Sony

Sony Launching Vista Laptops in Korea

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According to AVING USA, Sony will be launching twelve Vista-capable/certified VAIO laptops in the Korea market in time for the back-to-school season.

No word on when/if these will be available elsewhere or how they compare to existing models. For ultraportable users in Korea, they are going to be offering the SZ/C series with a 13.3-inch widescreen display and using Sony’s hybrid graphics system. This is expected to be similar to the current SZ11 series.

Sony’s hybrid graphics system, such as that present on the SZ11NP/Bs basically allows you to physically switch from an internal to an external graphics chipset or back depending on usage and battery life. External meaning non-Intel – the SZ11 uses an NVidia GeForce Go 7400 with TurboCache as the external graphics accelerator. It does require rebooting, but the savings in battery life is impressive.

Sony is also offering the TX55L/B in Korea, as well as the UX27LN which is powered by an Intel Core Solo (U1500) with, according to AVING, “improved memory and HDD” (could be more or faster memory, and/or a switch to a 2.5-inch Serial ATA drive.

Announced: Sony VAIO UX Micro PC (UX180P)

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Sony has come out with a spectacular little Micro Portable device. It’s not really an Ultra Mobile PC (Origami), and it’s not really a notebook – it’s similar to the OQO Model 01+. It is powered by an Intel Core Solo U1400 processor (1.2GHz), with 512MB memory, 30GB harddrive, and has a 4.5-inch widescreen 800×600 or 1024×600 or touchscreen display. I’m going to cover it for now because it’s got a keyboard which seperates it from the UMPCs.

jkOnTheRun had photos and broke the story yesterday, although he said the initial specs given to him were incorrect.

Announced: Sony VAIO VGN SZ2 Series

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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.