Announced: Sony VAIO VGN SZ2 Series

Yesterday saw the announcement from Sony Europe, concerning their new VAIO VGN-SZ2 series of ultraportable notebooks. These notebooks have a 13.3-inch display, and weigh just 3.5 pounds, due to the carbon fiber chassis/casing. Full specifications aren’t out just yet, but it is known that they will be powered by Intel’s Core Duo Processor. Two models have been announced, the VGN-SZ2XP/C and the VGN-SZ2VP/C, with the VP/C having a T2600 Intel Core Duo (2.16GHz) and being considered the top-end model.

The SZ2 series has a very unique feature – being able to switch from Intel’s 945GM vidoe chipset to an NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7400 video chipset for gaming and multimedia. The 945GM can be used to save battery life when needed.

Announced: Rock Pegasus 330 (UK)

Rock (RockDirect.com) announced the Rock Pegasus 330 last week. The Pegasus 330 is an Intel Core Duo based ultraportable laptop with a 13.3-inch widescreen display. It weighs around 4.5 pounds, comes with an internal optical drive (an 8x Dual-Layer DVD Writer comes with some models), and uses either a 1.66 T2300 Intel Core Duo, or the 1.83GHz T2400 CPU.

It’s got a few unique features that make it stand out for its class – it comes bundled with a USB Digital TV tuner, and it has an “Instant On function for playback of DVD, Video, MP3 etc”, meaning that it doesn’t have to boot all of the way into Windows to play media (which saves on battery life). Speaking of battery life, it has a “Silent mode button for silent running and improved battery life”, which presumably turns everything way down.

VoodooPC – “Scott Speed Notebook” version of Envy a228

VoodooPC has announced a limited-edition version of their VoodooPC Envy a228. It’s the “Scott Speed” Edition, and features a different case than the normal Envy lineup. It’s kind of surprising or interesting (or both) that they chose an ultraportable rather than one of their large gaming notebooks. Scott Speed is an American Formula 1 driver (somewhat of a rarity) and with a last name like Speed…you can’t beat that. The Envy a228 is a 12-inch widescreen notebook powered by an AMD Turion 64 CPU and weighs in at under four pounds.

Review: ASUS W5F (PC Perspective)

PC Perspective has put together an in-depth review of the ASUS W5F, a very popular ultraportable notebook. This is the Intel Core Duo-powered sequel to the W5A, and going by links/pageviews, the W5F has been the most popular laptop here at Small-Laptops.com. In addition to the Core Duo CPU, it’s got a 12.1-inch widescreen display and a built-in optical drive, as well as a built-in 1.3MP camera.

Top 10 Ultraportable/Small Laptops of April 2006

Once again it’s time for the Top 10 Ultraportable/Small Notebooks of the month, for April 2006. This list is based on reader interest (which is in turn based on page views, links, etc.). Not the most scientific, but surprisingly it’s been fairly consistent. The only major changes occur when a new notebook is released, but unless it’s an outstanding notebook, the list goes back to what it was before.