I’ve managed to get my hands on this super sexy machine to play with it for while. After a week of continuous usage, I think I am in love.

This model was released a couple years ago (I think) but has seen some hardware refreshes. One thing is for certain, this is one of the sexiest notebooks I’ve ever laid my eyes on. Leave it to Sony (and Apple) to design such slick-looking stuff. While not as tiny as the Lifebook P1510 I reviewed recently (it measures in at 27.17 cm x 19.55 cm x 2.8-2.1 cm), it is actually thinner by over three quarters of a centimeter at its thickest point. At that thickness (or rather lack of it), you gotta hand it to the designers to be able to cram in a built-in optical drive.

Build quality is as superb as usual for (most) stuff made by Sony. Overall, the unit feels durable and well built for a design that favors style over ruggedness. Sony used carbon composite for the outer shell, which makes for simultaneous strength and lightness. The casing is dual colored in black for the back of the LCD screen and silver for the keyboard.

The excellent 11.1’ LCD widesceen is glossy is wafer thin and seemed like the most fragile piece of the unit. You can actually bend it sideways by applying the slightest pressure. Outdoor viewability is OK.

The 82-key keyboard is also one of the nicest I’ve seen and typed on on an ultra portable. It looks good, has a nice and responsive tactile feedback. The touchpad is equally good, but its buttons are a tad too thin for my liking.

One of the coolest features of the TX is Sony’s instant-on “A/V Mode” for things like listening to a CD, watching a DVD or browsing photos without having to boot into Windows. The dedicated media control buttons (shown below) are also a nice addition.

Now we come to what I think is the best feature of this ultraportable: battery life. This particular unit has a standard 7800 mAH battery that Sony claims to last up between 5-7 hours, depending on usage. The battery lasted through two days worth of in-class note-taking, with WiFi and bluetooth on and medium to high screen brightness and using the optical drive a couple of times; an estimated 4.8-5 hours of usage! I am sure it would have no trouble lasting more than 5 hours with more conservative settings (WiFi off, dimmed screen, no usage of optical drive, etc). As always, Sony offers is an optional battery that lasts even longer. The stock battery is more than adequate for most patterns of usage.

The TX has the usual slew of connectivity options: WiFi (Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 B/G Wireless LAN), bluetooth, PC card slot, a Memory Stick/SD card reader, 2 USB Ports, 1 firewire port, VGA out, 56k modem and Ethernet. WiFi reception range was good.

So far I’ve waxed poetical on the merits and virtues of this Vaio. There is, however, always some bad stuff. In the case of the TX, I struggled to find something I didn’t like. My only qualms were about the non-upgradeable 4200 RPM hard drive, and the ridiculously high price. Both rather expected from such a class of ultra portables. That said, the Sony Vaio TX is a clear winner in its class with a combination of superior build quality, truly uberportable size, sleek design and plain coolness.