Sony VAIO X Series stripped down - costs a packet to put together

Some tech web sites like to benchmark a new laptop sent in for review — others like to take it apart to see what’s inside. That’s certainly the approach of Asian tech site TechOn and they’ve just taken their tiny screwdriver to the Sony VAIO X Series — the £1,299 netbook ultraportable that we reviewed a while back.

TechOn used a computer engineer for the disassembly and for some professional commentary on how Sony has managed to condense a laptop into a case that’s only 14mm thick. The detailed examination reveals that some compromises have been made for the VAIO X Series, but not in the quality of the components.

The problem seems to lie more with the time it takes to put together such an intricate set of components and the suspicion is that it’s the increased labour costs hat account for the much of the VAIO X Series’ high price.

They employed a drastic measure by mounting all the components on one side," [the engineer] added. "But it contributed to the slimness. I wonder if they mount the components all at once after connecting them with one another. In any case, it is very difficult to assemble."

The conclusion is that the VAIO X Series should cost around twice as much to assemble as a typical laptop or netbook — which is thought to account for around 16% of its manufacturing cost.

So, given that the Sony VAIO X Series is 14mm when closed, it makes you wonder just how much of the 9.99mm Dell Adamo XPS’ $1,799 manufacturing cost is eaten up by the assembly line…

[ TechOn]