Got to Treat Yourself

I bought myself a Christmas present. Next week I’ll receive this neat little thing:

It’s a VAIO X-Series.

This is a replacement for the VGN-SZ5 that I carried around every day in a rucksack for more than two years. Now the rucksack will disappear to be replaced by a tiny messenger bag.

Premium carbon finish, SSD drive, embedded 3G. Extremely thin and less than 900g. This is going to be pure pleasure.

In 2007 netbooks were not around yet and I needed something to write code on the go, not just in my lounge. I got the VGN-SZ5 and a Wenger SwissGear rucksack, both of which I’m still using today. I went everywhere with them: Hertfordshire, TechEd Barcelona, Egypt, the French Pyrenees (picture), Paris, Istanbul… In London I use the Vaio in the tube, in Starbucks, Costa, in pubs, in restaurants (which is extremely annoying to people I go out with).

Last year the rucksack felt a bit heavy on my shoulders so I started looking around for a netbook. I read reviews and benchmarks in magasines, tried out all sorts of models in the shop… Samsung, Asus Eee, Acer, Lenovo, MSI Wind… It wasn’t quite that. Either the 3G card was not embedded, or the thing was too bulky… Not sexy enough.

The first time I saw the X-Series in a Sony shop (in October last year two days before the official UK launch), I immediately thought “I want that”. I gave myself some time to think it over (it’s a bit of an investment). In its October 2009 review, PC Pro said:

But the real problem for the X-Series is its price. (…) Who, though, can lavish £1,130 exc VAT on a vanity laptop such as this?

I just ordered one.