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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.

Sony Vaio E 11

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.

Sony Vaio E 11

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. ®

competitor for the MBA??

What you have here my friend is a good old-fashioned 11 inch netbook, plain and simplex

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Re: Refreshing...

Bloody hell - who at Sony decided that the above is a sensible model number for a consumer laptop??

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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.

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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.

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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.

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