be much better
Outside of that, it ticks off most of my boxes for an everyday type of computer. I really do need 16GB of RAM to run VMs, but I have my Panasonic for that. The Duo 11 is a great presentation machine, and it has one huge leg up over most of what I’ve seen of the Win8 tablets: VGA out. HDMI is not yet standard in most places for presentations, so kudos to Sony for building it in and not making everything a dongle (like the old X505 and the U70).
I was considering a Surface, but no more. I’ve avoided Sony for awhile for various reasons, and quite frankly, they got boring and ‘me-too’. This is very much a return to form for the Sony Vaios I used to know and love.
August 30th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
I like the slider concept for touch/stylus enabled devices but this thing is too big for someone like me who is specifically looking for an 11.6″ device. The footprint is way to big which would make tablet use more awkward than it already would be for an 11.6″ screen. For 11.6″ device users, it is also bigger than other non-touch enabled 11.6″ notebooks. I would have preferred a trackpoint instead of an optical pad. I’ve used an optical pad before and it is many times worse than a regular nub.
Touch control is nice but I wouldn’t sacrifice footprint and mouse control for it. It would have been great if Sony or some other company came out with a thin and light 11.6″ notebook with thin bezels and that extended battery option. So far, I like the 11.6″ Acer S7 but there’s no extended battery (no battery life figures yet either), no full SDHC/SDXC card slot and the keyboard layout doesn’t look very good. At least, there’s word that it can be configured without touch since touch + clamshell just isn’t useful.