Sony has been pumping out ultraportable computers for ages, so the company’s got a little bit of expertise in the area. And this year Sony dipped its toe in the Intel-Atom powered netbook space, first with the overpriced and kind of bafflingly-sized Sony Vaio P, and then with the more typical, but still a bit overpriced Sony Vaio Mini W. And that’s why I’m fairly confident in predicting that the Sony Vaio Series X is also going to be an expensive piece of work. But that doesn’t make the newly announced laptop any less sexy.
Sony unveiled the Series X at IFA in Berlin today. The laptop sports an 11.1 inch display, and a unique carbon fiber frame that’s lighter than the plastic and aluminum used in most netbooks. The result? Sony says the Vaio Series X will weigh just 1.5 pounds, but still feature an all-day battery. Oh yeah, and it’s only 14mm or about 0.55 inches thick.
The laptop isn’t exactly going to be a powerhouse. It’ll reportedly pack a low power Intel Atom processor in order to help achieve that long battery life. But with Nokia setting the bar fairly high with its $800 Booklet 3G, all Sony really has to do is release this thing for under a grand to claim it’s staying competitive. Still, I’d love to see the Vaio Series X ship for under $600. I don’t expect to see that, but it would be nice.
You can check out a brief video of the laptop from Netbook News after the break. It looks like the keyboard is pretty slick, but that touchpad looks kind of small to me. Engadget and CrunchGear also have additional pictures.
Update: Engadget also reports that the Intel Atom processor isn’t set in stone, so it’s possible we could see the Vaio X with a different CPU by the time it’s released — which should be in late October after Windows 7 is officially launched. According to Engadget, there are also plans to sell the laptop with a choice of a matte or glossy display, although the demo units on display in Berlin all have matte screens.
Very high build quality, all-day battery, half an inch thick, half the weight of a typical netbook? The brilliant engineering makes the extra money totally worth it for people who are comfortable with the price range.
A CULV would be nice if they can still hit the battery life spec.
sony’s update to the tt series, i guess
too bad it’s probably missing the optical drive and a dual core cpu
Whoops, I just grabbed the first photo from CrunchGear’s gallery. Post updated with a better image.
With a carbon fiber body, I’ll bet it’ll be closer to US $2000 than $1000. The photo appears to be an earlier version of the Viao X that CrunchGear stuck in their gallery. (no big deal)
The laptop in the picture and the one in the video are radically different, the picture must be of some other Sony laptop. It has a pentium M sticker and a windows XP sticker. Might wanna fix that.
Also, this laptop might not feature an Atom processor (Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/02/hands-on-sony-x-series-slimster/) so if it costs more than a netbook with an Atom, that sorta makes sense. They aren’t sure if it will be Atom or CULV, the latter of which sell for a little bit more.
You won’t see this for anywhere near $600, I can promise. Why? It’s Sony – there is a premium with the name. I feel like this will sell a lot better than the P, but realistically, they are not shooting for a laptop everyone can buy. It’s for an elite group of people who still value the Sony name (do they really even exist anymore?). With that said, it seems like the construction of this laptop is worth around $800, at least based on what’s currently out there. I love my Eee, but there is not way it could compare to this on a construction level. That’s why it was cheap.