At this point in PC history, it's almost more surprising to see a new high-profile laptop without some sort of bendy, twist hybrid design than one with it. That's why you won't be shocked to see that Sony's new flagship midsize Vaio is more than simply another slim clamshell.
The Vaio Flip 15 still faces the same question that has bedeviled other hybrids before: How do you solve the age-old (or at least a few years old) problem of building a tablet and laptop into a single device? We've certainly seen plenty of possible solutions over the years, from fully detachable screens, to slide-out keyboards, to screens that twist or rotate around, but there's still room for improvement.
As one might guess from the name of the Flip, the system's transformative abilities come from a screen that, well, flips. On paper, that sounds a lot like Lenovo's successful Yoga line, with a two-way hinge that folds all the way backward, forming a slatelike tablet. The main issue people have with that design is that the keyboard, while deactivated, ends up pointing out from the bottom of the tablet, which can be awkward and uncomfortable.
The Flip solves that particular problem by adding a hinge to the center of the upper lid, forming a horizontal line from left to right. The lid folds back along that line, allowing the screen to tilt back. First, it flips back to form a kiosk mode, with the screen pointing out from the back of the system (away from the keyboard and touch pad). Then the lid can be pushed shut to form a slate-style tablet, and unlike the Yoga, the keyboard is on the inside.
In practice, it works a lot more like Dell's XPS 12, which also has a horizontal center hinge, although in that case it rotates the entire screen through a static outer rim. It's also very similar to the Acer Aspire R7, which instead has its hinge on the end of a free-floating arm connecting the lid to the base. The Vaio Flip is sleeker-looking than either of those, and also has the advantage of being available in 13-, 14-, and 15-inch models, making it one of the only midsize hybrids.
The Flip, in all three sizes, is slim, well-built, and looks and feels very high-end, and is made of silver-and-black aluminum, with a backlit keyboard, optional active pen stylus, and optional Nvidia graphics on the 14- and 15-inch versions. Our $1,199 configuration of the Flip 15 includes a fourth-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive, but no discrete GPU. Entry level Core i3 versions start at $799.
Unlike many hybrids, the Vaio Flip wisely doesn't compromise the laptop form, and in its clamshell mode, you'd be hard-pressed to even tell that this is a part-time tablet. As a tablet, it's somewhat less successful, as the screen does not fold down exactly flat, leaving its screen at a bit of an angle, making it awkward to hold or carry.
