A review of the 11.1-inch Sony VAIO VGN-TT190NIB has been posted over on CNET Reviews. Sony’s TT series is about as ultraportable as you can get without dropping down into the netbook market, but it comes at a price, both literally and figuratively.
It’s one of the most expensive laptops you can get, with an ultra low voltage (ULV) Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. As CNET points out, the ULV CPUs are more powerful than an Intel Atom, but not quite as powerful as a mainstream Core 2 Duo. They are quite a bit more powerful than the Atoms (being that they are faster and have more L2 cache and are true dual-core versus the hyper-threaded Atom). You are also getting an Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics chipset which is head and shoulders above the typical GMA 950.
It may seem a little weird comparing the TT to a netbook, but in the past, all we had to compare it to was usually offerings from Toshiba or some of the 8.9″ Fujitsu LifeBook P-series convertibles, but the netbook comparison is interesting – because of everything Sony did in the design of the TT-series (including a carbon fiber chassis), the thing weighs less than some 10″ netbooks. You may be paying more, but you are getting something that is just about as small as a large netbook, with a lot more performance.
Even more amazing, Sony managed to work in an internal optical Blu-Ray Drive (BRD) – the smallest laptop with a Blu-Ray drive on the market, and you also have the option of dual 128GB Solid State Drives (SSD). Price, but amazing.
Read: CNET Reviews