That said, since the machine has an excellent touchscreen, it’s a little pointless having this small mouse. We’re sure someone will find it useful, but for us, it’s just taking up space on the keyboard.
The Duo’s screen is also a touch too glossy for us, and unless you jack the brightness all the way up, the reflections can become very noticeable.
One other problem with the hybrid design stems from some of the placement of some of the hardware buttons, which often aren’t in places you’d expect. We’re talking about the volume buttons being underneath the computer on the left side, which are near impossible to reach if the computer is flat on a desk or other surface.
You can always use the function keys on the keyboard, but the placement of the volume buttons means it’s not always easy to press them even when the tablet is in a collapsed position.
It’s strange, too, because the ports are all in places you expect them to be: the sides of the computer. But with the volume – and the useless “assist” button which activates a Sony help system – you’re stuck with a location that is virtually impossible to access quickly.
This design also affects how open the computer is, and if you’re ever working near an open window where it’s raining, be aware that when the Duo is in an “open” position – with the keyboard showing and the screen at an angle – your computer may be open to water or moisture, thanks to the ribbon cables connecting the screen to the rest of the machine.
Battery life also needs an improvement. We’re not exactly enamoured with a maximum of four hours, and we managed just shy of that. Standby life, on the other hand, fetches well over a week, but using the Duo isn’t even a quarter of a day.
And while we love the inclusion of a digital stylus, especially one as nicely made as the aluminium one Sony has provided, we’re a little surprised that the back of this pen doesn’t work like a rubber on a pencil, instead sending the “erase” function to one of the buttons, which also doesn’t work if you decide to use the back of the pencil and the button at the same time. Go figure.
Conclusion
This was, truth be told, one of our favourite hybrid designs, and was the first time we felt we didn’t have to store our keyboard section somewhere, an issue that affects the tablet-laptops with detachable keyboard battery sections.
If you can get around the mediocre battery life and the keyboard key-size, we’d certainly check this out, as it has one of the better hybrid designs available today.
not worth buying, the fact you cant adjust the screen AT ALL is a major flaw and you dont realise how annoying that is untill you have lights behind you glaring off the screen or youre sitting in bed but hve to sit completely upright to see the screen properly, a serious design error on sonys part. Also the mouse track pad in the middle is really annoying because when you are typing, hitting the b,h,or g the wrong angle can make you click where your mouse is and before you know it youve written a paragraph in the html bar or something stupid like that. The sound is also terrible, and the screen is way to log and skinny to e a proper tablet. Not to mention the tiny font at the top of the internet browser or any window you open, you can change it but to have a suitable size takes up too much room.