One of Sony's new Windows 8 products at IFA this year is the Vaio Fit multi-flip laptop and tablet hybrid. Here's our Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip hands-on review.
The Fit Multi-flip is Sony's rival to Samsung's Ativ Q, in the design stakes anyway. It's a laptop and tablet hybrid with a clever hinged design.
The device looks smart and sleek with its aluminium shell and its main feature, the multi-flip element, is clever but a little flawed. The screen sits in a normal laptop position but unlock it and it can flip almost 180 degrees. This means you can either flip it right over to face the opposite direction to a normal laptop or fold it back down on the keyboard to put it into tablet mode.
It works is almost the exact same way as Samsung's Ativ Q but is far too lose. While the Ativ Q allows to set the screen to almost any angle, the Fit multi-flip is loose and only stays still when locked into magnets. This means when you lift the screen upwards from tablet mode, it flies round in a dramatic and worrying fashion.
It's the kind of design where you've got to be careful for fear of the screen detaching and flying across the room. The Ativ Q also has another one up on the Fit multi-flip in that it not only runs Windows 8, but Android too. Getting one back, Sony does provide a proper keyboard and touchpad which is where the Ativ Q is compromised.
As a Windows machine, though, the Vaio Fit multi-windows is a bit of a powerhouse running regular Windows 8 or the Pro version on up to a Intel Haswell Core i7-4500U processor. This is accompanied by up to 16 GB of DDR3 RAM and a choice of hard drive combinations – up to a 1 TB hybrid or up to 512 GB SSD.
We took a look at the 15 in model but the Vaio Fit multi-windows is also available in a smaller 13 in option which comes with a digitizer pen and a 14 in size, too.
Both the smaller models have a Full HD screen but the 15 in version has a whopping 2880 x 1620 Triluminos display which looks stunning. It's driven by either integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 or an nVidia GeForce GT 735M.
There's Ethernet, Bluetooth, USB 3.0, Wi-Fi, HDMI, a front facing HD webcam and even NFC so there's no scrimping here.
It's a desirable laptop hybrid with impressive specifications, if you're careful with the screen. However, the price, which is yet to be confirmed, is likely to be, we fear, not pretty.
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