Slick Sony netbook that's as small as a purse

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In the last 12 months, laptops have got smaller and more powerful by the day, and advances in technology have led to the emergence of the netbook, a new class of tiny machine.

Sony's Vaio P is without doubt the slickest implementation of this idea (at least until Apple makes one).

No larger than a clutch purse, it measures 120 x 245 x 19.8mm, and weighs just 638 grams.

The eight-inch widescreen display is superb, although cramming an entire Windows desktop onto such a small screen does mean small objects on screen can be hard to spot — you might find yourself using a slightly larger font than normal, for example.

But overall the machine works exactly as a full-sized laptop would. It includes every feature you could want — from a webcam and GPS to a built-in 3G modem allowing you to get online simply by inserting a mobile phone sim card. The keyboard, a sticking point on many other small laptops, is excellent.

A base model is available at £849, but the version we used, costing £1,370, has a 128GB hard drive and a faster processor. Battery life is impressive at eight hours and 25 minutes.

Overall, the Vaio P is a triumph of engineering. The small screen might not be suitable for all-day use, but for web surfing and most day-to-day tasks this tiny machine really can do anything a desktop machine can.

Rating: Four out of five