At first glance, the new Sony Vaio W Eco looks almost exactly like the Sony Vaio W 10 inch mini-laptops the company has been selling since mid-2009. But the Eco series which Sony introduced in early January is different from earlier models in one major way: The case is partially made from recycled materials. In fact, 20% of the plastic case is made from recycled compact discs.

Sony also ships the Sony Vaio W Eco Series netbook with a carrying case made of recycled PET bottles. On the inside, Sony has replaced the Atom N270 CPU with a new, more energy efficient Intel Atom N450 processor. The netbook has a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive and ships with Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The folks at CNET managed to get their hands on one of the new Eco series netbooks and report that the new model looks and feels a lot like the original Vaio W. And in most ways, that’ s a good thing. it has a sturdy chassis and a crisp, high resolution display. CNET doesn’t love the keyboard, saying it feels cramped. Having used the original Vaio W keyboard briefly, I have to agree on that front.

The Sony Vaio W Eco Series is available for pre-order from Amazon for $479.99.

Last week Sony introduced an updated version of its Vaio W netbook line. The new Vaio W Eco Edition will feature Intel Atom N450 processors, GMA 3150 graphics, and eco-friendly features including a plastic case made partially from recycled CDs. This week, a new Sony netbook hit the FCC web site. It’s not clear whether this is the same model or something new.

The FCC documents describe a netbook with a 10.1 inch display and a 1.66GHz Intel Atom Pineview N450 processor. The laptop has a 4400mAh battery and 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth. It will be available with 1GB to 2GB of memory and a 250GB or 320GB hard drive.

While there are no real pictures of the laptop, the drawing above shows that the battery seems to take up more space than the batteries on previous Sony Vaio W models. So it’s possible that the battery on this netbook won’t jut out as much as the 6 cell battery on existing Sony Vaio W laptops. The pictures I’ve seen of the Sony Vaio W seem to suggest that the battery on that model will stick out quite a bit from the bottom.

Of course, this image is two dimensional, so it’s kind of hard to glean anything from it.

via New Netbook Reviews

The Sony Vaio W has never been one of the cheapest netbooks. Initially launched with a $499 price tag and a 1366 x 768 pixel HD display, Sony was clearly trying to set the Vaio W apart from the crowd. Now the company has found a new way to do it, by introducing the Sony Vaio W Eco Edition which has a plastic case with about 20% of the material coming from recycled CDs.

The netbook also comes with a carrying case made from recycled PET bottles. You also don’t get a paper manual in the box. Instead, the manual is stored digitally.

The new model still has a 10.1 inch 1366 x 768 pixel display. It has an Intel Atom N450 CPU, 250GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and runs Windows 7 Starter Edition. It weighs 2.9 pounds and gets about 7 hours of run time. And either recycled plastic is cheap, or Sony has found another way to bring costs down, because the Sony Vaio W Eco Edition will retail for $480. That’s still a lot of money for a 10 inch netbook, but it’s a bit cheaper than the original Vaio W.

Update: Now with 100% more press release. You can find more pictures after the break.

via Gizmodo and Laptop Magazine

Read the rest of this entry »

13The Sony Vaio W is a nice looking netbook with one feature that really sets it apart from most other mini-laptops on the market: a higher resolution, 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display. The problem is that the netbook’s 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU and integrated graphics have to work a bit harder to pump out graphics to every corner of the screen than they would with a lower resolution display. And that means that some lower resolution netbooks might actually feel snappier than the Vaio W.

Of course, there are ways that you can improve the performance of virtually any netbook, such as upgrading the RAM and/or replacing the hard drive with a faster model or a solid state disk. One German Vaio W owner decided to do both of those things, and sent the pictures of his minor netbook surgery to NetbookNews.de.

It looks like the hard drive upgrade process is relatively simple. Sony put a single access panel on the base of the computer. All you need to do is unscrew the access panel and then remove the hard drive by undoing 4 mounting screws.

In order to upgrade the RAm, you need to pop off the keyboard by removing 3 more screws located on the base of the netbook. Once the keyboard is off, you should see the RAM near the lower left side. Just pop out the old module and replace it with up to 2GB of RAM. There’s no point in using any more memory than that, since the motherboard will only recognize up to of 2GB.

You can see more pictures at Netbook News.de (English translation)

Top: Sony Vaio Mini W / Bottom: Toshiba Mini NB206

At first glance, the Sony Vaio Mini W and Toshiba Mini NB205 have a lot in common. I mean, sure, all Intel Atom powered netbooks have a lot in common. They typically have 9 or 10 inch screens, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drives, and run Windows XP. But these two models also have chiclet-style keyboards and a choice of 3 or 6 cell batteries. The Sony laptop does come with a higher resolution 1366 x 768 pixel display, but the Toshiba reportedly gets better battery life.

For a closer look, you might want to check out a recent YouTube video uploaded by user Tinhte. The video’s not in English, but you can get a pretty good idea of the size and styling of these two netbooks. Both have touchpads with two distinct buttons. The Toshiba appears to be a bit larger overall, but it has the wider touchpad of the two, and it also has owhat I think is a more professional look to it. Some of the keys on the keyboard are also located in different spots on each machine.

You can check out the video after the break.

via Netbooked

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past year or two, I’d kind of gotten used to writing sentences like “Apple and Sony are the only two major PC makers without an entry in the netbook category.” But Sony had to go and change that formula earlier this month with the introduction of the Sony Vaio Mini W. Sure, Sony refers to the W as an “internet book” and not a netbook, but in a recent interview with Laptop Magazine, Sony IT  products division VP Mike Abary said there’s a major reason Sony decided to introduce the W: The company thinks “the category is now legitimate.”

In the United States, more than 1 in 6 computers sold are netbooks, and so while Sony wanted to set itself apart from the crowd with the Sony Vaio P introduced earlier this year, which, thanks to its $899 price tag is most certainly not a netbook, the company finally decided there was too much consumer demand for netbooks to stay away.

The funny thing is that Abary says the reason Sony can charge $499 for the Vaio W when you can pick up a similar netbook for $399 or so is because it’s high resolution display makes it a better media machine. But I’ll let you in on a little secret: That’s not necessarily true. The low power Intel Atom processor and Intel GMA950 graphics are good enough to handle playback of 720p video downloads. But if you’ve ever tried watching HD Flash video on the web with an Atom powered netbook that has a 1366 x 768 pixel display, you’ll know that the high res screen is actually a disadvantage.

The CPU and GPU just don’t have enough oomph to pump out that many pixels of Flash video. Adobe, NVIDIA, and Broadcom are working on bringing support for hardware acceleration to Flash video, but it’s not clear whether Intel’s integrated GMA500 or GMA950 graphics will ever be able to handle video from sites like Hulu on higher resolution displays. If Sony isn’t going to put a faster processor in the Vaio W, the higher resolution display is kind of useless for online video.

On the other hand, HD photos will certainly look better on the Vaio W than on a netbook with a 1024 x 600 pixel display.

Read the rest of this entry »

41You know how the Sony Vaio W is expected to sell for around $776 in Australia, while it has a list price of just $499 in the US? Yeah, apparently Australia isn’t the only region getting the short end of the stick. Yugatech reports that the netbook will sell for Php39,990 in the Philippines. That’s about $835 US.

Even in the US, the Sony Vaio W seems a bit overpriced. Sure, it has a decent looking keyboard and a high resolution 1366 x 768 pixel display. But that $499 price tag is for the netbook with a 3 cell, 2.5 hour battery. You can find plenty of netbooks with 5 hour or longer batteries for under $400. But I have to say, $499 still seems a lot better than the prices Sony is charging in other areas.

via Eee PC.net

With the recent introduction of the Vaio W, Sony now has ultraportable computers in a range of sizes. The Vaio P has an 8.1 inch, super-widescreen display and is almost (but not quite) small enough to fit in your pocket — if you have an enormous pocket. The Vaio W has a 10.1 inch display and the guts of a typical netbook. And the Vaio TT is a higher end, more powerful computer with an 11.1 inch display.

Which is all good and well on paper, but how do these little guys stack up against one another visually? The folks at Japanese site IT Media shot a series of photos that should give you a good idea. Basically, the Vaio P makes the other notebooks look huge. But the Vaio W is certainly slimmer than the already-small-for-a-notebook Vaio TT.

via SlashGear

The Sony Vaio Mini W is now available for pre-order in the US from Amazon. The retailer is listing the brown and pink models of the netbook for $499.99 each. The white model is described as “not in stock,” which is funny since none of these netbooks are actually in stock yet. There’s no word on the ship date, but Amazon promises to ship the netboook “when it arrives.”

The Sony Vaio Mini W includes a 2.5 hour battery, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, and a 10 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display. A 6 cell battery option is expected to be available soon, but there’s no sign of that model on Amazon yet. It’s the first netbook-style device from Sony, although the company prefers to call it an “internet book” to set it apart from netbooks from competitors. But it’s still basically a netbook, albeit one with a high resolution display.

via NetbookReviews.net

The folks at Notebook Italia got a chance to spend  a few minutes with the Sony Vaio Mini W netbook recently, and they’ve snapped a bunch of pictures and posted a brief hands-on video.

From what I can tell, the netbook has a pretty decent keyboard that’s reminiscent of the Eee PC 1000HE chiclet-style keyboard, a nice wide touchpad, and a very thin lid. And while I’m not all that fond of pink-colored notebooks, the pink Vaio W actually doesn’t look half bad. The netbook also come sin white and brown colors.

You can check out the video after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »