Sony preps hi-res Atom N netbook
Has Intel relaxed its rules?
Sony launched its first netbook, the Vaio P, back in February. The P's high price undoubtedly put plenty of punters off, so the consumer electronics giant is having another go, this time with a more standard notebook spec.
Sony's Vaio W: hi-res netbook display
Well kind of. The Vaio W has a 10.1in screen, but it sports a 1366 x 768 resolution. It has an Atom N-class processor, but it's the N280 rather than the more commonplace N270. In place of the oft-used 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Sony has given the W 802.11n.
Netbooks with higher resolution screens that 1024 x 768 usually come with Intel's Z-series processors not N-series parts. Has the chip giant finally relaxed the limitations it had placed on N-series netbook designs? We hope so.
The netbook also has 1GB of DDR 2 memory and a 160GB hard drive. It'll have Bluetooth too.
The W will weight 1.19kg and measure 268 x 180 x 32.4mm.
Obligatory range of colours
Due to go on sale in the middle of August - in time for back-to-school buyers, presumably - the Vaio W will come in a choice of white, pink or brown colour schemes. Sony didn't say how many models will make up the W series or how much they'll cost.
Update
The base W is expected to cost ¥60,000 when it goes on sale in Japan. That's £389/$630/€453 in Western currencies - UK pricing typically comes in a bit higher than the conversion would suggest. Expect to pay at least £400, we'd say - hardly a Small, Cheap Computer price... ®
Recent Netbook Reviews...
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COMMENTS
Re: Nexos Enigma - NO 13" MacBookPro with 1440x900
check the apple store
Loving my 2133
Hi res screen, reasonable speakers, plays ripped DVDs fine, spotify runs ok over a 3G modem - what more you want? A knee warmer? You get that too! And all for 200 quid. Sony have got a lot of work to do...
1366x768...
...is worthless unless they have a good GPU to offload video playback from the Atom CPU. Not too many netbooks are capable of adequate 720p playback.
Fail
Never wanted to watch HD video on a low spec system, don't see that changing any time soon. This'll be used for web surfing which it fails at with the screen dimensions it has, either make it a swivel screen so you can use it or put in a blu-ray drive and powerful enough CPU so it'll decode when formats the integrated video won't handle are tried, so you can make proper use of the thing as a movie viewer since there's little else the screen is good for at present.
@ AC #3
"""1366x768 10" screen...and a free glasses prescription"
Actually the 8.9" 1280x768 screen on my HP 2133 is quite useable. Probably far moreso than a 1024x600 or whatever sad spec most netbooks come with these days.
And wow, the Macbook is more of a computer than a netbook... which is probably why they cost so much more.
@ AC1 Re: Picturebook
Actually the picturebooks were nothing like netbooks, since they had optical drives and generally cost over $2000 US for the lowest spec version. And the Picturebook was not the original, since it was a poor and over-priced copy of Fujitsu's ultra portable.
@ Ac2:
"""So if you can achieve those resolutions with an external attached display, then why should there be any limit on the notebook's own display.
Thumbs up to Sony for introducing a 1366x768 resolution on a 10" display."""
Actually the internal screen resolution is arbitrarily limited by Intel to keep netbooks from cutting into sales of real laptops, which are more profitable to Intel. And HP has been selling the 2140 with the same resolution and screen size for some time. They also had the above-mentioned 1280x768 8.9" screen. Over 5 years ago I purchased a Fujitsu with a 10" 1280x780 screen, which was what Sony was using in their ultra portables at the time. I believe Fujitsu has a 5.6" 1280x768 available these days, which is far more impressive than this Sony. I believe Macbooks also have the option for a 1440x900 13" screen, which is better than your quoted 1280x768, but not as good as Lenono's X200, which can be had with a 1440x900 12" wide screen.
