Sony VAIO flip review – hands on

Convertible tablet/laptop hybrids are nothing new, but Sony’s recently an announced VAIO Flip tries to do something a little different – it flips thanks to a folding mechanism built into the 15in display, rather than the hinge. We gave it a quick test following the Sony press conference to bring your our first impressions.

Until you flick the release switch, the VAIO Flip could be any other Sony laptop. The silver aluminium wrist rest and lid, curved lines and raised Chiclet-style keyboard are all typical VAIO. Three USB3 ports, HDMI, Ethernet and a multi-format card reader are all par for the course, so if you aren’t paying attention you may wonder what all the fuss is about.

However, with the release engaged, the screen flips around 180 degrees, folding flat to effectively become an oversized tablet or staying upright for sharing your screen with other people. It’s a slick system which we would love to see in something smaller, as the 15in model on display was simply a little too large to hold comfortably in one hand. Thankfully, 13- and 14in models will also be available.

You can technically bring the screen down over the keyboard and use it as an easel, but the overly attentive booth attendant wasn’t keen on us giving it a try. The screen itself is a 1,920×1,080, IPS model, although you can opt for the 2,880×1,620 panel instead. Paired with a 2GB Nvidia dedicated graphics card, it’s rapidly pushing past what Windows is comfortable with when it comes to interface scaling. Our model had excellent viewing angles and looked fairly vibrant, with the added bonus of being compatible with Sony’s digitiser pen for accurate input or graphic design.

Internally, you can expect a range of Intel Haswell Core processors to choose from, along with various memory allocations and a choice between solid state or mechanical storage if you buy the 14 or 15in models – the 13in comes with an SSD as standard.

The VAIO Flip will be arriving in Europe in the coming months, although we don’t yet know official prices. We’re expecting it to be reasonably high, but hopefully it can undercut the Lenovo ideaPad Yogo and build some traction for Sony in the convertible market.