Extremely small and light notebooks – commonly known now as netbooks – are flooding the market these days. Not one to get left behind, Sony has released the Vaio P, a very light, 8-inch ultraportable that Sony’s not calling a netbook.
The world’s lightest notebook at 1.4 pounds, Sony says the Vaio P can fit into a jacket pocket, or handbag. We’ll give them the handbag part, but all 8 inches of it fitting into a jacket pocket is a bit of a stretch. That aside, this notebook really is extremely handy, and doesn’t compromise any features despite its size. The ultra-wide, backlit LED has an impressive 1600 x 768 resolution, and the notebook itself is packed with 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, built-in wireless WAN 3G mobile broadband, and GPS. Under its glossy hood it hides an Intel 1.33GHz processor, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, and a 60GB HDD (with an option for a 128GB SSD). An instant-mode option launches the Sony Xross Media Bar interface. With it, the notebook will boot-up quickly so you can go straight to your multimedia and the Internet. Battery life is expected to last up to 4 hours with the regular battery, and 8 hours with the large-capacity battery. It will also ship with a built-in webcam, Memory Stick PRO, MMC and SD card slots, and Windows Vista.
The Sony Vaio P truly doesn’t fall into the netbook category when you consider its $900 price tag. Its unique form factor and full PC features might also be enough to convince some that it’s a “Lifestyle PC” as Sony calls it, and not your typical netbook. You can get it in garnet red, emerald green, onyx black, crystal white and classic black when it goes out to stores in February.
