Sony Finally Unveils True Netbook - Over At Apple, Brows Furrow. UPDATE - Video

Posted by Daniel Shain

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Sony has recently released the VAIO W series, which comes with 10.1" of non-lopsided standardly proportioned laptop display. At $499 this is a true netbook, and leaves Apple with a monopoly on the "we don't do netbooks" market.

It seems Sony has finally bitten the bullet and produced a real, honest to goodness netbook. Or perhaps, one could argue, the ever-rising quality of netbooks has finally risen to the level where Sony could feel comfortable putting their label on one without wincing. In any case, it is here, and now consumers can decide if they want to dish out the green for VAIO flare in their netbooks just like they can with their notebooks.

Sony brags about two big discerning features that their 10.1" netbook possesses - and those are 1) An impressive 1366x768 LED backlit display, and 2) Pretty colors (berry pink, sugar white and cocoa brown). It is also fairly slim and trim, weighing in at 2.6lbs and sporting dimensions of 10.5" x 7.1" x 1.3". Other than that you get pretty standard netbook fare, with an Intel Atom N280, 1GB RAM and a 160GB HDD.

Sony has elected to go with Windows XP here, even as netbooks are finally beginning to embrace Vista (and that free upgrade to Windows 7 that comes with it). Sony has also elected to put a dinky battery in their netbook, with the 3-cell unit projected to last a mere 3 hours. Don't worry though, you can fork over for a 6-cell option when Sony makes them available in September.

This is no we're-desperate-to-call-something-a-netbook, pocket shaped P-series - this has all the makings of a regular netbook with VAIO branding. And with VAIO branding comes VAIO pricing, as $499 (and more with an eventual 6-cell battery) is on the believable-but-still-pricey side for netbooks.

What do you think? Are you excited that one of the "premium" laptop makers has finally come out with a netbook? Or do you scoff at the price? For me, the more exciting thought is that this could put more pressure on Apple to finally enter the market, and I am curious to see what they will come up with.

UPDATE: The folks over at laptopmag have captured a video of the W series from Sony's Japanese language site. You get a really nice view of the textured touchpad (see above). Check it out.

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