Sony deploys 11in Vaio to battle Apple Air
Same size screen, half the price
Sony has turned to AMD for processors to power its 11in sub-notebook, the Vaio E 11.
The 11.6in, 1366 x 768 machine incorporates an AMD dual-core 1.7GHz E2-1800 CPU plus Radeon HD 7340 graphics.
Pack in a 500GB, 5400rpm hard drive, 4GB of 1333MHz DDR 3, three USB ports - one of them USB 3.0 - HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, 2.4GHz 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0, and you don't have a bad little laptop for a pound short of £400.
True, at 290 x 204 x 24mm and 1.5kg, it's a tad bulkier and heavier than the new slimline 11.6in, Intel Ivy Bridge-equipped Apple MacBook Air, but then it's half the price, too.
Available shortly, the Vaio E 11 will be released exclusively through Sony's website, its franchises and Dixons' shops, in a choice of white or black colour finishes. ®
COMMENTS
competitor for the MBA??
What you have here my friend is a good old-fashioned 11 inch netbook, plain and simplex
Re: Refreshing...
Bloody hell - who at Sony decided that the above is a sensible model number for a consumer laptop??
Re: Huh
What about battery life? I thought that was why they went for slower drives in laptops. Even the Apple laptops that still have hard drives only have 5400 ones I think.
Huh
This is actually a very attractive package. 1366x768 nonsense aside, that's passable in 11.6".
I do wish that 5400 RPM HDDs were banned, though, they're barely pennies cheaper than a 7200 RPM equivalent. Obviously an SSD is something you do yourself to keep the base cost low, and I'm fine with that.
El Reg... drop the Apple obession
This and the MacBook Air are Apples and Oranges when comparing them. The Sony doesn't have SSD, it isn't a similar slim-profile, no Thunderbolt, it's AMD, and it's made out of plastic.
Better make sure you take your sanity pills next time.
