The Sony VAIO Flip 11 ($799) may be one of the last systems you see from the company, at least on these shores. Sony recently sold off the VAIO PC business, so VAIO will be releasing future products only in the Japanese market. The VAIO Flip 11($789.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) is a convertible hybrid laptop with a screen that pivots around and turns the system into a tablet. Sony saved a few bucks by putting in an Intel Pentium instead of an ultrabook-class Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, and but there’s an excellent 11.6-inch, full HD touch screen. Collectors and people who appreciate great industrial design will want to pick up the VAIO Flip 11, but some downsides, like a cramped keyboard and disappointing battery life, detract from its appeal.

Design and Features
The brushed metal lid comes in three colors: silver, pink, or black. The system looks very much like a thin clamshell laptop when you first take it out of the box, but a line bisecting the screen telegraphs its innovation. Like the Sony VAIO Flip 15 (SVF15N190X)( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), the VAIO Flip 11 has a screen that flips around to let you use the system like a slate tablet.

The VAIO Flip 11 measures about 0.65 by 11.25 by 8.0 inches (HWD) and weighs 2.66 pounds, which is light for a laptop. The system seems heavy when you use it in tablet mode and puts it in the same size and weight class as the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2013)( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and Dell XPS 11( at Dell)(Opens in a new window). The Dell XPS 11 and the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S are the closest in spirit to the VAIO Flip 11, though those rotate around on the usual laptop-hinge axis rather than flipping the screen on its center.

It’s (mostly) good to use the VAIO Flip 11. Its 11.6-inch, 1,920-by-1,080, 10-point touch display is an In-Plane Switching (IPS) screen that shows text, photos, and videos equally well. The clamshell chassis makes it easier to find a good viewing angle than on slate tablets like the Sony VAIO Tap 11($789.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) or Microsoft Surface Pro 2. You can flip the screen around to watch a movie in either Tablet mode or Stand mode, like on the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window).

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The VAIO Flip 11’s method of pivoting the display lets you keep the keyboard surface away from the table in Stand mode and protects the keys in Tablet mode. To flip the display, you have to manually release it via the latch at the bottom of the screen, which is cumbersome. A magnetic- or friction-based method of holding the screen in place would have been simpler and more convenient. The included VAIO Active Pen stylus worked fine for drawing and precision work, but it isn’t as natural when navigating the Web, as with the stylus on the Microsoft Surface Pro 2, and you can’t store it on the chassis.

The 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) comes with more than 80GB available and very few pieces of software preinstalled. There are some Sony- and VAIO-branded apps, plus a full copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 to complement the luminous screen. The backlit keyboard is smaller than the full-size keyboard found on the Apple MacBook Air, but we had no trouble adapting to it in a few minutes. There is an HDMI port, an SD card slot, a headset jack, and two USB 3.0 ports for connecting peripherals and mobile devices (one is for charging). Rounding out the features are 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless connectivity. The VAIO has a one-year warranty. Sony claims that it will honor existing warranties for current products, but with the sale of VAIO to Japan Industrial Partners, driver updates and post-warranty support may become scarce for non-Japan-based customers in the future.

Performance
The system has an Intel Pentium N3520 processor with built-in graphics, 4GB of non-upgradable memory, and that 128GB SSD. It should work perfectly fine for day-to-day performance, as shown by its score of 3,166 points on PCMark 7. In that regard it was almost as fast as the Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch($549.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). On just about all the other benchmark tests, however, the VAIO Flip 11 fell far behind systems with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors. In particular, it was very slow on the photo editing test.

No doubt Sony picked the Pentium processor to save a few hundred bucks on the price tag. Unfortunately, the Pentium CPU’s low power usage doesn’t extend the battery life. The VAIO Flip 11 scored a mediocre 5 hours 24 minutes on our battery rundown test. This is hours less than most of the competition, aside from the Dell XPS 11 (5:55) and Sony VAIO Tap 11 (3:55).

The nice price and screen work in the Sony VAIO Flip 11’s favor. Unfortunately, some design issues, sluggish performance, low battery life, and VAIO’s reduced presence in the U.S. all keep the system in the middle of the pack. If you need a less expensive price tag, better multimedia performance, longer battery life, and a full-size keyboard, then stick to systems like the Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch, our Editors’ Choice for ultrabooks. If the tablet form factor appeals to you, seek out the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga or our Editors’ Choice for Windows slate tablets, the Microsoft Surface Pro 2, both of which are much better performers all around (though pricier). Our last Editors’ Choice for convertible hybrid laptops was the Lenovo ThinkPad X230t( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). The convertible hybrid space is still shaking out, without a clear form factor win among the myriad hybrids that flip, pivot, or slide. While the VAIO Flip 11 is lighter and has more modern components than that, the Flip 11’s short battery life and uncertain future in the U.S. are significant drawbacks.