Sony has been teasing its upcoming Vaio X thin and light laptop for the past few months. Here’s what we know: It takes thin and light to a new level, weighing just 1.5 pounds and measuring 0.55 inches thick, but sporting an 11.1 inch display.The laptop clearly uses some advanced technology including a carbon fiber chassis to keep the size and weight down, so I didn’t really expect it to be cheap.
Now Boy Genius Report says a tipster is spilling the beans on the price: It will sell for around $1499, at least in Canada.
Engadget reports that the laptop uses the same 2GHz Intel Atom Z550 processor found in early prototypes. While it’s a low power processor that will help keep down the size and heat buildup, the Atom Z5xx series isn’t exactly known for its performance. Unless Engadget is wrong, I think the Vaio X may be about as attractive as the Sony Vaio P, which is to say if you care about form more than function, and you’ve got very deep pockets, then Sony has a laptop (and a bridge) to sell you. I’m hoping that Sony came to their senses and swapped out the Atom CPU for something a bit more powerful.
Boy Genius Report suggests that the laptop will have a multi-touch touchpad, a solid state disk, and Windows 7 Home Premium. The standard battery will run about 3.5 hours, but you’ll also be able to purchase an extended battery that will run for up to 14 hours.
$1500 and it’ll still probably come with enough crapware that it’ll take 3 hours to uninstall and clean up.
Yeah, these are targeted at people who look at the MacBook Air and some of the other premium-class ultralights. For people who would shop in this price range anyway, 1.5 lbs and 0.55″ thick are pretty enticing.
For the rest of us… well, maybe there will be some on clearance someday.
Yup, $1,500 sound about what Sony would charge given what the various levels of Vaio P cost. I hope it actully comes in at $1,000 but I don’t expect that.
The thing with the Vaio P that attracts me is the keyboard layout and point mouse. It’s the only combination like that on the market, and the only combination that works for me.
Had it not the GMA500, I’d be using one right now (poor Poulsbo support in Linux prevents me from buying one, even at such extremely high prices). I wish there was a Vaio P knockoff.
Thing is, I bet this notebook will not have a similar keyboard layout, it is losing the point mouse, the screen will be ultra-reflective and shiny and will cost even more. And being so thin, how will the keyboard keys feel? I bet they’ll hit the screen when the notebook is closed, like most notebooks do anymore, causing wear to the display.