Sony VAIO Pro 13 review

Its 13.3in IPS touchscreen display was equally gorgeous. Its Full HD resolution is perfect for getting the most out of films and photos and our solid reds, greens and blues were all very bright and vibrant. Blacks weren’t quite as true as its frameless bezel, but they were still pleasingly deep. Our high contrast images looked great as well, with high levels of detail visible in each photo and rich colours to match.

It’s not quite perfect and we had a few problems with its viewing angles. Since the Pro 13 is a more traditional laptop, there’s a much more generous amount of screen tilt available, but we found there’s only a limited sweet spot where we didn’t notice any big shift in contrast across the screen, making it feel just as fixed as the screen of the Duo 13. We had particular trouble with our solid white image, as there was always some part of the screen that looked much greyer than the rest. This is a shame, as we really hoped the screen tilt would rectify the problems we had with the Duo 13.

Thankfully, its thin chassis doesn’t compromise too heavily on ports, as there are two USB3 ports, an HDMI video output, an SD card reader and a combined headphone and microphone jack. Its integrated speakers are good, too, even though they’re positioned right on the inner hinge of the laptop facing the screen. Our test tracks were a little on the tinny side, but there was a good level of base in all of them. Unsurprisingly, there’s no room for a Gigabit Ethernet port, but much like the Duo 13, spending an extra £60 will get you an Ethernet Wi-Fi adapter that plugs into the Pro 13’s power supply and doubles up as a wireless router as well.

We were very pleased with its battery life, too. It didn’t quite manage the massive 20 hours of the Duo 13, but its 11h 32m with the screen set to half brightness is still hugely impressive for such a small laptop. You’ll certainly be able to get a full day’s work out of it, but if this isn’t quite enough, there’s also the option of buying an extended battery that connects to the bottom of the chassis for another £80 which Sony claims will make the Pro 13 last for up to 18 hours.

Of course, this only adds to the already high starting price of the Vaio Pro 13, and at £1,079 for the touchscreen Core i7 model reviewed here, its various flaws become all the more magnified and problematic. It may be the lightest 13in Ultrabook ever made, but the heavier Samsung Series 7 Ultra is a better buy for most users.