While Sony will tell you that the Vaio P mini-laptop isn’t a netbook because it’s smaller, features a higher resolution display and better build quality than most netbooks, the main thing that sets the Vaio P apart from your average netbook is the price. Sony USA sells the Vaio P with a starting price of $899.99. You can easily pick up 2 or 3 netbooks from Asus, Acer, Dell, HP, or MSI for that price.

But it looks like prices could be coming down. PC Home in Taiwan is charging the equivalent of about $692 for an entry level Vaio P with a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 60GB hard drive.

That’s still a pretty high price for a mini-laptop. But at just 1.4 pounds, the Vaio P is smaller and lighter than most netbooks and it does feature a much higher resolution 1600 x 768 pixel display. And those features may be enough to convince some customers to pay a premium price — just not $900.

No word on if or when we’ll start to see similar price cuts in the US.

via Netbook News