Sony’s mystery Vaio appears- what is it?
We first caught wind of a mystery Sony “netbook” device recently and speculation mounted as to what it could be. Sony Japan has put up a promo video showing a woman removing this “Vaio new mobile” from a handbag.
What makes this mystery device so unusual is the apparent size and form. It’s hard to tell much for certain but the device looks to be less than an inch thick and the other dimensions are downright strange.
From the video this new Vaio mobile looks to be a foot wide but less than six inches deep. This would indicate the screen does not fill up the whole lid as the aspect ratio would be very strange. So we’re just going to have to continue wondering what Sony has up their sleeve, or in their handbag.
(thanks to all who sent this in)
Maybe that model was, hmm, weight challenged and they stretched the video to make her look slim?
I don’t even know what it is yet but I already want one!
BTW, I read somewhere that the dimension were going to be 9.5″ x 4.5″
An updated picturebook?. I always loved that form factor but hated the keyboard.
I really like my hp 2133, but still drag out my mobilpro 900 when light weight and long battery life are paramount. I’d love an updated mp900 type device, but I can’t stand typing on sony’s smaller keyboards.
it’s actually about the same size as an EEE 900 but without the touchpad & palmrest area. it has a very similar sized KB & a new “optical bar” which is very similar to an “optical point” but allows for multitouch input. there are already pics of it fully opened on a JPN website but it’s those type of pics that popup (background fades out) & you cant right-click to save.
its basically a direct competitor to the new Raon except this is FAR better designed, uses an Atom, gets much better battery life, and has an 8.9 screen.
I agree – updated picturebook. And not the U replacement I was expecting. I think that is still to surface- they are definately committed to pocketable devices I believe.
@Tori – can you post a link to the pictures?
What on earth is an optical bar?
This is certainly done with more style than my picture of a computer in a sport jacket pocket: http://www.segal.org/tablet/photo/
It looks to me like that Intel concept portable that had the unusually long screen: labeled by the blogosphere as the iPhone killer. I’d put my money on it having a big long multi-touch screen and a bluetooth headset/full duplex speaker phone for making phone calls.
iPhone killer? Given the size, the way it would kill my iPhone would be if it was dropped on it.
Reminds me of the HP Jornadas from the 90’s, only bigger. The keyboard layout on those were pretty good, but I still favor the 2133 mini note, both for keyboard and screen.
Interesting device from Sony nonetheless, but I’m more curious about the HP 2133 refresh coming in April.
Wait I think something is missing. This picture showed up on a few other blogs and the white thing is not the new device. It’s just an envelope with some writing on it, and the writing is what the ad was all about.