Sony launches VAIO Flip 'laptab'

It has a full high-definition (1080 pixels) touchscreen which comes with an onscreen keyboard

Sony on Tuesday launched the Flip ‘laptab’, a laptop that converts into a tablet PC, under its Vaio brand, claiming it to herald a new form factor in the evolving in-between market. The screen turns over to the other side on its second hinge on the middle of the panel to become a tablet. Unlike other hybrids, the physical keyboard in the Flip is protected inside in the tablet mode.

The Flip was earlier unveiled at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in the US this month and has been selling abroad for a month now.
 
It’s full high-definition (1080 pixels) touchscreen comes with an onscreen keyboard, so that you don’t have to keep going back to the backlit physical one.

The touchscreen worked with a little lag. To be available for sale from the next week, according to Vijaysingh Jaiswal, Head, IT Division, Sony India, the Flip comes comes with screens of 13, 14 and 15 inches. The first one, which Sony said it was pitching for use as a portable device, is light enough at 1.31 kg. The other two are slightly heavier between 1.96 kg and 2.29 kg.

The Flip is enabled with the Triluminous display technology used in Sony’s Bravia TVs. This technology increases the range of the colour palette, making pictures more vivid. However, the colours looked oversaturated at times.

Only the 13-inch variant comes with an 8MP rear camera that clicked average pictures. The rest have only a front camera. This variant also the lowest memory at 128GB, while the rest come with 1TB (a terabyte is 1,024GB).

Sony could have added a stylus to the Flip, but a marketing executive said government normsfor laptops prevented them from providing one.

The device’s adapter in all variants comes with an extra USB port for charging devices. What’s more you can charge devices even when the laptop’s switched off.

The hinge only looks fragile, as I found out when I lifted it from the screen and flipped it quickly twice or thrice. The screen doesn’t get scratched easily though it does get smudged.

Starting at ~99,990 for the 13-inch variant, this lowly sub-editor cannot even think of buying the Flip. If you can, I’d say the flip form factor is attractive enough to give it a try.